Sunday, August 9, 2026
End: Ijou Pass
Kilometers: 25.0
Total: 66.0
In the morning, we woke up early to the sound of Alex’s alarm. We needed it, because it was still dark in the thick forest. Packed up, we continued our descent into Pelail.
Pretty soon we were into the little village, and leaving it. The time had come to hike the ominous Gorges de la Frau. This was a deep gorge with very tall cliffs on both sides. A road lead us upwards, and Daniel and I went ahead together, with a walkie-talkie.
Holding his hand, Daniel made good progress up the gorge. We lost contact via walkie-talkie pretty soon, probably due to the poor reception inside the gorge.
Eventually, the road ended and a footpath continued past a huge sheer rock face. We continued on and on until we reached the point were two gorges meet, and waited there. Alex and Miriam caught up. Alex wanted to stop and cook breakfast for Miriam. I didn’t see the sense in taking the time to due that, and departed for Comus, the next village.
At Comus, I waited for Alex and the kids. They caught up, and Alex explained that Miriam wasn’t feeling well. I should have accepted that, but I was tired of listening to all the reasons that we couldn’t put one foot in front of the other and move down this trail. I continued on, and the rest followed not far behind.
We paralleled the road, staying mostly under the cover of trees. Before we could arrive at Prades, Alex insisted that we cook an early lunch for the children.
She then proceeded to set up shop right in the middle of the path and start trying to boil water in very windy conditions. Not long after, ATVs and bicycles came and she was in their way. The wind prevented our little alcohol burner from boiling water. Alex had another breakdown.
By the time we left there, we had spent two hours and a lot of fuel. Miriam and I hiked together, Alex and Daniel were ahead. We made a wrong turn at Prades and had to backtrack.
Back on the trail, we hiked up and over a sizeable hill, and into the village of Montaillou. It was another tourist village with bars and restaurants set up for the many people in camping and recreational vehicles. It was quite hot, so Miriam was happy to stop at the several of the fountains we found on our way out of town to cool down her arms. We climbed out of town and soon found Alex and Daniel resting in a shady spot.
I went ahead, knowing we would be doing a big climb next. I enjoyed the challenge of doing it quickly. Taking just a few moments to rest when I felt winded, I got up to the source of the creek which I had been climbing up, and waited for the others.
They showed up later, and I then went ahead to the top of the pass. It was a good spot, but as with most places on this hike, was full of cow droppings.
We hiked on in the sun atop these hills for awhile, eventually turning away from a refuge to continue the trail and look for a spot to set up our tent.
I went ahead and investigated many possibilities, but eventually settled on Ijou Pass. It had cow droppings and cows, but was very flat. Other spots would be right on the trail, and not so flat.
Later in the evening I made a campfire, thinking it might cheer us up. Instead, Alex called me an imbecile who was risking a forest fire, not understanding the importance of recent rain in this area as well as the big stone ring around the fire. She told me she didn’t want to go on another hike with me.
That suited me just fine.
