Saturday, August 17, 2024
End: Lake Behind the Cross
Ascent: 1500 m
Descent: 1200 m
Distance: 23 km
Total: 79 km
This was probably our most difficult day so far. But what an accomplishment!
We woke up in our tent at the end of the valley leading away from Bayasse, and the children had their breakfast while I packed up. It had been a tad chilly overnight, but not too cold. I knew it would be cold walking up to the first pass in the morning, but I wanted us to get a move on.
We got back on the trail and started climbing up to the road leading through the Moutière Pass. It wasn’t so difficult after all, but Daniel was moving rather slowly, and I couldn’t find a way to motivate him. This would become the theme for the day.
We took a short break at the pass, then hiked on round the edge of the next valley, looking down on a large flock of sheep. The hiking was not too difficult, and we made good time to the next pass, where we took another break.
The third and final pass was a bit further away, and I was a bit confused when we went the other way round the mountain, just to return to the side where we could see the old Fourches arme barracks in the distance.
We took a break and I played a quick card game with Daniel to please him. We hiked down towards Bouyeias, and soon found a good spot to stop for lunch.
I filtered water and the children played in the stream. Alex cooked and soon the children were eating. We did lunch quickly because I had hopes of accomplishing big things today, and we needed to keep going.
We descended more and more, arriving at Bousyias, where I bought a galette from the restaurant, and threw away our trash, always an important task.
The next portion of the hike was an unpleasant climb in the heat. We ate the galette, but Daniel was moving very slowly and I was losing my patience. We finally made it to the Fourches Pass, and we could see a large valley in front of us. We had to traverse it and climb out of it if we wanted to be in good position to get to the store tomorrow.
I missed the trail and sent Alex and the kids the wrong way, having to call them back when I realized my mistake.
We descended down quite far to the Salsa Morenge Cabin. I filtered more water. We were drinking a lot, which was good. With time left to attempt to climb out of the valley, we kept on, constantly motivating Daniel to keep plodding along.
The climb was long, but we hiked consistently. I was quite happy we were taking on this challenge together. As we neared the last portion of the climb up to the Pas de Cavale, it wasn’t obvious where we were going to exit the valley. The mountain tops looked steep and insurpassable.
We found out soon enough that the trail led through a very rocky section, where we took some steep switchbacks up and up and up. We finally made it to the Pas de Cavale! At 2671 meters altitude, it was only 4 meters shy of the highest point on the trail.
In no mood to celebrate, we hiked slowly down the rocky trail along the edge of the next valley, eyeing the valley floor which looked inviting for a good tent site.
We finally made it down, and I set up the tent behind a small hill at the Lake of the Cross. It had been a long, tough day. My pack had been heavy with extra water for all of us, and everyone was tired of hiking.
We recovered in the tent as a steady rain arrived. It had been a great day.
