Those Four Letter Words!!

Day 2

Miles today: 16.1 miles (+1.4)

Total miles: 17.5 miles

“There is no bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.”

― Ranulph Fiennes

If it were up to me, I would change the above quote somewhat. Today proved that “proper clothing makes challenging weather tolerable”. And today we certainly had challenging weather. We began our first hiking day in a steady drizzle with temperatures in the low 40’s. The morning was mostly constant light rain with short periods of heavier rain and wind. At lunch we enjoyed an hour or so of no rain and sporadic sunshine. 

The afternoon quickly went downhill. Heavier rain and wind was followed by heavy wet snowfall for the last two hours of our hike. My rain jacket and rain pants kept me almost completely dry and my mountain running shoes—non waterproof—along with gaiters kept my feet mostly dry.

Due to some back and forth hiking to check on Blaze and Chum who had stopped to help a struggling Japanese hiker, our 16.1 mile trek turned into 17.5 miles for me. The elevation gain of about 3600’ and descent of 1000’ presented some challenges in the water, mud, and snow.

This was all offset by the gorgeous scenery, flowing mountain streams, and vistas of the “lower’ route from St Jean France to Roncesvalles Spain. Our accommodation for the evening is in an old monastery in this small village of 30 residents. Our route tomorrow is mostly unpaved paths with lots of ups and downs but overall a downhill trek of about 14 miles or so.

And those four letter words.....they were of course “rain” and “snow”.