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Exploring and Hiking down the Beautiful Comapedrosa Valley on GR11 | Day 6 – Coma de l’Orri to Àreu
On the day 6 of our GR11 we hiked 12kms and 800m from Coma de l’Orri down the Comapedrosa valley and arrived to the village Àreu. We started this day early in the morning as usual feeling quite broken apart from yesterday challenging downhill. Our muscles all over the body were hurting and sore. The night was quiet and fortunately there was no rain. We felt that the air became fresher and cooler and so it was quite a bit colder to sleep. So we had our breakfast without heating it up, gathered everything in our backpacks and we were good to go. The plan for the day was to…
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Impossible Descent on GR11 and Breathtaking Views of Comapedrosa Natural Park | Day 5 – Crossing from Andorra to Spain
In this hike report we are sharing our Day 5 of GR11 trail when we hiked from the town La Massana to the Comapedrosa natural park. We woke up that day later than usual in our quiet camp spot in the forest close to the river. It was a nice idyllic place away from the path where we wish we could stay for longer. The day before was a challenging day for us when we had to do more distance than we had planned and arrived to our spot already in the dusk. So we felt broken apart and the muscles were very sore this next day. We decided to…
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The Heat Wave is Real and Extremely Long Day on GR11 Trail in Andorra | Day 4 – Engolasters, Encamp, Coll d’Ordino
On our day 4 of GR11 we hiked around 20kms from the Refugi Fontverd to the town Encamp in Andorra and arrived to Coll d’Ordino. The day before we had a hard time planning that day because we were falling a bit behind our initial plan of the hike. So we decided to divide counting all the extra distance in several days to be able to compensate it step by step. The plan for the day was to get to the town Encamp that was in 8kms going mostly downhill where we wanted to buy some food to resupply. And then we saw the major 1000m uphill further on the…
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Epic border crossing arriving to Andorra on GR11 and the Tour of a Typical Refuge | Day 3 – Vallcivera, Refugi de l’Illa, Refugi Fontverd
On our third day of hiking GR11 in Catalonia we did around 16kms from the Cabana dels Espravers, crossed the border from Spain to Andorra and arrived to the Refugi Fontverd. We slept in for half an hour because the sound of the river we camped by was quite loud and thus we didn’t hear the alarm. So we woke up at 7am instead of 6am but tried to move quickly and get out on the trail in time and escape extreme hot hours. Also we wanted to do our uphill until 12am. On the map we saw that we’ll have to conquer a 6km 800m uphill that seemed to…
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First Challenging Day of Hiking and Meeting the Sunset on GR11 in Pyrenees, Spain | Day 2 Refugi Malniu – Cabana dels Espravers
It was our second day of a GR11 section hike when we did 12kms getting from the Refugi de Malniu to the shelter Espravals in Pyrenees, Spain. For that day, we planned to start our trail as early as possible and we did wake up at 6am as we had a quiet warm night and slept quite well. Also the terrain where we camped was relatively flat so it helped a lot too. Unexpectedly there was a bit of rain that night and we even heard the thunder somewhere in the distance. But already being used to the changeable mountain weather we knew that it is a normal thing to…
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How to Bivouac or Wild Camp on GR11 trail in Pyrenees, Spain? | Day 1 from Guils de Cerdanya to Refugi Malniu
These hike report series is going to feature our long distance section hike of GR11 trail. We started doing it in the very end of July 2020 and were very excited to discover what this trail would bring us. The GR trails in Europe are very similar to the popular AT or PCT trails you can find in US and can extend for many miles in the distance crossing pretty much all the European countries. So there is plenty of choice depending on the direction you want to take. The term GR itself stands for the Grand Randonee or the Great Trail. We had been willing to do this trail…
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Final Day of Tour du Canigou – Our Final Thoughts and Tips |Day 5 -Pla Guillem – Refuge Marialles
It was the final 5th day of the Tour du Canigou trail for us when we made 18kms and 1700m of elevation change from the Refuge Devesa to Pla Guillem, passed Refuge Marialles and then finally arrived to the village Casteil. The morning of that day at Ravin Comail was a bit cloudy and foggy but the sky was clearing up and it was promising to be a bright day. We didn’t have a good night sleep because the place where we set up the tent wasn’t very flat and had lots of uneven ground and also it was quite chilly and even our warm clothes didn’t help. We thought…
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The most beautiful old beech forests on Tour du Canigou in Pyrenees-Orientales, France | Day 4-Refuge Sant Guillem- Ravin Comail
It was our 4th day of Tour du Canigou trail in Eastern-Pyrenees, France when we hiked 16 kms from Riuferrera, walked by refuge Devesa and refuge Saint Guillem, climbed to Serre Vernet and arrived to Ravin Comail. The start of the day was peaceful and calm and so was the previous night. We had a great sleep and rested well in the quiet idyllic spot we found the day before. It was quite flat, full of beech trees protecting from the wind and soft dry leaves on the ground creating a nice base for the tent. Also there was no wind and no sounds at night so we had the…
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Scenic place to camp on Tour du Canigou trail in Pyrenees-Orientales, France | Day 3 Refuge Pinatell, Col de la Cirera, Refuge Batere
In this trip report we are sharing our third day of Tour du Canigou trail in Eastern-Pyrenees, France when we hiked 17kms from Refuge Pinatell to the Refuge Batere and further down the trail. The evening before we had a hard time choosing our camp spot because of extremely uneven and hilly terrain with lots of rocks. And at night we realized that it was a pretty bad side hill so we couldn’t sleep really well. Also the temperature dropped down to 5 degrees Celsius and it was quite chilly. We did regret not having our warmer sleeping bags with us as we took our normal light summer ones. It…
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Extreme climb to the Sacred Catalan Mountain Pic du Canigou (2784m) | Day 2 of Tour du Canigou
In this trip report we are sharing our second day of hiking Tour du Canigou when we made 15kms, hiked from Traversee du Cady to los Masos, passed by the refuge Cortalets and climbed to the peak du Canigou (2875m). The night was quite cold and even though it wasn’t windy but the temperature dropped down to 5 degrees Celsius. In the morning up until the sun came up on the sky we were wearing the hats and jackets. We woke up early, quickly ate our breakfast and packed everything. We were very excited for this day of hiking because we were going to climb to the peak and enjoy…
