Colomers refuge, 7/20

Pretty good day today, after a really nice night yesterday. Had a great dinner – we ha a potato soup to start (omnivores has some sort of pasta soup), and then the omnivores had a big lentil/sausage thing while we were given a big salad. Wil and I assumed that that was it… but then they brought out the mains. The omnivores had some sort of meaty gravy dish, while we had huge and delicious cheese crepes. Fantastic! Pears and cherries for dessert.

We shared a table with 2 French couples; 1 goofy funky old couple who were on a tour where someone else carried your bag while you walked; the other were on a short walking tour. They were very impressed by our CdF trek. :)

After dinner we saw deer of some sort near the dam – including a tiny baby one. Then to bed early, where I slept pretty well in the uncrowded dorm.

Up nice and early for breakfast – bread and cheese and hot cocoa – and then got packed and ready to go. Today was another 2-refuge day, and I was a little nervous. The distances were described as being 2-3 hours each, but I didn’t know if we could believe that. So I wanted to get an early start.

We set off on the path toward Saboredo, and sorta before we knew it we had reached the pass. Very nice and easy. Then down, and we could glimpse Saboredo in the distance. It took a while to reach the refuge, but we actually heard it before we saw it again. The warden, an odd young man with a big white dog, was listening to a remixed jazz record (Nina Simone, perhaps?) at full volume. Nice. I had a little fantasy about Wil and I living there with an unlimited supply of books and needlepoint. And a dog.

We got our forfaits stamped (#8!) and then moved on. Oddly enough, it had taken us almost exactly 3 hours, despite a few breaks. So that was cool.

Then on to the next stage: Colomers. I think we may have gone the wrong way at some point, but it was easy enough getting up to the pass. Down, well, we followed the main trail over the rocks when perhaps we should have trusted our instincts. Then after clearing the rocks, we went to the left through some trees along the edge of a ridge… rather than going straight down. This was probably not the standard choice, but it was a trail, and we were going roughly the right direction, so we continued.

Both of us ran out of water at this point – not good – and when we had found our way by Lac Cloto de Baish, we discovered that we hadn’t received any drink in our lunch. Boo. (That’s the 1 strike against Amitges – the rest of the lunch was lovely.)

But we walked and a little farther found a sign for Colomers. So after going up and around a small hill, we could see the dam and the refuge at the end below us. Nearly home!

But of course there was still a lot of descending to do, and then a final scramble up to the dam. And then we realized that the new building farther along the lake was the refuge (wonder when that was built?). So a few hundred more yards of up and down, thirsty in the hot sun, and we were there.

Strange place – day trippers and large groups, and a slightly unpleasant staff. The woman who checked us in seemed offended that we didn’t eat fish – and couldn’t figure out my name. Oh well.

Cold showers only. But tomorrow we’ll have baths!