Two of the last three nights have had little or no internet support, so I'm pretty badly behind. I'll keep this brief to catch up a bit, and maybe come back later to fill in details. Or not.
The first miles of the day are pleasant but undramatic, following the valley east to Sabadinago, a commercial center where we pause to pick up the usual lunch materials. After that we turn north toward the nearby French border. On a different excursion, we could continue on and pass into France through the Port de Portalet. Instead though we turn east again and start following a small stream uphill, climbing slowly to another pass: Puerto de Cotefablo.
This is one of the harder climbs we've encountered so far, and the highest so far, topping out at 4,700'. It felt worse than it was though, because our GPS showed it as climbing about four hundred feet higher. The closer we got to the summit, the steeper the remaining slope appeared to be - it looked like we'd have a thousand foot climb in the last mile. Then, unexpectedly, a tunnel. Rachael positively beamed when I arrived to meet her at the summit.
Rachael needs a replacement for one of her prescription medications, so we stopped in at the pharmacy. We've done this a few times now, and I'm always surprised that there's no problem as lomg as you know the name and dosage.
Mount Oroel, from the north side. This is the same peak we approached from the south yesterday, and a good example of why we're finding the Pyrenees more colorful on the Spanish side - they're notbacklit, as they generally are seen from France.
From Jaca we biked east up the valley to Sabadibago on the national highway. It's largely empty now, turned into a virtual Frontage road for the neighboring expressway.
Our pass for the day. Not too bad - we're still in the minor leagues here, thanks to that hole in the rocks behind happy Rachael..we have both been dreading this summit, because our GPS didn't register their tunnel and showed us climbing an additional 400' here, ridiculously steeply.
From the other side of the tunnel it's a beautiful, long descent through a splendid mountain landscape, the hills ablaze in the colors of early autumn. We bottom out at the valley floor, then follow the Ara River upstream to Torla. Just before town we round a bend and suddenly get our first view of the awesome cliff faces of Ordesa and Mount Perdido National Park. Torla, a beautiful, stony mountain town, sits only three miles from the park. It has the lively feel of an outdoor enthusiast's Mecca, with the streets filled with apparent hikers and lined with equipment and outfitter storefronts.
We quickly check in to our hotel, drop off our gear, and cycle off to the park. It's only about 4:30, so there's still time for a short visit to the park. We ride three miles to the main junction near its entrance, and for no particular reason turn left, which follows the Ara River toward Bujaruelo. The road immediately begins to deteriorate, and steepens significantly. We keep cycling for as long as makes sense, finally stopping to lock our bikes up after the road becomes too steep and rough.
We start walking, continuing along the road. Actually, we aren't where I'd thought we were - that was in the right hand turn - and I'm hoping we can get far enough to get a view of Mount Perdido (the lost mountain), the third highest peak in the Pyrenees. Eventually we round a bend and see the base of a cloud-shrouded peak. I imagine (incorrectly) this is Perdido. We won't get any better views by continuing on, and it's getting too late in the day for decent photography anyway, so we turn back. We make it back to our hotel not long before sundown, and soon are walking the street checking out menus.
The entrance to the Cotefablo tunnel says to use lights so we fished ours out, but we needn't have bothered - it's well lit, and we didn't see a car for its whole 380 meter length.
After three miles we left the good pavement and followed this steep, corrugated road up the Ara valley. We continued about a mile past pavement's end before finally deciding it made more sense to lock up our bikes and walk.
