Day 51 - Tremp to Col de Nargo - Gorging in France ...Then Basquing in the Pyrenees - 2023

June 7, 2023

Day 51 - Tremp to Col de Nargo

Double Dipping

Deja vu? Groundhog Day with Bill Murray? The Truman Show?

No, none of the above. Although today had a lot of similarities to yesterday there was one very significant difference.

Yes, we started with another ‘all day uphill’ climb, 22 km and over 800 m elevation gain, and finished with another screaming downhill, 17 km and 800 elevation loss. However we got a bonus double dip with a 7 km rolling downhill and uphill after our first col, Eaidella, 1250 m, through spectacular alpine country before we topped out at our second col, Boixols at 1380 m.

Serendipity came into play today too. When we woke up this morning, we did what we normally do. No, not throw our legs over the side of the bed and jump up to meet the day. We grabbed our tablets and scrolled away on emails and other CB’ers journals to see what they were up to. We would crawl out from under the covers in due course, but it’s a process that takes some time.

Anyway, our scrolling hit upon the recent happenings of Team Anderson, who we owe a particularly large debt for this entire trip. Well it turns out that Scott Anderson finally got around to filling out his CB profile and as per his standards, it was very well written and thorough. So thorough that he had a single highlight picture many of the years that he and Rachael have been touring ….there were a lot of pictures. Well, it turns out the pic from 2017 is of Scott at the Col de Boixols sign accompanied by his comments on what a fantastic ride that was.

It’s fitting that that’s the ride we’re doing today, and we can dedicate today’s ride to TA as homage for all they’ve done for literally blazing the trail, and leaving the necessary breadcrumbs, for the rest of us to follow.

Sincere thanks from us for showing what’s possible, and the best ways to get there. Today was no exception, just another day of exceptional riding.

It wasn’t all unicorns and moonbeams though. Our start was a little delayed as when I went to wheel my bike out of the parking garage, my front tire was pretty soft …. maybe 1 bar of pressure. I had remarked yesterday that my steering was a bit off, and attributed it to a change in how I packed my front panniers. No way dumb-arse, check your tire pressure! Sure enough there was a slow leak and a small wire was found protruding through the tire. Thirty minutes later a new tube was in and we were pedalling away.

Reread yesterday’s post for the rest of the day - except for the double dip section - and the pictures tell the story far better than my drivel. RD version, climb for several hours, then scream downhill for less than one!

I also have to give a shout out to the Maher-Weary’s as our rides yesterday, today and tomorrow are using their RWGPS maps from their 2022 Pyrenees tour- in reverse. Nobody’s buried Paul yet though and we haven’t seen, or heard The Walrus.

We’re pitched up in a simple friendly hotel in Coll de Nargo tonight, the Hotel Betriu. Turns out that this is the location of the only open restaurant in town tonight too. Better to be lucky than good! Good dinner, tasty …. and filling … most important on these short distance wise, but intense climbing, days.

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SOTD - Dreaming by Imelda May.

This is Imelda’s sparse and beautiful cover of Blondie’s classic. It’s her tribute to Debbie Harry, and in that sense our tribute to TA. We’ve spent many hours pouring over their journals (and others) ‘dreaming’ of where we would like to tour. That’s all coming to fruition now. It’s also a shout-out to the Maher-Weary’s, whose GPS routes we’re using for a few days … their journals have often been Dreaming based, including their Pyrenees routes we’re using now.

It’s a simple beautiful little tune, just like today. Get on your bike and ride through beautiful places. Then get up and do it again.

First flat. Not bad for over 2000 km’s (although I was over 8500 km’s before I had a flat, the only one, on our X-Canada trip)

Ok, now the official start of the day picture

Nice riding through farms for the first 8 km’s to Isona

Cloudy this morning but a much higher ceiling - except for the one guy who didn’t get the memo! Made for an interesting picture though

We’ll have roads like this for the next 20 km’s or so. Twisting, turning, and more or less to ourselves

Proud of their farming heritage, and rightly so.

Just liked this farm shed in the ripe grain field

Just prior to taking this pic we rode past a group of about 50 Dutch geology students on a field trip. We got an ovation as we ground past them uphill. Thanks. They were looking at these bed outcrops (interbedded sandstones and shales), we were looking at the upward winding road!

About 60% of our first climb done and we’re getting great views of the Pyrenees to the north and the fields leading back to Tremp

Spectacular views. And you could just stop where ever you wanted on the roads … they were almost our private domain.

Coll 1 done. Lunch break and then some amazing riding to Coll 2 coming up.

The start of the sedate little ride between the two colls.

Not satisfied with the astounding natural scenery, some of the locals have taken to adding some impressive artwork to the road for us to ride over

Couldn’t fit it all into one pic without climbing about 50 m up a hill …. Here’s the rest of the herd.

All the beautiful stuff is not big and unmissable … K’s always on the lookout for the little stuff, like this.

Whoa! The small village of Boixols is on the other side of this impressively faulted ridge, and the Coll de Boixols is another few km’s ‘up’ the road

A little look back to where we came from

A little out of sequence … approaching the ridge before Boixols

And here’s the beautifully situated village of Boixols

It’s so picturesque it deserves another shot from a different angle

The road we were on is in the very top right corner. Amazing terrain!

Finally! Approaching the Coll de Boixols. Somebody’s been here for a while already.

Not a bad view to have while you’re waiting though.

A little more ‘sticker’d’ than when the Anderson’s were here in 2017, but it says Coll de Boixols 1380! K gets the picture ‘cause she was here first (as usual)

… and this one is our tribute to Team Anderson. Thank you for being such a wellspring of information and inspiration for the CB community.

And off we go for another great downhill run into another Pyrenee mountain village

The spectacular scenery was far from over though

Our first sighting of our home for tonight … Coll de Nargo.

Just another fantastic day in the Pyrenees!

Today's ride: 58 km (36 miles)
Total: 2,179 km (1,353 miles)

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ann and steve maher-wearyThanks for the shout out ! « Nobody’s buried Paul yet though and we haven’t seen, or heard The Walrus. »
Steve got this reference ! I wanted him to respond but he’s snoring beside me😊! Just wanted to say we are enjoying your adventure and reliving our Pyrenees trip through you! Amazing place isn’t it, best of all the views and so little traffic.
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11 months ago

John VincentHello

We are friends of the Classen’s here in Victoria. My wife and I also bike tour in Europe each year. We are planning a route through the Pyrenees this Spring and have enjoyed reading your postings on CycleBlaze. Your route was primarily through Spain. Others we have read were primarily through France. We would be starting in Barcelona and biking to San Sebastián. We are trying to decide which route is better and would appreciate your thoughts on it. You can contact us as ebikestouring@gmail.com if you have the time to connect with us.

Thanks
John and Darlene
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4 months ago

Lyle McLeodTo John VincentHi John,
First, my sincere apologies for taking so long to reply to your message. The last few months have been incredibly busy for me and Kirsten as we were heavily involved in running the final Biathlon World Cup races of the season here in Canmore.

Looking at your note, I realize that this reply will probably land when you are either on tour or just about to start, and your decisions will have already been made.

As for which route would be better, we really don't have the right background to give an opinion as we've only been of the Catalonia / Basque side. It was wonderful (one of the best area's we've toured), however I'm very confident the French side would be equally great and the culture (Basque) pretty similar.

Take your pick (or do some of both!), I don't think you can go wrong.

For what it's worth, our next big tour will be in the spring of 2025 and we are thinking of starting in Santander and then head east & south, ending up in southern Italy via the Croatian / Albanian coast. We're thinking of riding the French side of the Pyrenees for this trip ... just for something new and different.

Have a great tour,

Lyle & Kirsten
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1 month ago