<reminder: photos now available at:
http://www.flickr.com/search/groups/?q=h2h&m=names
>
Saturday, Sept 15th, 2007
My birthday today, and what better way to spend it than by hiking? Expecially when the hike is the last great hurdle on the H2H: the 2671m Pas de la Cavale.
During all the bad weather early in the expedition, this was the pass I most worried about, because it is high, steep, and faces north, and so is often one of the earliest to be blocked by the autumn snows. If it had been blocked by we would have had few other options; we might well have had to take transportation to the other side.
But it was, as forecast, a perfect day. Sunny, warm, hardly a cloud in the sky, not even much wind at the pass. And of course, no snow. The hike up from Larche was quite lovely, leading past a beautiful lake to the dramatic pass.
On the way we passed several large flocks of sheep being driven, I suppose, over the pass to descend to their winter pastures in the south. If I remember aright, there is a big Fete de Transhumance in one of the towns or villages we'll be going through in the next few days -- perhaps we'll see those sheep again.
Bousieyas is perhaps even smaller than Maljasset -- just a couple of houses Our lodging for the night is a Gite (like a refuge, but not high enough to be called a refuge) that closes for the winter tomorrow... so we have been exceptionally fortunate both with the weather and with our timing. Or maybe it was planned that way?
The owner of the Gite was off somewhere this afternoon, so she left the door to the bunkroom and shower open and put three cold beers under a bed for us. She told me, when I called her to reserve, that she'd be back at 7PM and that dinner would be at 7:30. I hope she is true to her word: we have nothing else to eat!
