Hiking the Pyrenees: to Sorteny National Park

After seeing the mountain pass and lake Tristaina from above, we continued our way on down the mountain to Sorteny National Park, our next destination for the day.

We travelled over patches of snow that had been hanging on since winter,

and rocky terrain that was slowly becoming more and more green and lush as we made our way down the mountain.

It was still day one of our Pyrenees hike in Andorra but we covered a lot of ground each day of the trip so we were able to see many different landmark destinations along the way.

We headed towards the opposite side of the series of lakes that we had previously been viewing the whole time from above.

The lakes were set in a sort of bowl that was surrounded by mountains on three sides and the trail moved around it from a little ways above.

We were still following the yellow trail markers at this point,

but the path itself was more clearly defined, which kept us on track and really made things easier.

You could make it out clearly from a distance

and see it snaking it's way around the lake and into the valley.

Streams of glacier runoff criss-crossed the hilly rocky terrain

and patches of pink flowers grew in clumpy strips across the landscape.

Eventually we passed lake Tristaina.

It was the smallest of the three mountain lakes that were connected by streams in a series.

The landscape immediately after the lakes was very lush and green,

which was accented by the sun that had finally decided to make an appearance in the late afternoon.

The stream was quite large at this point and the area was particularly beautiful.

In fact, it was my favorite spot of that particular day.

The stream sort of rages on a little here and then drops off steeply down the mountain.

We were heading in that direction so we made a point of following alongside the water.

You might remember this next photo from my Behind the Scenes post.

Here's a new one of me though.

From this point on things sort of began to take a turn for us that day. I mentioned in my previous post that my friend had stitched two separate trails together to get us to our refuge on the mountain. Well somewhere in this area is where the first trail ended and the next one began.

We ended up walking down a big portion of the mountain, only to discover that we had lost the trail and that it was somewhere way above us. We turned around and went back up, which for me was absolutely exhausting by that point.

My friend was in better shape than I was so he was actually okay, but I was getting increasingly more nauseous as the day progressed.

I thought that it was lactic acid build up, which it might have been, but I think it was also partially the altitude. We were hiking around 2200-2400 meters, not too too high really, but perhaps high enough to have an increasing effect on me the longer we stayed at it.

I almost threw up at least twice from that point and remained feeling sick and miserable until we went to bed that evening.

The sickness was made worse by the fact that my water was stored in a new bladder in my backpack, which I had filled up the night before at home before going on the train. Sitting in the bladder for around 24 hours had allowed the water to absorb a lot of the plastic flavor from the bladder itself. By that point it had tasted like strong plastic tea and it made me gag every time that I took a sip of it. I tried to avoid drinking altogether but I was also incredibly thirsty from the exertion of hiking up hill so I couldn't help but drink a few sips every now and again. The effect was that is only increased my nausea.

It was getting a bit miserable for me and we were still a long way to go to our refuge.

In hindsight I wish that I would have bought a UV water pen for the trip, which could disinfect water found in the nearby streams. I would recommend looking into such devices for any multiday hikes in the mountains. I wasn't aware of it until it was mentioned by other hikers at our refuge, but it would have been super handy to have that day.

It was around this point that the weather began to turn on us as well. The sky grew dark and ominous and we could feel a few raindrops begin to fall. I quickly put on the rainproof poncho that I brought for just such an occasion.

Here I am in the poncho looking like a strange dinosaur, bent over walking up a massive hill with my backpack on.

The rain poured on us relentlessly for the remaining hours of our hike. It was very hard to take any more photos that day because we were absolutely soaked from head to foot.

The poncho did help, but we hiked for about 3-4 hours in the downpour. There was really no escaping getting drenched.

What made the hike so brutal (for me at least) was that we were constantly going downhill for long stretches, only to turn around and head right back up another massive hill. All that while being soaked to the bone, exhausted and trying not to throw up from the nausea. The up and downs were really killer to me. We also kept losing the trail and having to re-find it. I feel bad for my friend because I doubt that I would have been pleasant company.

I was impressed that he managed to keep finding the trail and guide us all the way to our refuge though. He did an excellent job at that and pushing on while staying positive. I was also impressed that we had cell phone reception and even data for the entire time that we were on the mountain. I guess its because Andorra is a small country and people do a lot of hiking there. They probably only need a few well placed cell phone towers to provide coverage for the entire country.

Anyway, after about 8 hours of hiking up and down the mountain that day we finally made it to our refuge around 7pm or so. It truly was a sight for sore eyes for me. I walked in like I was half dead, still fighting back my nausea but ultimately relieved that we had finally made it.

Well thats it for now. If you are interested in hearing more about our Andorra hike in the Pyrenees then stay tuned, there's more to come. Until next time, thanks for stopping by.