Hiking Dude Blog

Enjoyed another short morning hike before the intense afternoon heat. This time, we did a nice 5 mile loop through forest around a hill near Capvern led Bains. After lunch at the boulangerie in Capvern, we headed to the Chateau Dr Mauvezin and spent a couple hours exploring the entire castle from bottom to top. Three groups of school children touring the chateau added some excitement. The day was wrapped up with a very special dinner in the midi-Pyrenees town of Arreau at a wonderful restaurant serving palettes (like crepes).

If you search for - GR trails in France - you will find there are well over 35,000 miles of long distance trails criss crossing the country and connecting to similar trails all across Europe. We got to hike just a couple miles on the GR78 both in a small village and through a forest. We were not planning to hike today, but we arrived at the Gouffre d Esparros three hours before the next opening and decided to take a walk. The gouffre is a underground cavern entered from the top rather than the side like a cave. It was beautiful with tons of Crystal formations and flows of mineral deposits. No pictures were allowed so you'll just have to believe me. It was a nice treat to escape the heat that has settled into the area along with high humidity. Our hike was short and hot. I felt more sweaty than on our very long Lax Bleu trek. The most interesting part was the colorful blazes used to mark the trail and then reading about the trail system after. It looks like more extreme heat and humidity the next couple days, so short walks will probably be the norm. Check out my current location on the map. and you can at least see where the cave is located.

As a follow up to yesterday's hike, we did a 15km (9.5miles) loop today. I've discovered all trail in the Pyrenees is either very UP or very DOWN - no flat or gradual. Starting a bit before noon, the trail was continual switchbacks through beautiful forest, high meadow, and rock nearly the entire way. We reached Lac Bleu and had a half hour rest to eat a bit, thinking we were at the top of the loop. As we continued, our route down kept climbing up another 300 feet or so after already climbing about 2400 feet. And this was even steeper than before. The views all along the hike were excellent with new scenes of waterfalls, peaks, and foliage coming one after another. This picture is Lac Bleu which certainly deserves its name - it is a spectacular high alpine lake. It matches the clear skies we had for yet another day in the mountains. Having finally reached our high point, the very steep descent was easier on fatigued muscles but still took 3 hours compared to the 3.75 going up. Along the descent, we saw and heard sheep, cows, goats, and horses grazing in high meadows - all with bells on! I've not seen horse bells before. Check out my current location on the map. and you can see the loop we made.

High in the Pyrenees today, we hiked from a small village up to a beautiful bowl formed by the peaks. Many waterfalls feed by melting snow poured down the cliffs to gather into a clear, fresh, cold river. We hiked to the base of the largest waterfall where the torrent created a cloud of spray and a powerful windstorm that drenched anyone to close. If was another gorgeous day and the start was a nice way to chill off halfway through. After hiking back down, we watched a professional bicycle race along the winding mountain road - complete with chase cars, motorcycles, cheering fans, and a helicopter overhead. To see where we hiked, Check out my current location on the map.

If you ever get a chance to visit Vallon Pont d'Arc don't pass it by. Our 90 minute kayak trip down the river this morning was great. The company picked us up at the hotel right on the river and drove us to their put in point. After a very short intro to safety, mostly telling us to point downstream, we began our wild float trip. It was actually a very UN wild ride down a lazy river with just a couple dips of rapids thrown in. Lots of beautiful cliffs along the way and not to many other kayakers out yet. We found out that there may be up to 5000 people on the river each day during the busy time of year - which starts in a couple weeks. We floated under the Arc and then took out. After our float, we drove to Narbonne on the Mediterranean Sea and walked along the beach and through the town. Beautiful clear blue water and sky with a huge wind blowing out to sea. We wasted a couple hours and then finished our car ride to Lannemezan where we are staying now with relatives. Check out my current location on the map.

Still working our way down to southern France, we walked around Die which was a very nice old French village. Narrow streets, lots of small shops, and everything made of old, old, old rock and mortar made for a nice time exploring, followed by a picnic under a huge willow tree.
We arrived at the famous Pont dArc this afternoon and walked from our hotel in the forest down to the river and watched kayakers float past. We will be doing that tomorrow morning. Then we hiked along the road to visit the arch up close along with many kayakers, swimmers, and campers.
The arch is huge and beautiful. It gets something like 1.5 million visitors each year and just look at Google satellite images to see all the kayaks on the river
If you want to see right where we are, Check out my current location on the map.

First hike in France today. We arrived in Geneva, rented a car, and drove South. In the Parc Naturel Regional du Vercors, we found this popular short hike up a creek to the ruins of an ancient mill. It was only a couple miles round trip but was nice after a day (and night) in plane and car.

The real fun begins tomorrow! We're off on that old jet airplane for two weeks of visiting, exploring, and hiking in France. Being the free spirits that we (Hiking Dude, Mrs. Dude, and son) are, we have plane tickets, a rental car, and that's it. No idea where we'll stay even our first night. But, our backpacks are packed (sort of) and we've got a credit card, and Mrs. Dude bought a book about France yesterday, so I think we'll be ok.

This is us on our trip to Switzerland and France seven years ago. I hope this adventure is as fun as that one! I'll blog if we see anything worth reporting :-) and if there's internet. But, it's not like France is a wilderness like, say Montana, Idaho, and Washington.

Speaking of MT, ID, and WA, that's the next big thing for Hiking Dude when we return. Around July 1, I'll be heading to Glacier National Park with my son to find the Pacific Northwest Trail eastern terminus at Chief Mountain. Once we find it, we'll be walking west un the PNT until we either find vampires or run out of land to walk on.

The PNT is NOT the PCT!!! The Pacific Crest Trail runs north-south through CA, OR, and WA while the Pacific Northwest Trail runs east-west through MT, ID, and WA. Plus, the PCT is 2600 miles but the PNT is only 1200 miles. The PNT bounces along just south of the Canadian border until it his Pugent Sound, then crosses the Olympic peninsula (passing Forks, WA - the vampire village) and ends at Cape Alava on the coast.

So, my son and I will take a train to Glacier, hike west, and see what happens. I thought I had cured him of his long distance hiking interest last year in Florida, but I guess not. We're in no hurry this summer but will probably finish around the end of August, if all goes well. Most of the trail is very remote with no cell coverage, so posts will be rare, but we'll do our best.

After finishing up presenting my wilderness first aid training yesterday, I had time to complete the short but popular Magnetic Rock Trail way up north on the Gunflint Trail in Minnesota. Perfect weather and a new location made for a most excellent walk through the great north woods.

The Magnetic Rock Trail (MRT) is also the western terminus of the Border Route Trail that follows close to the Canadian-USA border for about 65 miles where it ties into the Superior Hiking Trail. Also, the Kekekabic Trail heads west from this same location for 40 or so miles over to Ely, MN. All of these trails are bits of the very long North Country national scenic trail that goes from North Dakota to Vermont.


Much of the enjoyment of hiking a trail comes from the weather on the particular day you hike. I was fortunate to have crystal clear, bright blue sky. This didn't stop the temperature from rising over 80F, but very few bugs and little humidity made for an exception hour or so in the woods.

This far north, the wilderness is made up of struggling vegetation clinging to a thin layer of dirt over solid rock. Much of the trail tread has been made by scraping away the dirt so it is firm, obvious, and easy to walk. The trail crosses one creek that had lots of water today, but I brought my own full bottle and needed no more. I am glad I brought water because there is little shade along the trail - fire has cleaned the area out. There are now low, thick brush and young trees growing. In a couple more years there will be plenty of shade.
In the open areas, I could see fields of blueberry bushes that should make the hike even more interesting later in August.


As the trail progresses east, a hiker is presented with nice views like this one at every new ridge. The low ridges are rock so the views are often uninhibited. It seems like ideal moose habitat but I neither saw nor heard anything in the heat of the day, other than many songbirds flitting about. I expect an early morning, or late evening, walk would be more productive. Up here, it is light from around 5am to nearly 10pm as we approach the longest days.

I was surprised to run into 5 other hikers in the middle of the week. One fellow had driven down from Canada just to check off this hike. The other 4 I didn't talk with except to say 'Howdy' as they passed on the trail. They did not have water and looked a bit hot.



It is only about 1.5 miles from the trailhead to the monolith, but that last 1/4 mile or so always seems to take a long time. I was very curious just how big the rock would be since I've heard of it but never seen it. I was looking ahead at every opportunity and finally caught my first glimpse through the trees. Off in the distance, it reminded me of Devil's Tower in miniature.

It took me another 5 minutes to reach, but it is certainly possible to suddenly notice it right in front of you if you are watching your footing or otherwise distracted. As the forest grows, this will be more the case.




Getting closer, it was hard to see how this one formation could be standing all alone. Glacial eradicts that are deposited can be huge, but all that I've seen are more boulder-shaped from scraping along ice and rivers. This massive standing tower just does not fit the expectation.

Reaching the rock, it was much taller than I expected. There's no hype with this one! I had brought a compass and magnet along just for this moment, but I then remembered it was sitting on the passenger seat in my car. :-(

The rock is layered vertically, rather than horizontally, making it obvious that it has been stood on end. Around the base, there are huge chunks that have flaked off over time, due to freezing and splitting. Eventually, this sight will be only a jumbled pile of rock.



(Click pic for large pic)
At a bit over 6 foot, you can see that Magnetic Rock is at least 4 times my height, making it over 24 feet tall. I was pleased to see no graffitti, and the shade on the north side was a welcome rest before the hike out.

Please remember to scrape off your shoes before and after your hike on the installed device at the trailhead so you do not transport invasive organisms.

The biggest challenge of this easy, interesting, hike is getting here. Grand Marais, MN is 2+ hours northeast of Duluth, MN along highway 61 following the North Shore of Lake Superior. The Magnetic Rock Trail is another hour north of Grand Marais on the Gunflint Trail. But, it is all beautiful driving and just takes time.

Since you came this far for the hike, you might as well drive another 9 miles north to say you made it all the way to the end of the Gunflint Trail - and you're only a couple miles from Canada at that point.

My morning hikes have been more adventurous and interesting for the past few weeks, for two reasons.

1. My neighbor retired and has been hiking with me. Instead of just doing my normal route up and down the trail, we have branched out and are covering lots of different neighborhoods, trails, and paths. Also, our mileage has been around 6 miles rather than my old 5 miles! My SPOT track is drawing lines all over town as each day gets added to it. :-)


2. I saw an ad on facebook for a 10x telephoto lens that you just clip onto your phone. It was something like $55 (wow!) so I looked around and found the exact same no-brand item someplace else for $8 (including shipping). The colors, markings, description 100% identical. So, I splurged and waited for it to arrive from China.
You can see here some of the photos I have taken with it. I will post about it in a couple days with more details. Anyway, it has made it more interesting trying to get some shots.


We are fortunate to have quite a few green areas around, plus some marshes, hills, and bike paths. Lots of varied walks to take in preparation for the big trek of the summer.
There are also lots of places for birds and animals to roam. With the mild winter, it seems we have a plethora of rabbits, squirrels, and deer. The song birds are now migrating through, or deciding to stay awhile, and I even saw a bright orange and black Oriole yesterday.


Until the ticks get thick, and the mosquitoes start to swarm, it will be easy to enjoy the trails. It is a good time to get out there and explore!

Hike On