This morning, we awoke to a chorus of birds, in the small mountain village of Murat, having spent a night at a local guest house.
After packing up, we walked up the street and found a patisserie with fresh croissants and au du chocolat, and a cafe with great coffee and nice outdoor tables to sit and eat and watch the world go by. All of this for about 4 euros (1 USD is 0.85 Euro) which, I was told, was expensive compared to the non-tourist villages that we will soon visit.
Upon dropping off the keys to the room, we set off on our adventure along the Tour du Massif Cantalien. This was to be my hiking partner and I’s shakedown hike for a thru-hike of le Haute Randonnee Pyreneene (the high route of the Pyrenees), where we will soon be headed. The trail follows the rim of an ancient super volcano, the largest in all of Europe. It was the idea of our friend from the UK to do this hike, as she is trying to climb forty volcanoes by age 40! The three of us finished our coffee, said our goodbyes to civilization, and started walking.
The winding streets of Murat slowly meandered up to a marked GR trail (Grand Randonnee) which led out of town and up towards the mountain ridge.
We passed a farmer who owned a chateau we passed later; his advice was to watch out for cows, and for storms up high. See, the Monts du Cantal (aka Volcans d’Auvergne) rise nearly 3,000 feet above the surrounding valleys, and they are the dominant weather producers of the area, sucking in cold and warm air of differing pressures to make perfect storms. If only we had known how right the farmer was!
In any case, we continued on up the trail and found ourselves quickly above the treeline and on into sweeping panoramic views of the French countryside.
As we continued on our way, we passed the ruins of old farmhouses and cabins nestled in the high mountains, inhabited, perhaps, by the herds of bell-toting cows and sheep. The farm animals, paired with the fertile volcanic soil, made for an extravagant display of wildflowers, and grass so green that any southerner would be proud to have a lawn of it.
We saw no one almost all day, despite that this was one of the most spectacularly magnificent trails that I have ever seen. This goes to show just how hard and strenuous was the hike up to the Bec de L`aigle (beak of the eagle), our target summit for the day. Along the way, we stopped and had lunch, mostly coffee, granola, nuts, and some hiker bars (snickers, mmm).
As we came nearer to the top, we began to see the signs of thunderstorms. Massive, dark thunder clouds began to fill the sky, and a few of them opened up on us with rain and hail. Nevertheless, we donned our rain gear and carried on.
During the summit of the eagle’s beak, we saw lightning strike multiple peaks in the distance, sometimes 7 strikes at once. Worried of meeting a similar fate as those mountains, we quickly summited, absorbed the magnifique vistas, took our photos, and began the descent to the Teton De Venus, and then Puy Battailouse.
As evening rolled in, the rain grew harder, the winds stronger, and the temperature dropped rapidly. We decided we should make our way to the alpine refuge just down the trail (there was no flat ground anywhere else), to ask if we could bivouac in their field. Upon their approval (I was able to use broken french and gestures to communicate well enough) we moved to set up the tent.
But the weather changed for the worst. The storm winds, now howling down the mountainside, blew my hat and glasses off my face, and nearly carried the tent right off the cliff. The thunder and lightning were cacophonous, the rain, a downpour.
It was clear then, that no ultralight tent could possibly weather this storm–the wind was barreling towards us down the slope, pushing the tent poles almost to the ground with the sail-like rain fly. The tent stakes could not grip the wet volcanic soil, and a few of them popped loose.
In need of a moment of respite, I climbed inside the rainfly-only setup we had constructed and held on for dear life to the poles and rainfly, my back to the wind. “The poles are going to break! We can’t lose the tent! ” yelled my hiking partner.
And then… tune in later for the exciting conclusion!