Bicycle Touring and Bikepacking

Oh my gody guys and girls. I am beyond hyped right now, two days into riding the Pyrenees west to east.

I started my pyrenees route yesterday from St. Jean de Luz on the atlantic coast. I thought road cycling was popular in spain, but here in this french town - and i'm trying to be accurate here - i saw about a hundred roadies riding out into the mountains this morning. Crazy.

It is a beautiful sunny saturday, i feel like it's the first really warm day while i am cycling on this trip, it's 25° - which was basically the temperature i expected all along. The route for the day would take me over two smaller passes, but starting from sea level it's still a lot to climb. First pass is the Puerto de Oxtondo, it's not very spectacular and has some traffic, totally forgot about motorbikers. On the way to the pass i cross into spain, the downhill is sweet and at some point i turn east to climb up the Izpegiko or Col d'Ispeguy, a border pass after which i'll be back on the french side of the basque country. That one is much nicer, hardly any traffic. A guy touring with a cargo bike comes zipping down as i climb up, waving happily. On top of the pass is a bar, i have a drink, then sit on the grass to eat a banana and some cookies and enjoy the view. There's horses around and one cute baby horse comes up to me, i pet it a bit and it keeps demanding more. It starts to nibble on my tshirt. I try to hush it away, it's been hanging around for a while. Then it starts to nibble on my forkbag. Eventually it lets go of my stuff and licks the cylinders of a motorbike. Horses i guess.

About to descend the Izpegiko

Downhill is gorgeous and i roll into St Jean Pied de Port, a major starting town for the camino crowd. I check in on the municipal campsite, whole bunch of cycle tourers there (hikers too), i assume most of them are doing the camino too. I go into town to eat at a bar and befriend an american guy, we decide to share a table, he was also waiting for a free table. He is going to start walking the camino the next day.

Back in my tent i plan my route for the next day, as i have already went off the track i had originally planned.

I start right in time to when the carrefour supermarket opens, i buy food for 2 and a half days because it seems like i won't pass anything really. Turns out i just had the food type poi's disabled in my navigation app.

It is going to be 17° and cloudy today, but the wind isn't cold so it feels kinda good. I'll be heading into the Irati forest. As i'm riding towards my first climb there's a sign that says col d'iraty 17 km at 5.7 %. That sounds alright. My plan is to ride only about two thirds of it, then go onto what looks like a hiking track, then do a little river crossing onto a mountainbike route. A sign comes up 17.5 km to the col, next 500m will average 11%. I guess that'll only make the rest a bit milder. But it turns out the whole climb isn't very even and i started a climb that will average almost 10% for the next 9km. If i had had a look at the grades yesterday evening, i'm sure i'd have found a different route. The climb is really moody and cloudy, but i still enjoy it, there's a whole lot of vultures dipping in and out of the clouds, which looks amazing, very calm climb too, just a few roadies and a couple RVs.

Climbing up the Burdinkurutxetako

The climb has some kind of pre-pass, it goes by the snappy name "Burdinkurutxetako", it is basically where the steep section ends and i will turn onto the hiking track. It is super beautiful forest, i ride along the creek. There comes a section that looked like hike-a-bike, but i am able to "ride" down, walking speed and one foot on the ground kinda. Then i am at the river crossing. I gues this is the first actual river crossing i did. Water is above knee high in parts. There are diagonal rocky furrows in parts that look super sketchy, all the rocks are covored with algae too. I find a spot with hardly any furrows, do a test walk to the other side. It's pretty damn slippery and the current kinda strong. I decide to carry over bags and bike seperately. I bring two bags at once, i think having one hand free could be helpful. Last i bring over the bike, which is way easier.

About to cross. There is a big toad hidden in this picture, i guess it's really hard to find, whoever finds it will get an upvote

I don't know if the it was the right call to cross the river 7 times (incl. test walk) or if i should have just gone with the complete bike. Maybe the current would have been worse with the bags, but it felt really stable with the bike as an extra post. While i'm fooling around with my crap by the river, the sun comes out. On the other side of the river is a picnic table and i eat some waffles and try to let my sandals dry. River crossing was also a border crossing, i am back on the spanish side now.

Then i get onto the mtb track, which is really a gravel road. It gets cloudy again, and i ride a climb way into the clouds, then a real fun downhill out of the clouds, then climb back into the clouds again. On top of the climb is a hikers bar, open on the weekend. I drink a coke on the terrasse, which should have a fantastic view but it's all in the clouds. The plan is to go like some 20km more, but fiddling around with my phone i see that there's a refugio just 2km further up a road. It is a bit early, but the sun breaks through the clouds again, i can see into the mountains and think that would be real sweet. The clouds move real fast, i get a view for 20 seconds and then it's all just fog again. And then a view again. I order two beers at the bar, one of them to go, some crisps and another bottle of water. The bar closes at 6, i ride up up to the refugio and get a glimpse of really great views and i start to get super fucking high on my trip. Cycle touring is the best.

The refugio is again a bit shoddy, but i place a chair outside of it, sheltered from the wind and eat some crisps, drink the other beer, watch birds of preyg, enjoy the view and start writing a post for lemmy.

Chilling at the refugio

At 8 o'clock i am covered in clouds, the wind picks up and it gets cold, but in the refugio it's warm, someone has made a fire here today, the warmth comes from the fireplace. I cook some pasta, then some tea, have a look outside but it's still all clouds.

I am sending this the day after, there was no connection in the refugio. Morning was still all clouds, but i descended out of them already. On the descend i remembered what i wanted to buy last week at Decathlon in Pamplona: Gloves.