After a week back at work it was time to pick up the bike in Zaragoza. The spectacular Spanish trains got me there from Tarragona in a blink of an eye, Motortazo had replaced the leaky seal and even had a spare for me – just in case. There was a heatwave in France, still is as I write this, pushing temperatures in the west up to “melt a Scotsman” levels so a quick change of plans – I turned a little bit right and made my way towards the ACT/TET crossing of the mountains to the west of Andorra. From there I’ll make my way into the Massif Central and on to northern Spain.
On Tuesday afternoon I hit TET 14 near Huesca, riding a section I’d skipped last time I passed through. Shame I skipped it really, despite the punishing heat it included some nice trails of that “skitey rocks” type. It felt like the back of the bike was skipping about all over the place. Following a river valley I spotted some nice swimming spots and couldn’t resist cooling off in my own private pool. Delightful.
From there I joined ACT 4 east of Jaca and got a night’s kip at a picnic site, under a moon as bright as a searchlight. The next morning it was onwards and literally upwards, with twisty roads and gravel trails – typical ACT stuff, big bike friendly. Lots of bikes on the road section, many of whom I bumped into repeatedly during the day and a few on the gravel. The highlight along the way, scenery aside, was a refuge under restoration – closed, but I was gifted an espresso. The kindness of strangers is hard to beat.
The TET and ACT combine near Salardu and at the point where they combine a German chap on a Tenerè told me that the way is still blocked with snow, but I’ll get across it. He was half right. It was blocked. I got stuck. Prompting an hour of digging and wrestling to get Poe out of a deep snowy rut, which required me to basically balance the poor thing on his tail, throw him down on his side and drag him around. It’s actually been the first time I’ve had to take the luggage off to get out of a bind.
I had a look about for a different way around, which was probably unnecessary, as a little guts and not being stupid enough to try and follow an existing – very narrow – rut would probably have got me though. But conservative instincts got the better of me and I doubled back. I’m now in camp just at the offer side of the pass that defeated me, so I’ll have a try from the other side tomorrow.
I came at it from the other side first thing in the morning, turns out the the tricky section was a total of 100m and that I definitely could have got around/through if I’d have wanted to. That said, I’m not disappointed at all – the ride up in the low early morning sun was glorious and my camera was running almost as much as my engine.
The rest of the TET route isn’t quite as spectacular as the snowy pass between Salardu and Vielha, it runs parallel to the valley and is largely thick forest. Nice track, bumpy but easy going. Scenic it isn’t – if you were in a rush I’d suggest skipping it.
Down into France I made a little mistake. I didn’t have the French tracks on my Garmin, so as an interim measure – before getting the USB OTG cable out at the next coffee stop – I just followed Locus on my phone. The track was a nice red, easy. It then crossed a bridge, which I wasn’t sure was open to motorised traffic, but no signage. It went along a canal, no worries. Then up a gnarly single-track that might have been better suited to my MTB than my fully loaded DR. “Hold up” thought I, “something ain’t quite right here”.
I wasn’t wrong. Turns out my offline mapping on my phone includes the major national hiking routes in a slightly thinner red line. Which I’d accidentally started to follow. Fun, but risky and very much in the legal grey zone.
I followed the little bit of F6 down out of the mountains and then it was time for a long, leisurely meal and the mental preparation for a long, hot road ride. 300km to F2. Why so far? I’m Scottish and the prospect of riding in the flatlands did not appeal. Where Poe is a dream on the trails, he’s hellish on the roads – so I accepted my fate and started to cruise.
A night at a picnic site, a morning on the roads and now I’m ready to hit F2. I let Google route me over here, no motorways. It’s honestly been glorious. It would have perhaps been more glorious on my VFR, but I made it and there’s not been a single road Google picked that wasn’t curvy and scenic. Long road sections in the heat leave me paranoid about my mousses/moussen/mousse/foamyshitinmytyres but 300km of road later they don’t feel any weirder than they usually do. Although I don’t go much faster than 80 anyway.
Typically, as I write this last paragraph, the heat is about to come – it’s my fate to hit the trails just as it gets hot. But the whole route is at altitude and while Poe may be air cooled I’m not averse to soaking myself and going water cooled. Onwards!
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