Europes Hardest Hike vs 4 cdt sobos

What is the GR20? Sometimes it is called the toughest walk in Europe, the GR20 has 112 long -lived miles with approximately 40,000 feet of elevation gain.

Day 1 – 12.6 miles // 4491 feet 📈

As soon as the alarm emits a beep, my arm reaches my phone to silence the noise while my head is still half asleep. An automatic movement since I had a roommate. For a moment I went to bed there, remembering that I am in a hotel room in Corsica, listening, waiting for the champion of the comforters or any sign that the foot and the mosey are awake.

I doubt another time, looking at the dark, but the minutes pass and today there is no room for the delay. We have to take the 7 am bus at the beginning of the path. «I’m sorry» I whisper to sleeping women, before lighting the bright hotel lights.

We are patting on Cobble Street at 06:55, stores are still closed, tourists are still circling in their rooms. The hotel man runs after us, French words that we don’t understand. Questions in English that does not understand. But we eventually stacked our backpacks in the bus belly: pink, parsley, yellow and neon green pattern. Colorful, without frame, marked in equipment settings. Continental Divide Trail Sobos of 2024.

Santa Lucie de Porto Vecchio. Pole orders coffees in French, the lady behind the counter responds in immaculate English, smiles hot and tells us that we feel. We stayed for a second round of soft and velvety fluid. Drink coffee to the French sun? Say less. The post obtains four Au pain chocolates from the bakery on the street. Real. Ramen and instantaneous nescafé? Through hiking? Far.

Bombing with caffeine and carbohydrates, we decided not to bother a taxi to the terminal. «It’s just 3 miles!» Says feet before directing us towards Conca, first in the right way, thinking that it is wrong. Then in the wrong way, thinking that it is the correct form. After back where we went first. We are professionals, so you know.

Sweat is dripping through our temples and running in the back in the heat of noon. We take another incorrect turn and temporarily lose Mosey before reaching the end. Tired, the sun burned sobos is happening. «Bonjour!» «Congratulations!»

Smiling and limping, will this be we soon?

The GR20 rises among the pines before the path is squeezed through a gap in the rocks and we get the first point of view of Gooooooood from this walk (some would say «Oh baby»). Dozens and dozens of sun and more scaled ahead. The path is immersed in a valley with a small stream and then shoot again. I see the bright yellow attire of pole throwing along the path. The clouds enter. It’s hot and wet. Everything is sticky. I forgot that feeling. Tonight I will paste my dusty and dirty legs under my comforter. In a few days, my socks will get rigid by themselves.

I catch up with my feet and We share anecdotes about skiing seasons PCT, CDT and Working. Mosey said I would like. She was right. There is something to share the same love for adventure, especially something as special as walking for several months. Know the same places and people without knowing each other.

19.74 km. Where is the shelter? In the GR20, the wild camping is prohibited, so we establish our shelters outside a shelter. $ 21 per night without reservation, $ 10 if reserved online. The shelters are minimalist structures, often only a kitchen shed with a window where someone sells drinks, snacks and warm foods (limited options). For the Vivuac rate that obtains: exterior kitchen, a simple private or toilet, a shower (sometimes cold, sometimes warm), a water source, picnic tables and if it is lucky, some points of sale to load electronics. There are also rental tents for an additional charge and some shelters offer bunk beds in bedrooms.

I see the first scattered tents between trees. Many more appear. The shelter is busy and takes time to find slightly inclined but peasant points. Finally, we begin to configure our shelters among Los Pinos.

«Look,» shouts the feet and we all interrupt our tasks. The fog has risen, showing a bright pink sunset and an investment of clouds under the valley. «Thank you for inviting me,» I tell Mosey, who has left your camp. It feels unreal to be here with her, thousands of miles from where we have last seen in Colorado. «Thanks for coming,» he replies and smiles. I forgot how good life you can feel, how reassuring being in the right place with the right people.

Day 2 – 16.5 miles // 5529 feet 📈

05:30, a bright white light illuminates my canvas. I work my eyes in the fool that walks towards the forest to urinate. Oh, well, is it time to get up? Again, I stayed in the dark, waiting for a sign or sound of consciousness of others. He does not dare to disturb his dream, to start the day. He had barely cooled last night, everything was hot and sticky. The sweet summer air promises another soaked and hot sweat in the GR 20.

At 06:15, in the brightness of my lighthouse, I leave the camp only before regrouping with others an hour later in Bavella about coffee, ice cream and the most gigantic sandwich that I have seen for $ 7. Great spongy clouds of white bread and French cheese. Alleluia.

We wandered through more pine forest and then completed a long work uphill, like the rest of my sandwich in the shadow, accompanied by a family of curious lizards. Where is the shelter? It cannot be so far, but I have a bad feeling that it is on the other side of the steep time.

Asinau refuge after some endless curves. The post is already resting in a sun chair, feeding the dog cheese.

The sobs with striped pimples and rubbing spots eat paste and fruit salad on the terrace. We left the worst heat of the afternoon. On the other side of the mountain, the island opens in a massive plain. The path is rolling in him gently and elegantly. Our knees are relieved.

«Sit,» says the friendly lady of refuge while looking at my name. His smile becomes a frown. «Can I see you confirmation?» I take my phone. His frown becomes sympathy. «Oh, you’re wrong. This is not here. It’s another hour to the south.» I laugh and I grab my backpack, what is another hour?

Matalza shelter is a bit crowded. Fenced, flat and grass cover area with a small building on the north side, a large wooden terrace and bathroom / kitchen installation. «Warm water» The host promises in this lovely thick French accent. He lied. The water was hot. Hot, comforting and perfect. So perfect that the two men ahead in the tail take 20 minutes. Leave some for the rest of us? Rinse sweat and salt from my clothes and hang them, so that it is still wet in the morning.

Another picnic table, another round of small titanium pots full of noodles and fast and boiling pasta. The French man sounds a bell to call the other walks to his reserved dinner. Mosey orders the most gigantic lasagna piece of the shelter. Truly through hiking size. € 3 orangine, € 4.50 beer, chocolate cookies from my childhood 4.50 € for 300 grams.

The humidity sits over the valley and on our jeans camps. Oh, well, it’s not that he is not burning again tomorrow. It is not as if we do not have time to sit in the sun and have a little sale of wet equipment garage tomorrow.

Day 3 – 14.3 miles // 5598 feet 📈

The girls had decided a jeans camp tonight, since there is not much Anways. I can reach my arm from under my quilt to touch the tents of strangers. But I will not make it cold and that would be strange to do it.

Pole, Mosey, the fingers of the feet and I agreed to leave later today, at 7 am but at 05:45 the entire camp begins to move. Going out with the pads, the lighters clicking to make coffee and tents of nylon rolled and put in backpacks. Everyone wants to start before to avoid heat.

The GR20 winds a bit through the valley before promoting a Ridera and Zigzaguear. A small shelter is perched on the rocks, classical French music reproduces from a speaker. All carry large vegetarian pasta dishes to the picnic tables. With complete bellies, we approach the steep climb that tires us with its false peaks. A roller mountain of rocks and ridges continues before it is a long descent and another climb. I update with pole for a moment before losing it again.

«How far to the next refuge?» A young boy asks me with a thick French accent. I look at my watch.

«4 hours»

«that?»

Agumo four fingers. He looks tired.

It stir some rocks before the path ends our destination of the day. The Prati shelter finally appears. A grass -covered plain extends with expansive views of the coast and the sea well below.

As always, a yellow shirt is already sitting in the patio. Pole arrived before me. Not long after, the feet fingers appear. Then Mosey and Simon. The young Frenchman had turned around and was having dinner in the courtyard. The Vaquera girls camp under the night sky while the boys placed their stores nearby. We chose a place a little away from the rest of the camp.

After eating small dinner pots and brushing your teeth at the picnic table, we lie in the dark and watch the stars sparkling the indigo canvas. How little exciting is the night sky. The absolute opposite of the fast rhythm digital flicker that we consume daily. How good it feels to sleep on the floor. To smell the earth, to smell the shock in my skin, to hear that my friends’ breathing constantly slows down. The world is not right, but tonight is. Tonight, the warm happy tears roll from my eyes down in my ears.