Camprodon

May 23, 2014

Traversing the Alta Garrotxa

Today was epic - probably the best day of the tour so far. Best village, hardest climb, best meal, first thunderstorm. Awesome!

The first several miles of the day followed an arc north of Olot, dropping a few hundred feet to Sant Joan des Fonts and then to Castellfollit - two interesting and worthwhile destinations, and still only 5 miles from our hotel. Sant Joan was particularly colorful. It is best known for its majestic monastery and medieval bridge, built from volcanic stone. We appreciated even more though how colorfully decorated the town was, presumably on the Eve of some festival - utility poles, fences and walls were decorated with colorful butterflies and flowers throughout the village. It made me sorry we weren't arriving a day later to see what this was leading up to.

The road north into the Alta Garrotxa begins climbing immediately out of Castellfollitt. It begins with a fairly steady, not too step ascent, gaining about 1000' before losing most of it in a steep drop to the tiny village of Oix. Beyond that the climb resumes and is much stiffer, keeping up a steady 10-12% grade for several miles and gaining about another 2000' before topping out. It's a hard, but great climb - almost no cars, and with terrific views over the Alta Garrotxa. Toward the top we start encountering alpine flowers and a few free range cattle lying around near the side of the road. At the top, we get a good view of the snow capped Pyrenees, seemingly just a few ridges to the north.

Then, down again - we drop a thousand feet or so until reaching Beget, a wonderful old stone village buried deep in the mountains between high ridges. After wandering around and enjoying its arched bridges and old stone houses, we enjoyed our picnic lunch on a bench beside its beautiful 12th century church.

Then, up again - 2000' up this time, mostly on a series of tight switchbacks that lift us up what feels like the face of a cliff. The grade isn't as bad this time - perhaps 7% - but it all adds up; and toward the end I'm thinking back with some regret on the extra, pointless miles we spent yesterday walking in a loop.

After the summit, we have a fast three mile drop to Camprodon - or it would have been fast if we weren't dropping straight into a 20 mph headwind. By the time we arrived at our hotel we were a bit chilled and ready for a warm shower.

We enjoyed wandering around Camprodon, beginning with a stop for a pair of delicious crepes to hold us over until dinner. The core of the town is a ribbon, built along the Ter River. There must be a dozen small footbridges crossing it, some public and some private ones leading from large homes to private gardens across the river. And, of course, there is the famous and iconic New Bridge, erected in the 12th century, that graces all of the posters advertising the town. As we walked around, the weather fluctuated dramatically, from periods of sun to dark skies and strong, gusty winds before finally breaking out into a mild rain and thunder storm.

For dinner, we settled on Can Marques, an attractive small place that served us our best meal in Catelonia. The salads were imaginative and delicious - a variety of greens mixed with goat cheese, Iberian ham, apples, black olives and strawberries. For mains, Rchael had salmon while I enjoyed a terrific serving of duck breast and baked apple.

Great day. Tomorrow morning, over the pass and into France for the next major section of the tour.

Net elevation gain: 5200 today, 25,400 total.

Video clip from Beget: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=73ED18EEC8BA7424!543&authkey=!AA_I-UN1p7ao6Ic&ithint=video%2c.mp4