October 25, 2019
Day 1 : Limoux to Lagrasse
0 for 1 on dolmens, 2 for 3 on menhirs, bonus medieval bridge
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It was Friday. Robin was coming home on Monday night. Now or never. Somehow I extracted myself from home and social life and prepared for my mini-adventure.
I rode my Trek SuperFly mountain bike for this ride due to the gravel roads I'd be encountering. It looks so shiny in this picture! I used Ortleib bikepacking bags. This setup worked really well for this short tour.
I got away around 11AM, which is pretty early for me (sad to say). I rode north out of Limoux through Pieusse and Pomas along a route that we take often on single and tandem road rides.
Shortly after Pomas, I got my chance to deviate from paved roads. Fun! I headed off on a dirt road toward Cornèze. Then back onto paved roads and a pretty normal route to Cavanac.
After some noodling around in Palaja, I finally arrived at the Lac de la Cavayère. Then off on a great dirt road over the top of the hill to Montirat. I was following the GR36 hiking trail here, and eventually it turned into a hiking trail. I ended up pushing for a while.
After a lunch break at the top of the hill after Montirat, I went in search of the Dolmen de la Madeleine d'Albesse. As I write this journal (1.5 years later) I can see that the map I was using at the time wasn't very accurate. I probably rode right by the dolmen without realizing it. I rode down a trail to where I thought the dolmen was and pretty quickly was in trouble.
There had been a forest fire on this hillside, and in the best of times almost all trails around here are heavily eroded. It was a nightmare getting the bike down that trail. And I never saw anything that looked like a dolmen.
When I got down off the hill, I was happy to be alive, dolmen or not. So no going back. I was off to my next stop - the Menhir de la Pierre Droite in Rieux-en-Val. (Lots of menhirs have this name - Pierre Droite means "upright stone".
After riding through a bunch of other villages with names that also end in "en-Val", I found it!
Lots of menhirs have been "Christianized" in this form.
After savoring my triumph, I rode on to the "Roman Bridge" just south of Rieux. It's not actually Roman - more like medieval. But very pretty all the same.
After a break, I was back on the bike to cross over the pass to the sleepy burg of Caunettes-en-Val, where a nice local topped up my water bottles. I then had a great downhill run to the river L'Orbieu, which I paid for with a climb back up toward Tournissan. Not all the way to Tournissan, though, because the Menhir dit la Piera Dreta stands in the countryside before the town. ("Piera Dreta" is Catalan for "Pierre Droite" I believe) It was right where it was supposed to be, alongside the road.
Flush with success, I set off up the steep tractor tracks in the lengthening shadows to find my 3rd menhir of the day - Menhir la Coumette. Unfortunately this menhir proved to be very elusive. I searched for a long time - until I started to get worried about losing daylight - and I couldn't find it! Very frustrating, but that's how it goes when you don't know what you're doing!
After giving up, the road climbed seemingly forever. It was in decent shape and mostly rideable, with only some small sections requiring pushing.
At the top of the hill a twisted maze of roads took off in wildly random directions. I made my best guess and soon was rocketing down a gravel road toward what I hoped was the road to Lagrasse.
Unfortunately a small incident occurred.
I still don't understand exactly what happened. I was riding and then I was suddenly upside-down in a small pine tree. I laid there for a few seconds, making sure nothing was broken and that I probably wasn't bleeding. But then it occurred to me that I was in a somewhat delicate position.
I was upside-down, still clipped in, on the downhill side of the road. I couldn’t really move very much. I wondered for a moment whether I would just have to lay there until some farmer came by on a tractor. How long would that be? Probably months. I figured I better come up with a way to extract myself.
And of course I did. It required careful movement and almost yoga-like concentration, but eventually I extracted myself. I was bleeding from a few locations and I had sticky pine needles all over me, but I was alive and the bike was fine. Back off down the hill.
I was pretty happy to see paved roads after this. I rode into Lagrasse, stopped off at a pharmacy to by first aid supplies (and Advil), and checked into my hotel, the Hostellerie des Corbières. I'm kind of amazed they let me in given how I must have looked, but they were kind and sweetly stashed my bicycle in their garage for the night.
I must have picked up a couple of hundred pine needles from my hotel room floor. But I got them all! Gold star for neatness! And I felt better after a shower. Dinner at a local pizzeria and I fell asleep with no problem.
Today's ride: 64 km (40 miles)
Total: 64 km (40 miles)
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