I woke up to footsteps outside of my tent. Last night I had set up camp in the dark, so I picked a spot super close to the trail.

When I looked outside, I saw the two Belgians approaching! I keep running into these guys. Apparently, they had seen me hike past their tent last night.

Today I planned to walk the border ridgeline to Refugi Ull de Ter and hit a few peaks along the way.

The morning climb began in the shade. I was worried I would crash again, like my climb out of L’Hospitalet two days ago, but today I felt a bit more energized after a breakfast of bread, peanut butter, and sheep’s cheese.

After a couple stops to refill my water at a stream and put on sunscreen, I continued the climb up the Vallée d’Eyne. Near the top of the col, I saw a group of 5 or 6 isards leaping across the trail.I made it to the col after 1.5 hours. It was tiring, but I felt much better than two days ago.The next section took me over a spectacular ridge spanning 5 grassy peaks. I had the option of summiting each peak as I passed, so I climbed up 3 of them. All along this ridge I had 360 degree views of the surrounding mountains and valleys.I passed by quite a few people today, and since I was walking along the border of France and Catalonia, I needed to pick a language to say hi to people. Pretty soon I got good at guessing the right language. I noticed that many of the day hikers/runners spoke spanish and catalan, and they traveled in big groups. The backpackers who looked a bit shy were most likely french.The last peak in the chain, Pic de la Vaca, had white rocks as its unique feature.By the time I reached Pic de la Vaca, clouds had formed overhead. There were supposed to be some thunderstorms this afternoon.I descended quickly down a valley to the river Freser, and immediately ascended back up to a col. Then, following a line of sunday hikers, I descended down to the Refuge d’Ull de Ter. It was only 2:30.

I got a drink and chatted with two French guys from Paris who were going in my direction on the HRP. Water was going to be scarce for the next 25 km.

After they left I realized I had phone signal and spotted a food truck on google maps about 1.5 km away on the trail. I asked someone who worked at the refuge and he confirmed that the food truck was open. I grabbed my bag excitedly and left Ull de Ter.

The food truck was located at a ski resort, and the HRP conveniently passed right through it.

As I ate, the clouds overhead grew darker and darker. It was necessary to find a place to pitch my tent soon. I hiked out of the ski resort. At a stream, I filled up all my bottles because this was the last water source until Mariailles, which I would reach tomorrow afternoon.

With my bag heavily loaded, I walked up to a col with a lot of flat land for camping. On the way up, I kept watching the darkened sky and hoping that it wouldn’t start to rain.

I set up my tent and threw all my gear inside. I laid down inside and waited, but the storm never came. I could see the clouds in the distance drooping down and connecting with the land. At one point I heard thunder but it was far away. Not a single drop of rain hit my tent today.After I made dinner, the sun came out again for a brief moment before setting behind the mountains. I went for a short walk to get a view of Pic de Canigou then returned to my tent to sleep.Today had some really cool scenery and confusing weather. I realized that most day hikers in the Pyrenees were not as concerned about the potential storms as I was, because I saw a bunch of families with little kids continue to hike up even as the sky grew dark.

Vallée d'Eyne to Pla de Coma Ermada - 18.90km and 1414m gained