So last night was windy with a little bit of rain, whatever. But buckle up because have I got a story for you!

So in the middle of the night (like 10:30), Crash yells and wakes me up. The next five minutes went something like this:

Crash: ahh!

Me: everything okay?

Crash: can you help me?? A moth flew in my ear and I can't get it out!

Me: ew, yes! I have some tweezers, gimme a sec!

(I find my headlamp and tweezers and suddenly Crash is at my tent)

Crash: it won't. come. out! (hitting the other side of his head)

Me: turn the other way, lemme look

...

Me: oh I see it, hold still ... (grabs it)

Me: ... except that's not a moth, dude. Look.

...

Me: you had an earwig in your ear!

And with my brain topped off with nightmare fuel, I put in my earbuds (safety first!!) and tried to go back to sleep. Gross.

But anyway, the night was fine and we both had terrible sleep (wind, a bit of rain, some distant lightning, invasive earwigs), but we got up around 7 and were hiking by 7:30.

We had a delightfully fast morning -- lots of gentle downhill miles, with a little bit of trailblazing.

At the bottom of this valley, we had a break (a sort of brunch) before we started climbing back up the other side. The other side was beautiful, but brutal.

At the top, we had some road-walking ahead of us, but at least it was fairly pretty!

Eventually, we got to our next big descent, which meant another big ascent. I know I should be getting used to these because it's the high route and all, but oof! This one wasn't actually too bad because it was cross country so we got to set the grade.

At the top of this we were finally able to traverse a good way -- until we descended another 1200 feet down. At the bottom, we crossed a river which meant we took some time to do laundry, get water, eat, and rest before our subsequent climb.

Eventually, we topped out and began our traverse to an area we wanted to camp. We were both pretty sore, so this was an easy-does-it situation. However, we got some spectacular views in the process!

Tomorrow we will summit our first real peak of the Pyrenees -- Pic d'Ohry. It's going to be a long hard day, but totally worth it.

But tonight, we set up camp in the yard of an empty farmhouse. Thank you, farmers!