Ryan Macke - Pyrenees '24

Oct 22, 2024

42.1318° N, 0.4078° W

Day 1: Madrid to Pyrenees

Road trip! Coche Uno set out in a sweet, bright blue Hyundai Puma. Euro cars are very small and very sensitive. Caro, CK, and G-money held down the back with good vibes and good tunes.

Jake and I split the drive and I had no idea where we were the entire way. I asked where a few too many times. Five hours in the car made me a little delusional.

CK questioning the legitimacy of her driver

Man on a Mission

Pretty road with a pretty destination

Call me ~ creative ~

Our humble abode was tucked into the mountains about an hour from any town, and even the town was barely a town. It was owned by a lovely, maybe a little enthusiastic, woman named Gemma. Pretty sure she sent about 100 messages and 30 voice memos to Eliza prior to us arriving about a flood that simply did not exist.

Our humble abode tucked away in the mountains

Caro running to copy my photo smh

After we settled in and Gemma gave us the run down, we opened up a bottle of wine and decided to explore. Car 2 was about 3-4 hours behind us so we had time to kill and a wine walk for sunset seemed like a lovely option. Gemma gave us instructions on how to get to a certain landmark. We ended up just going in a giant circle back to the house. Perfect, because we were out of wine. We grabbed some more vino and perched ourselves over a nice lookout for the sunset.

Wine Walks!

Since we arrived first, we cooked up dinner for ourselves and Car 2. We made an atrocious amount of pasta and ground beef and enjoyed a night in the mountains before our big hike the next day.

Firing up the ol’ firestone grill in our mid-century cabin

Might have had too many glasses of wine because this looked way better when I first took the photo

Day 2: Senda de los Cazadores

I might have understated our relaxing night because Coche Uno woke up feeling rough. I was thoroughly unprepared to hike 13 miles and 4,000 feet of elevation gain within the first two of them. We managed to get out the door at a reasonable time and snapped this gem at our favorite vista along the way.

Full squad - from right to left: Top: Me, Jake, Anders, Flick, CK, Eliza, Brooks; Bottom: Marg, Caro, Mimi

CK snapped this after I shamefully had to buy water at the trailhead because I was too hungover to remember to bring my own...

Surely we’re not hiking all the way up there today, right?

My face when Gemma said she’d warm the house for us before we got home

The first part of the hike was rough. 4,000 feet pretty much straight up. Coche Uno was going slow, and Car 2 was booking it.

Should have been a wine walk.

Luckily I had my camera as an excuse to stop a whole bunch because regardless of incline, the fall colors were gorgeous.

We finished our ascent, and the rest of the hike was a nice gradual decline until the end. Honestly glad we got the elevation out of the way first. The rest was pan comido.

A sprig of yellow

Love a good natural frame

Raise your hand if you had too many glasses of wine last night

Look at that lighting

Por supuesto the waterfall was in the shade and did not have good lighting

Lunch break

Always need a selfie

Caro loves taking pictures of her food

The rest of the hike down was a lot of me stopping to take pictures, the rest of the group not stopping, and then me chasing after them. Felt like Nick was making me do interval training. Here’s the result of all my running:

I will never stop long-exposure-ing water

Colorful!

More colors!

Rock with colors!

Different rock, same colors

Sun in Autumn? Yes please.

Valley I imagine at the end of WestWorld

At the opposite end of the valley where we came from was a waterfall, kinda. One of those that isn’t straight down and branches off along the supporting rock to create more of what I would call a heavy trickle.

The next part of the hike followed the river from the waterfall through a series of smaller cascades that we saw from the ridge above, looking for a swimming hole to shake these wine-sweats. We passed a few larger, not-so-safe options that were pretty epic, but not worth being swept down the river. Brooks and Anders seriously debated hucking it off the top of one of the bigger ones. No gracias para mi.

Trickles

Niceeee

We can totally make that, yeah?

Looks so nice until you get swept off into the valley

We ended up finding a little section down the river that was suitable, so naturally we stripped and sent it on in. Definitely chilly. But refreshing. And cured the head fog. As we were in there, a Spanish lady walked past and chastised us since it very clearly said no swimming in the national park (sorry mom). Then another Spanish dude walked past and told us she was being a b-word y todo está bien. Gracias tío.

Rest of the hike was pretty routine. Jake, CK, and I got split off because of my frequent photo stops. Still ended up down the mountain at the same time.

CK and Me

Me taken by CK

Picture on the way up was terrible, this one I like.

Post-hike, we stopped by the singular bar within an hour of our place for a beer with our favorite view. Damn good beer.

Who’s looking at the mountains when you’ve got this view?

Views on views

Nobody wanted to look for my selfie

Jake made cutlets. They were fire. We played games. Eso es todo.

Day 3: Pyrenees to Madrid

Packed up camp and headed out for a quick hike before the long drive home. Gemma lied to us because, yes, it was only 4 miles, but it was literally straight up. Led to a pretty cool view, and two of my fav photos from the trip. Thank you Jake and CK for taking pictures of me too.

2/3 incredible squad photos this trip

Made it on the Hinge

0.5 taking over the photo industry!

We all held our hands up in accountability. We met a perrito. Took a selfie. Got the heck off that mountain.

3/3 I mean, venga!

Me exploring away from the pack

Raise ‘em up

Yup.

5 hour drive home. One McDonalds stop. And a weekend of memories forever immortalized through a hunk of metal I call a hobby.

What a trip.

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