Trek in the Pyrenees with a dog

Before telling you about my trek in the Pyrenees, let me introduce you to my adventure partners…

I met Amandine Cavadore, who created the Facebook page Canirandoworld, and I've been hiking in the mountains with her for two years now. A real friendship has developed between us, and it was with her that we decided to do a two-day trek with her new partner, Orya, a young, energetic Husky.

I was looking for a dog-friendly trail in the Pyrenees with reasonable elevation gain and distance, which isn't always easy. To find ideas, I consult my hiking books, search online by specifying the valley I want to hike in, ask friends, or ask in Facebook groups. This time, I used my "friends on the block" option to help us find some ideas. Elodie, who owns two Samoyeds and is a mountain enthusiast like us, gave us great pointers in finding the perfect trekking location.

On her advice, we chose a two-day hike in the Hautes-Pyrénées . Jacques and Nanouck, a female husky the same age as Nova, also joined us. I really enjoy sharing our hiking experiences with other people. We often go hiking with my dogs.

The office of the mountain of Cauterets having indicated to me that the road from the car park of the fruitière was closed, we started the 1st day from the car park La Raillère to reach the refuge of Russel located at 1980 m altitude . We did 8,95 km on this first day with 892D+ and 3h35 of walking without counting the meal break. The refuge is an unguarded refuge, mountaineers are welcome provided they respect the place and leave it clean. One thing to know: before arriving at the refuge, logs are already cut and placed along the path. If you want to light a fire to warm up a little at the refuge, you have to take it.

We took advantage of our early arrival to explore the refuge. Reaching the Culaus pass was impossible for us; the snow was too deep and, more importantly, visibility was poor. We couldn't see where we were putting our feet. We watched the sunset and waited for the stars to appear before falling asleep. The next morning, we woke up around 8:15 a.m. to watch the sunrise with our dogs.

After breakfast, we packed up and headed back down to Lake Estom, located at 1804m altitude, passing by its refuge and the Lutour waterfall. We discovered the lake was frozen over for much of its length. Breathtaking scenery!

Despite the cold and the wind, we bravely decided to eat by the lake of Estom. With these temperatures and especially on treks, I prefer hot dishes, so I turned on my stove to eat a freeze-dried dish. Then we headed back down to the parking lot. In total, we did 4 hours of walking on the second day, not counting the meal break. This route is at the border of the national park, throughout the hike we saw the markings indicating this imaginary line that we were not allowed to cross. Dogs are not allowed on the other side of the line.

It's true that hiking requires more preparation beforehand, especially for multi-day trips. You can't just set off with shoes, a backpack, and dogs without planning ahead, particularly in areas with restrictions. In the Pyrenees, not all areas are accessible to dogs, even on a leash. Once you understand this, and more importantly, accept it, you realize there are still plenty of kilometers to cover in stunning scenery with your companion(s). Hiking with your dog in the mountains requires preparation.

To find out if your hike is in the national park or not, you can simply look on an IGN map at 25ᵉ (000 cm = 1 m), the limits are indicated by a line on the map (you will need this map in any case to find you). There are also maps with the restriction zones on the internet. If you have any doubts, you can contact the mountain office on which your hike depends. In this case for us it was the mountain office of Cauterets. Source of information on restrictions, on the state of the roads (in winter many roads are closed), on the difficulty of the hike or the delicate passages: they are a great help and often happy to communicate this information.