Day 16: My body is a temple

---

Today's hike was Caranca Gorges. Again, locating the trailhead was a challenge. The gorge was beautiful and the hike challenging. I love these hikes. The scenery combined with the physical challenge to my body, I feel like I am using my body as it is intended...the machine like quality to climb the mountain, the dexterity and coordination not to stubble along the rocky terrain, and the mental fortitude to believe whatever comes up is meant for me. The path took us near the river and then up a steep ascent (70 floors of climbing according to the iPhone tracker). From the peak of the hike, we could see the what we assumed to be the return path (a tunnel blown out of the rock on the opposite side of the river. The trees were probably a week off of peak color, the weather cool and the sky bright blue. After climbing we were led down back to the river and a bridge crossing. Unsure of which way to go next we continued onward. This lead to the COOLEST sequence of platforms bolted into the gorge rock, rope bridges and metal ladders that were attached at the top of the ladder but not anchored to the ground. After 30 minutes of continuing this way, we were certain we had missed our loop around ladder across the river and decided to turn back. On our way back, we stubbled across a rope ladder that we had somehow neglected to see the first time and were fortunate enough to run into the only other hiker we encountered that day. According to his map, we had almost trekked all the way to the peak of the mountain he was hoping to reach that day. Thankful to be back on the return trail, the rest of the way was smooth sailing. On our return, we stubbled upon a walled in city (Villefranche de Conflent) which needed our exploring. The entire city was walled between the 11th and 12th century due to the threat of Spanish invasion. In addition, Fort Liberia was made on top of the near by hill with an underground staircase of 1,000 steps to connect it to the city. The design of the wall was unique because it allowed soldiers to shoot both into (if invasion occurred) and out of the city and part of the city is built out of pink stone.

---