May 12, Arumd (6,600’) to Refuge du Toubkal (10,330’)
Big day as we climb to the refuge for the climb tomorrow to the summit. This is a 4,000′ day. We started at 9:00 with a couple hundred foot drop to the valley floor just south of Imlil then we started up.
The trail today is pretty good, rocky but not too steep. We very quickly re-entered the national park.
We have a view of the big mountains pretty much all day.
We stopped a couple of times along the way, once at a pretty stream crossing.
The only trail obstacles were the mules. We’ve learned that the mules always have right of way!
At our lunch stop, as we were leaving, Ibrahim realized that one of the hikers coming down had accidently grabbed his pack! He had to race down to catch him. How could somebody not know their own pack?
We got to the refuge about 3:00 PM and there were few people there but that changed as the afternoon wore on.
By dinner (6:30) the refuge was packed with hikers. Our guide gave us the option of sleeping in the refuge or in tents and we elected the tents.
Our Adventures 