GETTING THERE
Narbonne – 63km (1h 15min)
Alicante – 90km (1h 20min)
Toulouse – 150km (2h 20min)
Car parking: Park at parking lot Gorges d’Heric. The parking lot is paid in high season (mid April – September). The rest of the year it is free. In 2024 the prices were 1,5 EUR for motorbike, 3,5 EUR for car and 10 EUR for camper.
Camper/van overnight stay: Stay at Camping duCaroux, which has reasonable pricing and showers and is walking distance to the starting location. Enjoy views on the mountains. More information HERE
TRAIL NAVIGATION
The navigation for this trail can be tricky, as there is no single trail marking you follow. In general, follow trail run signs for trail run number 5. However the signs are not everywhere and additional signs might be useful for assurance. I strongly recommend getting gspx or physical maps, especially if your orienteering skills are not strong. You can read more about the trail, get the navigation picture, map or gspx on the website HERE
I’m not certain if the trail is marked in both directions.
TRAIL DETAILS – MONS TO TABLE D’ORIENTATION
Parking lot to Carrefour de St. Martin
The trail starts at parking for Gorges d’Heric. Follow the road towards the gorges, once you get down over the initial small hill and you get the first views of the gorges. Pay attention and look for small bridge on your right site. Cross this bridge and here are you find the first trail signs/direction post. You need to go up to the left and follow trail number 5/ yellow/ yellow red signs.
The trail is very steep with a lot of zig zags. Where there is bit of tree clearance, you can enjoy the views on the gorge and surrounding hills. Do not wander off the main trail or take “shortcuts” as the trail is not straight up zig-zag, but takes you around some peaks. Enjoy relatively easy terrain with the main difficulty coming from the elevation gain. The navigation is also easy as there are not many side trails. After going up for about 2,5km you get near the peak Roc Bartouyre. Follow the same signs little longer with little bit of flatness until point Carrefour de St. Martin at 703m.
Carrefour de St. Martin to Rocher de Lucet
From this point you need to stop following yellow/yellow red signs and go up following trail number 5 towards Table d’orientation du Caroux. Here you start second portion of the climb. It starts with mild incline but later on, you will be hit with some sharp zig zags again. The signs are not so frequent and I noticed that the red dots were helping me to keep the general direction. As I was nearing the top, fog/clouds were setting in suddenly and very quickly and the visibility became very poor for me. Although I was still able to follow the trail, the last part of the climb was not as clear and defined.
Once you arrive to the plateau and the peak of Rocher de Lucet, there is a split in the road so you can choose to go either to the orientation table or to the refuge. I have missed this split, but this could have been due to the poor visibility. I did however seen the signs for trail number 5 and this got me to the orientation table. Unfortunately in addition to the fog/ clouds also the wind picked up quite a bit so I passed this area rather quickly trying to move away from the cliff sites.
TRAIL DETAILS – TABLE D’ORIENTATION TO MONS
From the table, follow signs for trail number 5/ yellow/ white red signs on flat surface through woods for about 0,5km until you get to bigger crossroad. Here you need to go straight following trail number 5. Do not follow yellow/white red signs yet as this will take you completely different direction. Follow this straight path for another 2km, the terrain is easy, nice and flat, followed by slightly steep downhill until the village of Douch. In the flat stretch on the plateau I have spotted 2 mouflons but they have run away before I could make a picture. Additionally after some while you will come across white red signs again and you can follow them from now on. Once you approach village Douch, you can make a stop at the village or continue on the trail by following trail number 5/ while red signs. After about 1km once you reach the forrest you will start about 2km descent to the “village” of Heric. Be careful as this part had a lot of rolling rocks and leaves, so I would not recommend after rain. This part was also muddy at parts although it was not raining in the past few days and there were few minor “stream crossings”.
In order to follow the trail, you need to follow trail number 5/white red signs down to the bridge. Once you reach Col du Bardou in Heric, you need to switch to trail number 5/ yellow red signs. I opted out for the easier descent by walking the road through the gorges, so I’m not able to describe this last portion.
Especially if you have time to do only one hike in this area, this will be your best option. The intended trail requires further climbs up and down, while the gorges road is easy descent on concrete path, so it depends on your trail/sightseeing preferences, physical strength, time availability.
Read more about the gorges hike HERE
Tree coverage: Majority of the trail is under trees, so can be done also on very sunny day.
Geocaching: There are only couple of geocaches on this trail.
Dogs: If your dog is used to walk such distance with high elevation gain, it is possible to do this route with your dog, but it must be leashed.
FACILITIES
There is small bar at the start of the trail, but the opening hours are unreliable.
There are also public toilets at the start. There might be some facilities in the village of Douch, but I have not made a stop there. There is small caffe in the village of Heric, but the opening hours are unreliable. No other facilities along the trail.
I completed this hike in April 2024 on Monday. I have not met almost anyone up until the village of Douch. I met several hikers between Douch, Heric and Mons. Warm weather around 17 degrees, but cloudy with some wind. Strong cold wind and fog/clouds at the plateau.
