The storm never came. It did cloud up below and above us. Every time the wind blew through the trees, we thought it was the start of rain, but it never was. Did not having the storm give Pam any relief? Hell no. She stayed awake all night worry about the storm anyway.
Needless to say, Pam was cranky and slow today. Partly from not sleeping, but also from not eating enough. Since I’m not a member of the American medical establishment, my opinion doesn’t matter. True, I am not a dietician, but I have read dozens of books about long distance hiking and all describe the symptoms Pam is having as calorie deficit (but they weren’t dietitians either). Can anyone guess what we argued about today?
We hit the trail by 8:15. By 8:30 we were out of the trees and rewarded with a sea of clouds all below us on both sides of the mountain ridge. We bagged two more 3500′ peaks by 11 before the sun started breaking through the upper cloud layer. We were also both dragging (from lack of food, primarily) but also from an incomplete recovery last night (how can your body recover if it doesn’t have the nutrients it needs?). I broke out the big guns at the second summit that always gets Pam eating–peanut M&Ms.
You’d think that since we were at the 3rd summit and all we had was a few thousand foot descent into town, we’d be golden. Not so. As horrible as the climb was up yesterday, it was worse going down. I don’t mind a little scrambling, but two hours solid is a bit much for me. Maybe we’re just old and over cautious, but we have to pay close attention to each and every step or risk falling and ending our 5-10 year hiking plans (we are still in discussion as to how long this will last).
We saw a French lad running down the trail jumping from rock to rock and holding poles. In his hand. When he got to the level stretch, he started using his poles. It made me as angry as when I watched Redford and Nolte carry their hiking poles in the whole damn movie and never use them once.
The descent down was stated at 2 hours, we took 4. We only know the distance because of our satellite tracker. I think everyone can see where I’m headed with this discussion, so I’ll stop here. But only after I say, why in the hell would anyone publish guide books with times for distances? Excuse me, I digress.
We got into Saint-Etienne a little after 3p and went straight for a cold drink and food. Being France, no hot food is available until 7p. We went grocery shopping to get enough food to get us to Saint Jean (hopefully tomorrow, but we don’t know how far it is. We won’t get that piece of information until we get there. We do know that a steroid junkie, not carrying any gear on a perfect hiking day with water stations every 1/4 mile can make it in just 7 minutes over 6 hours–possible digression). I got more than we got yesterday since we wolfed that down (and Pam felt better afterwards, but different sore point).
On the way to the grocery store, we found a pizza place (this is France, not Italy you may warn) that opens at 5:30. We had enough time to stop by the river to soak our feet, rinse out the clothes we were wearing, and sponge bathe. This was a highlight of our day.
We still had time to make it to the public water closet (who really wants to dig a hole and hope to not hit your pants?). The WC was right next to the tourist info center so we got free internet. We had plenty to keep us occupied until the pizza place opened…at 6ish. We are very close to the Spanish border so manana is very much in play.
We got our extra large pizza to split that we could eat on a bench in front of the tourist office. This was a top dollar pizza–we were drooling with anticipation. Now’ where we wished we would have listened to your warning about France not Italy. I live by the creed that no pizza is bad pizza, but I might have to use caution in the future. Pam could have eaten two of these. I could have polished 3 off. It just makes me miss Mackies in Marion, IL all the more. Go tell John I say “Hi” and that he is one of my first stops in December.
We ate our pizza appetizer, filled our water bottles out of the water closet, and left town. We don’t know how long the hike is tomorrow, but we do know we have another 3000′ climb right out of town, so we wanted to get a little of it done this evening–even if it’s on empty stomachs.
With big steep climbs over indeterminate distances, usually comes a shortage of level spots. We ended up jumping a farmer’s fence and got a level spot in the back of one of his sheep fields. Hopefully, he won’t check the field tonight.
You’re better peeps than I! The climb down likely would have saying bye bye to the 5-10
Year hiking plan😊