Category: 2017 GR10

Happy 7 month anniversary to my lovely wife. Today, she became the leader I always knew she could be. If it wasn’t for her, I would have stopped to camp several miles earlier than we did. I was dragging from the minute we woke up. If she would have said “Why don’t we take another day,” I would have been back in bed before she could have said “off.”

It’s always hard to leave Seix, but I knew we had to go. We saw kayakers already running the river as we were heading out. At what ungodly hour must they get up to already be in town at 9:30? There were all kinds of people out and about. Pam took a wrong turn on the edge of town. The turn was into a private drive and she did it in front of a large tour group. They understood enough to see that my wife is directionally challenged.

The trail today was a nice gradual climb up. The Ariege has a bad reputation as being difficult. We have actually found it to have the best maintained trails with proper switchbacks on the trails. Other areas play with switchbacks, but this district has properly implemented them in the trails.

We went four miles before our first break. While we were finishing up our fruit, the Australian couple from Tasmania that we met on Tuesday caught up with us. They sat down for their second breakfast and we chatted for a bit. Peter and Alaina are doing the entire GR10 as well but they started about 10 days later that we did so we probably won’t be hiking with them for too long before they leave us behind.

We are all heading to the same spot tonight, Cabane d’Aula just before the pass. They had also taken a day off in Seix and decided to break the 17.5 mile recommended day into 2 days. Even doing this, we still get to climb almost 3500′. They did give me one bad piece of news: the writer of the guidebook I’ve been complaining about died a couple years ago. I feel guilty now about criticizing his terrible book with crappy directions and a total lack of information about the country we are passing through. IF he were still alive, I would relish complaining about the worthless book I bought. The only consolation I have is that Alaina has the same book and agrees with me–it’s total crap.

We hiked with them for a few minutes after the break, but I just felt like poo today. I couldn’t walk 10 steps without having to catch my breath and wipe sweat out of my eyes. It was a pleasant 70F; a near ideal day for hiking even if the humidity was a little high. It must be a combination of lack of sleep last night from water dripping and roosters crowing from about 3a. Maybe I overloaded my pack again with fresh fruits and cheeses, but backpacking friendly foods are hard to find here. We had to keep stopping to cool off, catch my breath, soak my feet, eat, etc. Pam even accused me of procrastinating.

With the lousy maps and schematics in the guidebook by the dead guy who I will no longer criticize, we couldn’t figure out where we were at all today. As usual, we follow the trail markers because the book sucks and is usually wrong. It didn’t even mention the huge cascaded water fall less that 1/4 mile off the trail. Luckily, this is a very popular day hike for locals, so they pointed it out to us.

We eventually made the climb up to the Cabane, but decided to camp rather than stay in it after we looked inside. We looked around for camping spots and found lots of level areas. We ended up camping about 50 yards from Peter and Alaina. While we were setting up our tent, we got overrun with cows. Peter chased them away for us.

We made dinner which should help my pack weight tomorrow–pasta with tomato sauce (in a can), an avocado, and two boxes of red wine (a touch of class on the trail–who would have thought that red wine out of a juice box wouldn’t be that great?). While we were finishing up, Peter and Alaina came over and we talked some more. Peter has done a lot of hiking in France so he was sharing some of his experiences on the GR 5. He had a scare a few years back when he was misdiagnosed with leukemia and was only given 3 years to live. He ended up having a treatable disease but it did change his outlook on life. As a result, they think we are doing the right thing by getting out now while we can.

Tonight was one of the latest nights we have actually stayed up while hiking. Pam didn’t get under her quilt until 10p. My guess is that she’ll be dragging more than me tomorrow–conditions will return to normal.

We thought we had made reservations for two nights, so why was someone pounding on our door at 9:30 and yelling at us? I got out of bed to find out what was happening. It turns out, we also get breakfast included in the price of our room and they stop serving at 10. Plus, they wanted us out of the room so they could clean. They want to feed us and clean up after us–it’s like being a kid all over again. No wonder Sam doesn’t want to grow up; this is nice.

After breakfast, we went into SWAT mode and hit the remaining stops we need to get done before hitting the trail again tomorrow. 1) Pharmacy for ibuprofen and melatonin (surprisingly, 10 hours of hiking a day doesn’t put us to sleep). 2) grocery store–we made our list last night after seeing what is available and we just ate breakfast, so hopefully, we can keep my pack weight down. 3) finish up the blog. An up to date blog is a stress free Curtis.

Other than that, today was just what the name implies–a zero day. We do nothing other than eat and rest. We might walk around town a bit since we won’t be here again. It’s always good to get a little Seix into your life.

Possibly a beer might make it down our gullets today.

It will probably be at least 3 days (maybe even 5–we are slow and old) before we have access to an internet connection again, so chill and enjoy your stress-free work lives while we do all the walking for you.

Adeline and Mathias are an incredible young couple. It seems like they can do anything and actually have the energy to do it. I used to dream of being self-sufficient, but never had the energy to pull it off. They butcher their own meat that they raise, grow all the vegetables that they eat, grow fruit, make ice cream for sale in local cafes, can vegetables and fruits, build their own house, run a gite four months a year that includes meals, rent out housing the rest of the year, raise chickens, herd sheep, grow hogs, and more…and they don’t have bags under their eyes. I would really recommend this gite to anyone passing Esbints.

Eric and Claire were the first to leave the gite at a little after 8. We had more to pack up and the English family (Martin, Judith, Mary, and John) had a quadruple pack explosion so they were even slower than us getting it together. We started hiking before 9 (8:59) and made it all the way to Aunac before they caught up and passed us. In fairness, we were stopped on the side of the trail eating black berries before all the bears could get to them.

The hike today was truly easy and not just a guidebook “easy walk.” Adeline had shown us a trail that runs to the west of River d’Estours that will take us right into Seix. We had told her we were thinking of catching a bus in Aunac and she almost choked on her coffee. Aunac is even smaller that Esbints and no services are there.

She also understood that we were hiking the entire GR10 and that we didn’t want to skip any of the trail. Pam had this warped idea that we could hike the road from Esbints into Seix and then take the trail back out to join the trail. It was Adeline who pointed out that if we did this, we would not hike the entire trail.

When we got to the river, we easily found the trail. It was an ideal walk next to the river for 2 miles into the village. When we got into town, we went to the auberge she had recommended and got a room for two nights, except we couldn’t check in until after 4 and it was still before noon (see we can hike fast with ideal conditions).

We dropped our packs and headed to the tourist information office to find the location of a laundromat, grocery store, and pharmacy. Today is a feast day (The Assumption of Mary) so most businesses are closed or operate with reduced hours. We scouted out the locations of everything and made a grocery list so we won’t over buy again (we only have 3 days to the next shop).

Next up was lunch. After 12 days without a day off, I was ready for a pizza (I’m actually ready for Mackies but I’ve got to have an address and an oven for John to send me a pizza). We found a cafe serving pizza and beer–a somewhat pleasing combination. Everyone should try this new discovery we’ve made.

At 4 we went to check in, but there was a mistake with the room. It was the owner who had helped us out earlier (fortunately), but he got confused on what day it was. There wasn’t actually a room available for us. He called around and actually got us a better deal at another location for the same price. He even bought us a couple of beers to make up for the inconvenience.

It was a little unnerving to think we might have to camp when we had already told our bodies to expect a soft bed and shower. It all worked out fine. We showered, did laundry, ate ice cream, and went to bed.

It’s beginning to look like we’re not going to finish the trail in 50 days like the book says. Last night’s storm scare cost us an extra day getting into Seix. Some might say “Well, just get up early and make up the extra 3 miles today.” To them I say “Is this the first time you’ve read our blog? We are not morning people. I could be, but my wife gets mean if she gets woke up before she’s ready and I’m not willing to risk bodily injury when we still have so much hiking to do.”

It didn’t storm, it didn’t rain, it didn’t even have clouds in the sky after we went to bed. Does that mean we got a good night of sleep? One word–Mickey. That’s right, his disgruntled cousins were taking it out on us that they didn’t get a piece of the Disney pie. Every time I’d just about get to sleep, plastic would start rattling again. I had already hung our food from the rafters in anticipation of mice. I eventually hung everything from the rafters to keep it safe from the mice. (Pam was not happy with hanging from her hair and socks, but I knew the cabin wasn’t strong enough to withstand her reaction if a mouse ran across her in the night.)

Just as we were getting ready to leave, Pam decided she needed to find a wal-mart. I’m more of a Macy’s man, so I can wait. I checked the guidebook and all indications are we will cross paths with porcelain.

Our gains in starting times from the last two days were shot today–we started hiking at 10. Neither one of us was a ball of hiking fire today. We retraced our steps to the GR10 and passed the Cap des Lauses once again. This time, we weren’t under storm defcon 4, so we got a picture to acknowledge the 3400′ climb we did yesterday. I hate to admit that we are getting in better shape, but that was our second big climb yesterday. If I could ever get Pam to stay focused on hiking, we might be able to start getting some miles under our belts–but that’s for next year.

After a couple of hours and another pass, we arrived at Estaing d’Ayes. This was the lake we wanted to camp at last night. As the guidebook said, it was a very popular spot. There must have been over 100 people spread out around the lake. We made the right decision not coming here last evening in the fog because there were a few narrow squeezes to navigate. We satisfied ourselves with having lunch while we soaked our feet in the lake. This lake is where we learned an important life lesson–the true value of M&Ms. These are a precious back country treat and Pam is very diligent in making sure I don’t get even 1 more than she does (even though I have to carry them). While doling/counting them out, I dropped 3 of my stash in the lake. Pam laughed and said I can’t replace them out of the bag–she didn’t drop hers, why should she be penalized. As I saw fish approaching, I made the right decision. I reached in, grabbed my run-aways, and popped them in my mouth. I will not be deprived.

The guidebook was just outright wrong from the lake to the next pass, but for once, we were OK with that. The trail must have been rerouted in the last few years to avoid an extra 1000′ drop and climb. By now, we were both nearly falling asleep on the trail. We just wanted to get someplace and rest.

Our best bet was the Cabane de Tariolle just below the Pas de la Core, but when we got there, it was already occupied. As we passed the group, we all said awkward “Bon jours”but we could tell they were not French. As we passed, one guy ran out of the cabin laughing about there were books inside and they could learn French–it was definitely an English accent. I stopped and started a conversation with them. They were a group from South Hampton University out for a short trip in the Pyrenees. One of the guys is heading to the states after this to get married just outside of San Francisco. We had a nice talk with them but we had to move on. I wanted to warn them about mice, but forgot. I’m sure they’ll figure it out tonight.

Even though we plan to take a day off in Seix, we were so tired and nearly out of food that we decided to spring for another gite. Esbints was only another mile or two so we thought we’d check it out. When we got there, it was deserted. We went in, chose a bed, and started to shower when the owner finally showed up. She told us dinner at 8 in her house.

While we were sitting out on the deck having a beer, the rest of the people staying in the gite showed up. It was the English family we met in Fos–Martin, Judith, John, and Mary. They’ve been a day ahead of us and they decided to take a rest day today which allowed us to catch them again. We will catch up on happenings over dinner this evening.

What a surprise that Fred stayed here last night. The young couple that own this gite are very creative and hard working. She grows vegetables and fruits and he grows livestock. They built the main house just 5 years ago by themselves. She makes ice cream that she sells to local shops. They run the gite from the beginning of June to the end of September. It seems like they are constantly working. Judith, Martin, and the kids are heading to Cabane d’Aula so they will once again be a day ahead of us. We might see them one more time in St-Lizier in a few days. It was a very pleasant dinner that we didn’t finish until after 10.

The top 10 things Pam says when editing the blog posts:

10) Leave my bathroom habits out of the blog–nobody needs to know I fart other than you.
9) I didn’t say that.
8) Little kids read this blog, you know.
7) You can’t say that.
6) I guess we should rename the blog “Pick on Pam”
5) I don’t get it.
4) I get it, but it’s not funny.
3) Do you love me?
2) Ha ha ha, you mis-spelled a word.
1) I don’t poop in Wal-Mart parking lots.

And to all these, I answer “It’s a joke, Pam” other than the pooping in Wal-Mart. The cop with the soiled bumper wasn’t laughing.

We slept in the loft of the cabane last night with the trap door down to provide a second layer of protection in case a bear broke in. There are 39 bears in the Pyrenees which cover roughly 10,000 square miles making the bear density less than 1 in more than 250 square miles–even Australia has a higher population density than that.

We did manage to collect enough drops of water to have coffee for both of us and still have a half liter each to carry over the pass. We only had frosted flake bars for breakfast; 3 between us. Talk about empty calories, I had used these all up before we even climbed 50′ above the cabin.

It was only a little over a thousand feet to the pass and there was another cabin there. By the time we reached the pass, the sun had risen far enough that we were no longer hiking in mountain shadow. I headed straight for the cabin and made some lunch–cheese, crackers, olives, sausage, and pick-ups for dessert. The wraps last night and the frosted flake bars this morning just didn’t place a dent in our hiker appetites. We both could have eaten more, but there was a refuge in less than 3 miles, so we figured we’d grab some more food there.

Having forgotten it was Sunday, we were surprised by the number of hikers already up at the pass. We had started hiking right at 9 (a near record for the last 2 weeks). There were already between 10 to 20 people wandering around the pass when we got there a little before 10. It was another beautiful clear day.

There was another cabin about as far down as we had climbed up this morning. We had considered going there last night, and would have, if it hadn’t already been past 6:30 when we got to Besset. After mingling with some cows for a bit, we stopped at the cabin and split a liter of sports drink between us before heading down to the refuge.

Refuge isn’t quite the right term for this place. It was very classy and nice. Pam and I were the only two hikers eating in the gastronomic restaurant. We couldn’t get a “meal” because we hadn’t made reservations, but they agreed to serve us a salad. I don’t know, nor do I want to know, everything I ate. I know there was pork pate, and some crunchy nuggets. Pam kept trying to figure out what they were, but I insisted she just call them “croutons” so I could eat them (I’m squeamish with new foods; especially meats). We tried to order some dessert but they told us we would have to wait until everyone else finished eating to see what was available, or have ice cream–duh.

All in all, we had a two hour lunch break before beginning our afternoon climb. We weren’t too thrilled with the prospect of a 2400′ climb which is why we took such a long break. It was another surprisingly nice section of trail climbing up to the source of Muscadet River. After 1500′ of climbing, we left the river and got an overlook of the valley and saw the waterfalls feeding the river. By accident, we are actually staying above those falls tonight.

The clouds started rolling in while we still had 500′ to go to the pass. They were dark clouds, but I tried to pretend I wasn’t concerned. Pam heard thunder and then we went to Defcon 4. We quickly scrapped our plans to going to Estaing d’Ayes (a popular lake at about 6000′ elevation) to head to the nearest Cabane we could find. We were only 1/2 mile from the one we are now in. Pam flew down the trail. She’s been doing great the last few days, but this is the fastest she has hiked since I’ve known her.

Heading in, we had mountains towering over us in all directions, but she was still worried about being too tall of objects for the storm (which wasn’t even in our valley). We figured we had enough water to eat tonight since we had filled up at lunch (no Nutella tonight!) but there was a great water trough outside the cabin and the cabin, itself, was even nicer than last night.

We’re all bundled up with mixed expectations for the night. Pam wants a quiet storm free night, but I want a nice thunderstorm to justify the change in plans. It’s leaning towards Pam’s wish as we head to bed.

One of the older women warned us that she snored before we went to bed–she wasn’t exaggerating. I asked Pam at 3a how she didn’t wake herself up. Luckily for us, she rolled around quite a bit so she would only snore for short bursts occasionally but I’m still giving her a referral to Jill.

We weren’t in a hurry at all this morning; the itinerary today is only 7.5 miles with 4400′ of gain and 2600′ of loss. It was apparent that I was delaying starting and Pam actually said “Let’s get going. We only have a 900 to 1000 meter climb to start.” The only criteria to starting was to leave earlier than yesterday. We made it at 9:45. At this rate of improvement, we will be leaving before 8 by the time we finish Mount Blanc.

We started out at a pretty good clip. I could hear drums in the distance, so I stopped to listen. They went silent. I started walking again and they were back. I guess I was pushing myself a little too hard. Once I slowed down a bit, the pulse echo in my ears disappeared. I wish that would have been the end of my health woes today, but it wasn’t. After climbing a couple thousand feet, I felt the pop in my ankle that I felt a few weeks ago that made it hard for me to walk downhill. I immediately took 400 mg of vitamin I and hoped for the best.

The projected time to hike to the pass was 2 hours and 40 minutes. We made it in three and a half hours with 2 food breaks–dry bread with flavorless butter and prune jam just doesn’t go that far when hiking uphill. Today was a Goldilocks day for weather–not too hot, not too cold, just right.

We had beautiful views in all directions at the pass. There was a cabin just 1/4 mile away which we headed to for a shoes and socks off break. There were a few other hikers out, but not that many considering it is a weekend. The Ariege is not too popular for the day hikers because there just isn’t a developed infrastructure in the area yet. I was wrong on my initial assessment of the trail conditions in this district; there is lots of evidence of trail work going on. Overall, today’s trails were well maintained with lots of new sections of trail being just built. The district is obviously making an effort to attract hikers.

After resting for about 20 minutes in the cabin, we started down. The ibuprofen didn’t handle the situation with my ankle. It was painful and radiating up to my knee. I took another 800 mg and played with different positions to alleviate the pain while walking down. I discovered that the pain is worst on moderate downhill sections. Being the GR10, most of the time, the decline is rather steep and I can avoid a lot of the pain.

Pam was very patient with me (something I’m not always with her when she’s in pain). It took us longer than usual to climb down the 2600′ of drop. We came across a nice stream and decided to soak our feet for a bit. We haven’t done this for a couple of weeks and I’ve missed it. This helped Pam’s feet and my ankle a great deal. We felt we had another couple of good hiking hours left in us now. We couldn’t help but imagine how Fred would react if we told him we were going to stop to soak our feet when he is so goal oriented that he doesn’t even seem to want to take breaks. I know my mouth and our laid back hiking style drove him crazy.

Once we got to the valley floor, we still had another 1200′ to climb to get to our cabin. We were hoping no one would be there and that it would be nice enough to sleep in (Pam is a bit picky about cabins and dirt). After what seemed to be a bigger climb than expected, we got there and the water supply was a slow drip and no reserve. I ran out of water on the way up and Pam was down to 1/2 liter–looks like no hot meal for supper tonight.

If you are reading this online, we made it out fine. If you’ve found my iPad, Pam obviously insisted on brushing her teeth and cleaning her toothbrush using her usual 200 ml of water causing me to fly in a rage and take us both off a cliff.

Instead of our dehydrated meals (which I have been carrying for almost two weeks in anticipation of tonight) we had peanut butter and jelly wraps. Yes, peanut butter without anything to drink afterwards. On the bright side, I probably won’t have to get up in the middle of the night to pee. The cabin did meet the minimum standards for Pam to agree to sleep inside–no evidence of mouse droppings, not a lot of bugs or spiders present, no obnoxious odors (yet, wait until all the doors and windows get closed and the gas attacks begin), no trash piles inside, relatively clean, and, most importantly, no snakes.

Before going to bed, I checked my set up to collect the water drops coming out of the line. After only 3 hours, I was able to filter another 300 ml of water. We have almost a liter to make it over the pass in the morning. Now we are hoping to collect enough additional water over night to have coffee in the morning. First basic need is survival, then comes coffee–first world proverb.

It rained most of the night. After supper in the tent, we had to make one more nature run in the hopes of a night without excursions (never happens for me, but Pam keeps insisting I can make it–as long as we switch sides after my bladder bursts, I’ll stay in bed all night). In between rains, we headed out. On the way back, we stopped in the cabin extension and got warm while we talked to David who was hiking with his 16 year old son and 17 year old daughter. While we were talking, the rain started up again.

Next thing we knew, Fred was outside of our tent wishing us a good morning. It was 8 and he was packed and ready to go. His plan was to go to the gite d’etape at Eylie. He only had about a cup of water. I filled his water bottle (not with my personal water, but with my sawyer water filter) and off he went. The fog was thick with only about 20′ visibility–I couldn’t even see the cabin. Pam said she’d get up when the sun was shining.

I started to make coffee, and, lo and behold, the sun broke through. I was getting help from above to pry a butt out of bed. With the extra help, we were able to hit the road before 10–9:55, but we’re starting to head in the right direction on starting times (I know, Pete, but what can I do?)

We had a short climb (less than 1200′) to get to the pass (Col d’Aueran) and then an easy walk down to the Refuge de Araing. While we were scrambling down, we thought we saw Fred in front of the refuge, but he had left us a couple hours ago. We were hoping everything was all right.

When we got to the refuge, he told us he had changed his mind and was leaving the GR10 for a few days and would join back up around Aunac–he didn’t want us to be searching for him and worry, so he stuck around until we caught up. We all had some soup before heading our different directions. We made plans to get together in Paris before we head back to London if we don’t meet back up on the trail.

This was the end of an itinerary day in our guide. The next day’s itinerary was small enough that we could finish it as well and end up at Eylie-d’en-Haut. This is probably the shortest and easiest day on the whole trail–4.5 miles, 1000′ up, 4500′ down.

As usual after a break, we had a hard time getting our bodies to start moving again. The climb up wasn’t bad, but we weren’t moving very fast. There was one scary area across a slide zone where some people had slid down–skid marks below the trail, and I’m certain, in their underwear as well. I made it across this only to fall on the rocks above. I waited for Pam to cross. She made it without any problem.

While we were recovering, a couple of groups came down from the pass. We watched two women fall in the exact same place. We were expecting something bad at the spot when we got there but only saw a little mud. Their falling probably had more to do with running about 15 mph downhill.

The pass is the beginning of the Ariege–this is a district in France in the Pyrenees, but the district is in hard times financially. This section is considered the hardest part of the entire GR10 because of it’s extensive old growth forests, steep trails, and lack of services. In other words, this is the most remote area we will encounter and will hopefully provide us with the wilderness experience we’ve been looking for. My suspicion is that the trail is more difficult here just because of a lack of funds for maintenance.

The Ariege used to be a big mining area. Maybe a 1000′ feet down from the pass, we came across an abandoned zinc and lead mine. There were open shafts, falling building, and downed power lines everywhere. All of it was covered by a few inches of…sheep shit. Apparently the sheep love a challenge and try to poop in places most of us would have a hard time even getting to. It was around here that we heard and saw our first Patou (Great Pyrenees) on duty. He sat on an outcropping above the road and barked out orders for the flock below. They seemed to know what he wanted.

We still had another 3000′ + to descend in less than 2 miles, so were expecting a steep trail. We were not disappointed in our expectations. Even though we hadn’t walked but about 6 miles up to now, our bodies started to rebel. My knees and feet were complaining loudly, even though I quietly soldiered on. Pam’s feet, hips, knees, back, and jaws were all being overused today.

Our goal was to make it to the gite in Eylie because we are just one supper short of having enough food to make it to Seix (pronounce sex) in 3 days. Seix is a couple of miles off of the trail, so I’m looking forward to being legally allowed to walk around streets and say “I’m looking for Seix, can you help me out?”

We got in about 6:30 and dropped our packs. I had to walk to the village to find out how things worked here. We were too late for the main supper, but they would still cook us food and said we’d be happy. We got our beds assigned to us and would make it back to the village in time for supper.

When we got into the gite, we ran into Louis. We met him a few days ago when we stopped in the gite d’etape Artigue. He speaks no English at all. Usually, we have ran into him when Fred was with us so we used Fred as interpreter. Today we made due with sign language and pointing but we communicated and were happy to see each other.

At dinner, we also met a couple of French women hiking in the opposite direction than we are. They are doing it in sections and have been hiking it for a few years. They helped us with a few French words and phrases. With all the help we have received from Fred over the past week, a little bit is starting to sink in (not enough that anyone would mistake us for French). We’re still about the level of Steve Martin in French language ability.

Even though we got the alternate menu for supper, I think we made out great. The main course for everyone else was lentils with potatoes and some sort of meat (probably ham). We got lamb chops and sautéed potatoes. Louis lustily looked at our food. To give everyone a break, we headed back and took a shower before going to bed. When your own odor offends yourself, you are definitely past due for a hosing off. Apparently, Pam is fine with her smell, because she didn’t shower reasoning that she had just 3 days ago. I was beyond the age of Roquefort and needed a good dowsing–maybe my 3 for 1s aren’t as effective as I like to think.

We finally found the ultimate question to go with the ultimate answer of “42”–On what day will Pam and Curtis begin the second half of the GR10? Only Douglas Adams fans (of which my editor Pam is not one) will understand, but trust me, this is hilarious.

We could smell the coffee brewing at 6, so even though we had said we didn’t want breakfast until 8, we were awake. Pam took a shower while I tried to ignore the smells coming from downstairs. Eric was still there while we were eating our breakfast, so he and I started talking a bit about gear. Bottom line, we didn’t get on the trail until 10.

Fred is getting a bit frustrated with our late starts and frequent stops because he is a very goal oriented person. If the guidebook says 2 hours and 10 minutes, he will do his best to meet or beat that time. We just double it and have another cup of coffee. When we got to Melles (almost 3 miles of easy walking), we found a restaurant willing to make us some coffee…

Can you believe we climbed 4400′ today and didn’t whine at all? I don’t either because there was some whining near the end when the rains started. For the most part, all three of us were dragging a bit today. It took a constant effort to keep lifting our feet and moving upward and onward. It didn’t help that we were back on a part of the trail where the designers don’t believe in using switchbacks. I noticed that I am making noises like my grandfather used to make when he was straining.

To pass the time and distract us from the effort required, Fred and I started talking politics. Who are the most passionate people in the world about politics? Probably the French. Who is the most annoying and prodding person you know? That’s right, Brad Butler, but who is second? Like Brad, if I get a soft spot, I keep pushing. There are two things I was hoping to change about myself on this journey of ours: 1) to gain patience, and 2) to learn to keep my mouth shut (even occasionally). I’m pretty sure that Pam will back me up on this one–I haven’t improved on either count.

My trail name is “Easily Forgotten” unless you spend some time with me and then 99.999% of people agree that it really should be “Best Forgotten.” Fred has been a great asset for us these past six days acting as interpreter and guide. He has taught us many things about France and the politics of the country. For the most part, we agree politically. Except for Kujo, I don’t think I’ve discussed as many issues with a person as I have with Fred. We did agree to drop politics from our trail discussions.

As I said earlier, the rains did start again around 3. A group of French hikers in their twenties had passed us up and said they were planning on staying at the same Cabane. As we were approaching the plateau where the cabin is, two of the guys came back down and said they were climbing down to get some wood to build a fire but we were only about 30 minutes from the cabin. The fog was coming in waves again and we were afraid we might pass the cabin. The wave receded and we heard voices behind us. We had passed the cabin, but not by much.

The cabin sleeps 9 and there were 5 in the younger group. Pam and I decided it was best to set up our tent and not take 2 spots because it was so early. We are in France and the cabin was built by the French with French dollars. If some more French people came in later and they couldn’t fit inside because of a couple of Americans were inside; I don’t think this would be a good situation. This is probably just me over analyzing as, I hear, I tend to do, but we set up the tent.

While we were setting it up, two more groups came up to the cabin–one French and one Belgium. I’m not sure where the other French group ended up, but the Belgiums felt like we did and set their tent up next to ours. In between rains, I got water, made hot tea, and cooked supper while my lovely wife laid in the tent trying to get warm. There were two fireplaces in the cabin and the young people had built fires in both. I hung up some of my wet clothes to dry and put our boots inside so they might dry out over night.

I also cooked our supper inside and talked with them while I was waiting for the water to boil. I could hear them working together to figure out some English words and then the guy with the best English in the group started a conversation with me. The French are incredibly friendly and try to make us feel welcome at all times. I am continually amazed by the friendliness of the people here. When I told them of our 5 year plan, they were all amazed that a couple of old people would be so adventurous.

I took our hot tea and three soup mix back to the tent to entice Pam to eat. It was just what the doctor ordered, but the Snickers for dessert was still her favorite part of the meal. We didn’t leave the tent again except for the necessary water releases through the night.

We finally made the half way point of the GR10. Would you believe we thought we could do this trail in just 6 weeks? Looks like we have one hell of a day in store for us tomorrow–283 miles on the GR10.

I am so thankful we broke this day into two. Even with climbing 2300′ yesterday, we still had 2600′ to climb today with over a mile to descend into Fos. If it hadn’t been for Fred pushing us on, we would have stopped about 5 miles sooner at the first Cabane we came to on the down side from the pass.

The climb up this morning was kind of a surprise to us for two reasons: 1) it was actually a steady incline with switchbacks, and 2) we made the stages in the times estimated in the French edition of the guidebook–we are getting close to hiking like the French (except I don’t ever see us running on the trail–up or down).

We stopped for lunch just before our first pass of the day. Initially, I was going to filter a liter of water and make a sports drink, but the weather quickly turned cold and foggy (surprise, we’re coming to a pass and it gets foggy). Instead, I boiled water for hot tea for all three of us. Before we finished lunch, the temperature had dropped below 40F and it started to rain. An older couple came to where we were eating with the intention of climbing to the frontier, but when the rain started, they turned around and went back down.

The rain stayed with us all day until just before we got into Fos. The guidebook told us we were going to be spending a few miles on the frontier–I had visions of wide open spaces that had cowboys and Indians firing at us. It was probably just as well that we had fog so we wouldn’t be targeted. I was a little disappointed when Fred told us frontier is just the French word for border.

Two miles into our downhill we came to our first cabane. My feet were soaked and I was feeling hot spots develop on my feet so I gladly went in. There were candles and a fireplace inside (as well as bugs and evidence of mice, so don’t get too romantic of a picture). I lit the candles to try and warm the place us while I took off my boots and socks. It was so cold that my feet were steaming when I took off my boots.

I wanted to stay here for the night but Pam and Fred both voted to move on. I was going to pull rank when I remembered I was just a defeated husband, so I wrung out my socks and soldiered on. It’s not too often Pam wants to go further than I do, so I had better seize the day. Fred kept saying it was only 3 1/2 hours down–I knew better.

One of the hazards of hiking is having a song get stuck in your head. This happens to me almost daily. Today, it started out with the theme from F-Troop, but when the rains kept coming and we were slipping and sliding down the trail, it was replaced by Paul Simon’s “Slip Sliding Away.” It’s miserable having a mind that can’t be controlled or shut off.

5 hours later we strolled into Fos. Fred had managed to get us reservations at the local gite d’etape (I honestly don’t know the difference between gites, refuges, auberges, and cabanes). We got there right at 7:30, the time that supper is normally served. We looked in and saw Louis from last night already inside.

As we were taking off our soaked boots, an English family came up the street to the gite. We quickly dropped all our stuff in our room and came back down for dinner. Tonight was rare for us, 6 English speakers and only 4 French. One of the French was Eric Chaigneau, the creator of www.gr10.fr, one of the websites we used when planning our trip here.

Fred has been pulling double duty the last few days acting as interpreter and guide for us. What a stroke of luck we had meeting him in Germ. After dinner, Eric made a podcast recording for his website and interviewed us about why we were hiking the GR10. The podcast should be available sometime after September. Who would have thought my first interview would have international reach.

Maybe it was too much sleep. Maybe it was not enough sleep. Maybe it was too many miles yesterday. Maybe it was lack of coffee this morning. Maybe it was the late start we got (noon–I hear Pete slapping his forehead). Maybe it was the foggy day. Or, maybe it’s the extra 15 pounds of food we are carrying. Whatever it was, we couldn’t get into a hiking rhythm today.

Fred woke up at 6:30 and was eager to go. Pam feined sleep because it was still raining. I was laying under my quilt trying to upload pictures. I could tell Fred was going to get upset with us today because Pam had made the comment when we went to bed that since checkout was at noon, we weren’t starting until noon. I didn’t argue. I’m not a wise man that knows to keep his mouth shut; I’m a defeated man that knows my input is not needed with a comment like that.

We had hung all our clothes on the fence to dry last night–the rain over night kind of defeated the point. I went up to the front of the campground to see if they had any dryers. Bingo, two of them. The problem: they only operate on tokens which we can’t buy until the office opens at 9.

We dried the clothes, shopped, ate breakfast, blogged, said goodbye to a frustrated Fred and made plans to catch up at the Cabane de Sauneres before the pass. Fred has a funny quirk–he quotes the walking times in the books to us like we can match them. We just laugh and double them. He actually thinks we can keep pace with the book. I looked at the French version of the quidebook and I’ll be damned if we aren’t getting closer to the times listed.

Fred took off which freed Pam to follow her original schedule which she did. We were all packed up and headed out at 12:05. We had three villages to go to before the climbing got tough, so we were determined to find a cup of cafe-au-lait. The short answer, we didn’t.

The first town was still on the valley floor so we had no problem keeping pace with the book. The next village, Sode, was 1000′ up in just a little more than 1/2 mile of trail. The book says one hour. We shook our heads at the book and said two. We got there in one and a half. We thought the coffee there would help us get going. There wasn’t any so it didn’t help.

We took a break on a shelf over looking the valley and where we had camped last night. There weren’t nearly as many people out today. In fact, we only saw 5 other hikers all day–Elke wasn’t one of them so I had no incentive to hit the trail hard.

We got to Artigue just past 4 (twice what the guidebook said it would take us–thank you very much). We needed a break and coffee if we were going to catch up with Fred. We spent 1/2 hour walking around town looking for a cafe and bickering because we couldn’t find one and we were both weighed down by our packs. We finally just decided to eat on the side of a street at the only place we could find a seat, next to a transformer.

While we were eating our lunch and gently arguing, Fred appeared. We were shocked and relieved. If he was still here, we didn’t have to push on another 4 hours to try to catch up. He had gotten a bad headache and decided to stop after the climb up. His only concern was if he would have enough food to extend an extra day to Fos. Looked like we had a solution to both of our problems. We will be able to get some meals at gites along the way so we can share food with Fred and reduce our loads.

We went to the municipal gite where Fred was staying (just the other side of the transformer). Pam was in a hurry to get settled in since it was raining. We ended up with the third room that sleeps 10–we are the only ones in it. We played cards with Fred for a bit until we all decided to take a nap. Around 7, I got up to start supper (gourmet mac n cheese with tomato sauce) when the owner showed up to collect the fee for the night; 12 euros per person–we’re talking Spain prices now.

It was still raining when we went to bed. Hopefully the fog will lift and the rain will stop tomorrow, but I’m not real hopeful according to what the guardian at the Refuge d’Espingo told us a couple days ago. Looks like we are going to have to face the rain. At least our packs are starting to get lighter.