What a difference a true rest day makes in our physical ability (plus a little sunshine to uplift our spirits). We did our largest single day’s climb today–just 85′ shy of a mile vertical gain. The other two times we were supposed to gain this much, we ended up breaking those days into two. By gosh, we are getting stronger. Pam was a trooper and kept up all day and even led a good portion. She attributes it to rest and sleep, but I know it was the food. She is listening to her body and eating more while still losing weight.
Breakfast was at 8 in Maison Camelat. There were two other French women there last night so we all ate together. Denis and Marianne tried very hard to act as interpreters for us, but we just feel so stupid and rude not speaking any French. I suppose it’s a good thing that makes me keep my mouth shut at the table. In the course of breakfast conversation, they found out about our 5-7 (6-10) year plan to hike and see the world. All 4 were full of questions and supportive of us.
All in all, we got an early start for us–9a. We stopped at the bakery on the way out of town to grab a couple of pastries for a second breakfast down the trail. We also grabbed another baguette just because the woman behind the counter was so friendly.
I need to make a point here about the French. A lot of Americans believe that the French don’t like us and are rude to Americans. That’s not true at all. I have only met one French woman who was rude to me and we have been in France nearly a month. Do you honestly believe that a French person visiting the US would have that few bad encounters with Americans, or that Americans would try to make them feel at home by speaking French? Bottom line is that we are somewhat arrogant in our expectations that the French should speak English to us–we are being rude by not trying to speak their language to them in their own country. I’ll step off my soapbox now.
The first 3 miles of trail were a somewhat gentle rise of 800′ followed by a gentle decline of 600′ into the village of Estaing where we found a very nice campground with a cafe and shop. We stopped for a cafe-aulait to wash down the pastries we had bought in Arrens.
The next 3 miles were an even more pleasant climb of 600′ up to Lac d’Estaing. The trail followed a nice mountain stream all the way up to the lake. When we got there, we decided it was time to cool our feet off in the lake. Since the lake is filled by melting snow, it didn’t take long to turn our feet blue.
The remainder of our climb was actually one long climb from the lake to the Col d’Ilheou–a 3800′ continuos rise over a little less than 4 miles. It only took us about 600′ of gain after the lake to realize we were running low on fuel. It had been a pleasant walk (albeit steep) in a pine forest. We stopped to eat when we saw we were about to emerge from the forest. Another gourmet lunch prepared by moi for Pam.
Emerging from the forest after lunch, we noticed some dark clouds coming up from behind us and the pass ahead had some ominous looking clouds as well. We kept cautiously advancing, reevaluating if the clouds looked like they might storm on us. There had been a 60% chance of rain predicted for today, but we couldn’t remember if it included thunderstorms.
Around the 6000′ elevation point, we came to a couple of shepherd cabins. We stopped for a break and I went to filter some water from a stream only about 1/4 mile away. I went by the cabins and found that one was unlocked–we had another option. I brought some water back for Pam to filter because she should be getting low as well.
We discussed it for a little bit, and decided we wanted to push on over the pass so we wouldn’t have the climb hanging over us in the morning. We haven’t been having a lot of luck with views at passes the last week or so, and it looked like that trend was going to continue for us today as well. We still had about 1400′ to climb and the clouds seemed to be backing off a bit, so we might get a view.
About half way up, we ran into a French family that was obviously looking for something. We talked to them for a bit and found out that the youngest girl had lost her camera somewhere along the trail and they were walking back and forth looking for it. We told them if we found it, we would turn it in at the refuge on the other side of the pass–try calling there tomorrow. Not 10 minutes after we parted, we heard shouts from below; they had found it. That was kind of a relief for us, now we could just concentrate on trying to breathe.
Real close to the top, we could see blue skies over the pass, but we were still a couple hundred feet down and clouds were climbing up behind us. This is when we met Elizabeth and Stefan from Austria. They started in Cauterets (where we are heading tomorrow) a few days ago and have been taking some other trails in the area. We talked a bit until we all started getting cold. While we were talking, the blue skies disappeared and we were walking in fog yet again.
Today has actually been an ideal hiking day for us. The trail hasn’t been so rocky that we have to watch our every step. The sun has been shining, but not unbearably hot. There have been some clouds in the sky above us, but not threatening ones. The threatening clouds have been hanging around the mountain tops and have been pretty stationary until the last few minutes, but we are almost over the pass, so, no problem.
The only let down for us today was that the pass wasn’t marked. We got there and had sun, but didn’t realize we were there. We could see people ahead and higher, so we figured they were at the pass. It turned out that they were descending from a peak. By the time we discovered that, we were already descending and the clouds were closing in.
We wanted to get close to the refuge, but the clouds were getting thicker and visibility was down to a couple hundred feet. We’ve seen this scenario too often on this trip. We would keep heading towards the refuge, but if we found a flat spot near water, we would stop and camp.
We found a good spot just as it started getting cold and visibility was getting worse. While we were setting up camp, the 3 people we saw coming down from the peak passed us up heading to the refuge. While we were eating, they came back and said they couldn’t find it. They tried twice more to find it: once by following the creek down (they couldn’t follow the trail in the fog–visibility was down to about 10′), then we looked at the maps and thought we were below it. They tried going up but ultimately came back and camped beside us.
They are 3 young people from Paris. They were short on water and food but wouldn’t accept either from us. We will all find the refuge tomorrow and they can get more supplies there. A lot of people tell me I’m carrying too much, but we’ve been caught twice on this trip with almost no provisions left which cuts down on our options–its not going to happen a third time to us. I will not be caught without a Snickers Bar or M&Ms again–I know my priorities.
