Day 30–Saturday, July 29. Sers (10 miles)

Another reason I don’t like the author of our guidebook–he tells us we’re going to have an easy day and then all the BS we went through this afternoon, but I’m getting ahead of myself…

The campground was actually the most level spot we have had all trip; and the best night’s sleep in the tent for me (except for when Pam changes position–she makes sure to let me know she’s uncomfortable). We got woke up at 6:30 compliments of our neighbors who were going on a day hike. Since they had the most elaborate setup, they felt their plans outweighed everyone else’s desire to sleep. We did try to go back to sleep for a bit but ended up getting up before 7:30–another early day for us.

We were on the trail by 9:20 after saying our goodbyes to the staff. They work their butts off at this campground, and it shows. These two women were there when we went to bed and there when we got up. They made sure everything was great for us.

We had two choices for walking into Luz: a 40 minute road walk (boring) or a 5 mile walk through the woods that took us well past town before nosediving into the center of town. We chose the longer route and were very glad we did.

The trail was a very pleasant walk in the woods and almost all a gentle downhill/. The reason it went so far past town was to show us a really interesting waterfall, and to take us over a bridge that Napoleon visited and dedicated as a monument in 1863. It was hundreds of feet above the river and is a remarkable engineering work for its time.

From Napoleon’s bridge, we followed his promenade route all the way into town. There is a fortified Knight’s Templar church in the middle of town. Luz used to be a major pilgrim route for St James. There is still a pilgrim route through the town, but it’s not one of the most popular routes.

We got into town around noon, so rather than eat some of the weight off my back, we decided to get a burger and fries–I’m always fine with getting more protein when it’s available. By the time we got done with lunch it was almost 2p and really hot. The consensus was we didn’t want to walk in the heat, so we killed a few more hours in town at the visitor’s center, grocery shopping (I guess there’s always room for a few more pounds on my shoulders), and locating ice cream.

We retraced our steps back to the edge of town and proceeded to climb the steep trail out of town that is the GR10. After climbing about 650m (at least that’s what it felt like, it was probably only about 150′) we got an unexpected notice–the GR10 is closed for 4 months because of logging. Take the alternate route through Luz town center. They could have posted this notice down below where the trail decision point is made rather than 1/2 mile uphill from the decision point. We had to retrace our steps–I was livid.

Since we entered the valley containing Cauterets, the markings on the trail have had some piss poor implementations. Coming through the abandoned ski area yesterday, they were almost nonexistent. Even today, on the way into town, there were several points of confusion. The guidebook isn’t really much help in these instances because the maps aren’t to scale (another reason to dislike the author–plus a few wise cracks about no need to carry a tent on the GR10, you can always tell who is carrying camping gear because they walk at a snail’s pace).

Back to the visitor’s center to get updated trail info. They were very friendly and helpful, but couldn’t grasp what I was saying about post the closure lower to help prevent people from having to backtrack. The reroute involved a couple of K of road walking. This is where I discovered France has its own version of rednecks. Several cars drove by with people yelling derogatory remarks to us (at least I assumed they were derogatory since they drove by at 50 mph and Americans would yell trash to hikers on the highway in similar circumstances).

By the time we made it through the second village on the reroute, I was trashed. I couldn’t walk more than 10 steps without stopping to catch my breath and wiping the sweat off my face–this is where Pam became hike leader. She talked me back down from my rage (which was only growing in the heat) and kept us moving forward. We decided to look for accommodations, but there weren’t any vacancies because of the weekend.

This is the first time we both vocalized our discontent with the trail and talked about quitting this one. We now know why so few people actually thru-hike this trail every year (less than 100/year), this trail is not designed for thru-hiking. The guidebook is really a series of 50 day hikes. It’s a great trail for section hiking–but climbing up and down 4000′ every day gets old. Take us up and let us stay up a few days.

By the time we got to Sers, we had given up trying to find a level spot for camping. We were resigned to a gite–except they were all full here as well. After trying to find a place in town, or above town, or after town, we just gave up and decided we were going to camp illegally on someone’s property and hope to not get caught.

We found a spot next to a barn heading into town. We are on the backside facing the valley where people in town can’t see us. It’s really a nice spot. I had to walk into town to get water and we’ll head through town again in the morning to leave a load in their WC to express our thoughts on the welcome and help we received.

Since we both have broached the subject of quitting this trail, there will be more discussions in the following days. This trail is wearing on us physically and mentally. We won’t make a final decision until we are at least halfway done in a few more days. I hate to quit, but this trail design has gotten to the point where we are no longer having fun and are just dreading each day.