Day 36–Friday, August 4. Germ (8.5 miles)

This is not a good place to hang out if you are a germaphobe–but it is a pleasant surprise for us to be here. We kept pace with the guidebook today since it was a relatively easy day–2500′ up, 2200′ down, and 1500′ up over an easy 8 mile stretch.

But this was a momentous day for us for an unrelated reason to hiking a full itinerary day (we actually have done this several times already on this trail). Today, we passed the 1000 miles of official trail hiking. We have actually hiked many more miles than that, but we have “officially” carried full back packs for 1000 miles of trail–186 miles on the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path in Wales, 575 miles on the Camino Francais from St Jean to Santiago to Muxia to Fisterra, and 246 on the GR10 for 1007 miles so far.

But more impressive than hiking 1000 miles was that Pam did not complain even once today. Granted, she didn’t talk much because she’s mad at me, but silence is silence and a day without complaints is a milestone.

We got up at 7:28 because we had breakfast at 7:30 (we don’t like to wait until the last minute to do things). It’s become apparent to me that my wife had a little clepto streak in her–she regularly steals toilet paper wherever we go. This morning, she stole some honey, a nectarine, and some jelly for the peanut butter (I actually placed the jelly in front of her, but it was her pockets that were stuffed). I drew the line when she tried to steal the salt and pepper last night, but she’s working out a plan to fill pill packets to pull off this caper.

Since we had them, we decided to take another shower before hitting the trail. We got going at about 9:15. By 9:30, it was no longer apparent that we had showered within the last week. Today was one of the hotter days we had hiked. I was sweating like a stuck pig (whatever a stuck pig is; I’m not even sure if pigs sweat).

As we were climbing out of the second town we went through in the valley, I found a hat on the side of the trail. I was just going to hang it on a fence post but Pam said we should carry it with us. Someone ahead of us must have dropped it and they would definitely want it today. Not even 10 minutes later, we met a Belgium man walking our direction stopped to talk to some hikers that had just passed us (it’s was a steep uphill and our packs our heavy, so of course we’re going to get passed). When we approached them, we asked if anyone had lost a hat. The Belgium man had backtracked for 30 minutes trying to find it. Needless to say, he really wanted his hat back–if I drop something and it falls behind Pam on the trail, I consider it gone and enjoy the reduced pack weight. He was very thankful and walked with us for a few minutes until he realized how slow we go. He had started the trail July 4, just a few days after us, but he had taken a week off because of bad feet. He wants to get half way by this weekend and then complete the hike next year.

The trail wasn’t bad today, just a tad steep in places (mainly the uphill and downhill sections from beginning to end), but other than that, very pleasant walking. Our estimation of doubling the guidebook estimated times seems to working out for us. But remember, we take lots of breaks, stop in bars for drinks (cokes only on the trail), take lots of pictures, and soak feet in suitable streams or lakes. We checked our actual walking time on our in reach and it was just 5 hours and 15 minutes compared to the book estimate of 4 hours and 30 minutes. Our trip time, however, was almost 10 hours. If only we didn’t need to breath while walking, we could go much faster.

Nearing the Courbet de Latuhe (the pass we had to go over today) we saw a group of French people hanging out on a small deck behind a cabin having a party. The trail was directly above them, so we couldn’t help but observe and hear them. They had several musical instruments and lots of food. It was going to be a great time when it got started. The only person playing was the upright bass player. He had a nice line going that stuck in my head for the rest of the climb to the pass.

At the pass, we nearly got run off of the road by a fire truck and ambulance. A few minutes later, a helicopter started circling. We could see a lot of paragliders overhead and thought maybe someone had crashed into the mountain. But after two vans carrying more passengers passed us unconcerned, we figured maybe some non-French person must have had a heart attack while climbing. We hope whatever happened, everyone is alright.

Paragliding–the sport that proved to me I don’t need to consume alcohol to get dry heaves. When I was in Nepal, I thought this would be a great experience for me. I knew that I was afraid of heights then, just not how terrified I really am. Running off of the side of a mountain is not a normal gesture for me, but when we got airborne, I white-knuckled the harness the entire time. My French guide tried to get me to let go and look around. When I looked down, I started dry heaving. He said don’t throw up while we are over people’s houses. (That would be a terrible feeling to be sitting quietly by your pool and then get drenched in vomit from above. I’m sure that would be a major religious experience to have god throw up on you, but major life changes would surely follow). By the time we landed, I had no strength in my legs and collapsed like a noodle. Seeing the gliders brought back lots of fond memories.

The way down to town was much easier than we were anticipating. The trail builders in this area have successful installed switchbacks. At every turning point, though, are two trails–the switchback and a trail runnning straight down. The French hiker does not like switchbacks! Why increase the distance you have to travel when you can run straight up or down. They won’t use them. If you encounter a person on a switchback, they are not French. It’s a good way to pick out fellow foreigners on the trail.

Another way to tell if someone is not French is if they are carrying a bike up a trail. We met a man coming up doing just that. Where we met him, the trail was actually not too steep. We told him he might want to reconsider climbing if he’s already carrying his bike because the trail gets pretty steep (even with switchbacks). He was a Dutch man. We talked about the competitiveness of the French and their remarkable physical training. When we left him, I think he didn’t believe us about the trail. 10 minutes later, he passed us riding his bike back down.

In the bottom of this valley was another charming mountain village–Loudenvielle. This was a hoppping little place. They are having a music festival starting tonight. Tonight’s line up include 4 former contestants from “The Voice” (a show I was forced to watch once for an entire season). We stopped for ice cream and cold drinks before beginning our final ascent into Germ.

It’s only 2K to Germ, how hard can it be? Pretty damn hard. We climbed 1500′ in a mile and a quarter. Fortunately, there was plenty of shade to cool off in on the way up. When we got to the top, we heard music–very religious sounding music. We checked to make sure we both hadn’t had heart attacks and died. As we got closer to the church, the music got louder. We saw people sitting outside listening so we felt much better knowing we were still alive and had arrived in Germ.

The gite in town allows bivouacs and has a swimming pool. We set up the tent and jumped in the pool to do our 3 for 1 (cool off, laundry, and bathe simultaneously). Within 5 minutes of us jumping in, we had the pool to ourselves–everyone was so considerate and could see we needed some alone time.

Why is my pack so heavy? From going grocery shopping on an empty stomach. With all the food we are carrying, what do we do for supper–go to the bistro right next to the gite. The food was fantastic. We were just going to check, but when I saw curry on the menu, we were staying for food and beer.

There was live music at 10, but there was no way we could stay awake that late on a hiking night. We went to bed right after eating and it was already 9. When the music started, Pam woke up to put in her ear plugs–too much bass. I was actually relieved that I could finally replace the riff I heard on the way up to the pass with something new.