Day 39–Monday, August 7. Bagneres de Luchon (11 miles)

It may not have rained water last night, but it was raining men. Not too long after we went to bed, we heard a tremendous crash all around us. Pam buried herself under me, I knew she thought the sleeping platform was coming down on us. After the noise settled, I jumped up and turned on the lights–there on the floor was a man lying with his blanket and pillow on him and all of Pam’s items out of her basket.

He moaned a little and got up rubbing his head. He wouldn’t speak to anyone, he just left the room. We picked up all of Pam’s things and put them back in her basket on the shelf. We never did find out if he rolled out of bed on the second level (5′ off the floor) or if he fell off the ladder climbing down to go to the bathroom. He was gone for a long time before he returned.

Why is it that there is always one loud snorer in a room full of people? And why is it that he is always the first and fastest to fall asleep? Pam and Fred both had ear plugs so it didn’t bother them much, but I didn’t get a lot of sleep thanks to the buzz-saw.

Let me give a synopsis of the hiking day and then I’ll fill in the details later: I always like to find someone that I think I can keep up with if we come upon a group. When we left the Refuge, I spotted the young woman that I was going to pace myself on today. She was sitting on the side of the trail clearly annoyed at having to wait–she wanted to get going. She was carrying a pack that, by outward appearance, looked like a similar percentage of body weight to what I was carrying.

As she came to the first pass, we made eye contact. Pam, Fred, and I were taking a break. I could see the fire in her eyes. I knew that we were now in a hiking competition, to the death if necessary. She passed us, but her group stopped ahead long enough for us to pass them. We stopped and talked and I found out her name was Elke. We took off while they were still snacking. I could feel her eyes burning holes in the back of my head. I looked back and saw her glaring at me. This was getting real.

We leapfrogged back and forth over the next two passes. If became apparent that the contest was the first to the ski town up ahead. Plus, she was playing dirty, trying to distract us from walking and then would zoom ahead. When we came over the third pass, the trail had been rerouted with a huge drop and climb that wasn’t on any of our maps. I looked at her face and she was clearly defeated. We ran on by her to see her with her head hanging–she knew I had won.

As we got closer to the ski town, we kept running into a tour group that was slowing us down. Fred could sense my urgency so he blew on by them. When we got to the top of the ski slopes, I turned to see Elke was only a few hundred meters behind me. We turned it on as we headed down to the village, but she had a burst of energy seeing that she was so close to winning. In the end, it was Pam who slowed us down with her aching feet and hips. Elke passed us and beat us into town by less than 20 meters. Here’s a word of warning for you, Elke: if I see you on the trail again, “no holds barred.” I’m coming after you with everything I’ve got. That was the toughest little 9 year old girl I’ve ever met.

As we came out of the refuge after breakfast, I offered to take a photo of a family from the Netherlands. We started talking a bit and said we see each other down the trail. I didn’t think we would because we tend to hike so slow. They took off while we were still packing up.

As we came down from the lake to get back on the GR10–we saw the mother and daughter waiting on the trail; the boys had gone down the wrong trail and the dad dropped his pack to chase them down. The little girl kept pacing ahead with her mom trying to slow her down–she wanted to get her hike on.

We took our time climbing the first pass; an almost 1800′ gain. We took lots of pictures of the lakes, mountains, and even a helicopter running supplies up to the refuge we had stayed at last night. The boys passed us before the top. They look to be teenagers and in pretty good shape. Fred and I fell behind Pam a bit because we were talking. When we got to the top, we took our first break.

The parents and the little girl caught up with us while we were eating. The girl and I pretended to play airplane in the wind but she clearly was just trying to make me think she was an innocent little girl–I wasn’t buying the charade.

When we passed them again, she pretended to be interested in butterflies fluttering around my pack–she was diabolical. We stopped and talked for a bit before heading on. I looked back and she was ready to go. I told Pam to trip her the next time they try to pass us. Pam was no help. She only said I’m not getting involved in any of your testosterone games. What testosterone? She’s a 9 year old girl and I’m a 53 year old man–there’s no testosterone around this contest.

When we got to the third pass of the day, we started running into lots of people hiking up from the ski area. The people were very friendly and talkative to us today. There aren’t usually a lot of Americans in this part of the Pyrenees so they were interested in our hike. When we dropped down from the third pass, which was supposed to be our last climb for the day, we lost the trail at one junction because of a rerouting. I found the trail, but saw we had another huge drop and climb which none of us knew about. I passed Elke and her mom, Elaine, and they were both looking a little dejected. Elke was on the point of giving up.

We all kept going, but we lost sight of the Netherlands family. We got behind a group that kept stopping and talking. We’d pass them, then 10 minutes later, they’d all pass us again. It got old in a hurry. Fred pushed on by them and made them walk around him rather that step aside. They got the point and kept going then. Except, the delay allowed the Netherlands family to catch up with us again.

We were tired of this part of the trail by now and just wanted to get to Super Bagneres and take a break. When the whole family caught up with us, the dad, Peter, started playing dirty. He told Elke he’d buy her ice cream before they took the ski lift down. This sounds like doping to me which I thought was illegal in international competitions, but this was just the ticket Elke needed to run ahead of her two brothers, Lars and Tim.

After a couple of cokes, some French Fries, and a couple scoops of ice cream, I was ready for the final 4000′ drop into Bagneres-de-Luchon. The guidebook said it was going to be steeper than the 1300′ we had already dropped into the ski village. It was steep, but it was in a forest with lots of switchbacks. It was really a very pleasant walk. It only took us 2 & 1/2 hours to do what the book said would take 2 hours. We even got a nice surprise of a picnic table half way down where we could sit and take a break.

When we got to town, we had to find the campground where we were meeting Fred. Unfortunately, it was another 2 miles north of town. When we got there, we were in no mood to cook and saw a hamburger stand right inside of the camping area. We set up the tent then I jumped in the pool for my 3 for 1.

I went back up for our food and we had a picnic supper with Fred. He was eating healthy, organic foods while we were eating like typical Americans–hamburger, fries, and a Coke. I don’t know how stereotypes get started..