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.
