The top 10 things Pam says when editing the blog posts:
10) Leave my bathroom habits out of the blog–nobody needs to know I fart other than you.
9) I didn’t say that.
8) Little kids read this blog, you know.
7) You can’t say that.
6) I guess we should rename the blog “Pick on Pam”
5) I don’t get it.
4) I get it, but it’s not funny.
3) Do you love me?
2) Ha ha ha, you mis-spelled a word.
1) I don’t poop in Wal-Mart parking lots.
And to all these, I answer “It’s a joke, Pam” other than the pooping in Wal-Mart. The cop with the soiled bumper wasn’t laughing.
We slept in the loft of the cabane last night with the trap door down to provide a second layer of protection in case a bear broke in. There are 39 bears in the Pyrenees which cover roughly 10,000 square miles making the bear density less than 1 in more than 250 square miles–even Australia has a higher population density than that.
We did manage to collect enough drops of water to have coffee for both of us and still have a half liter each to carry over the pass. We only had frosted flake bars for breakfast; 3 between us. Talk about empty calories, I had used these all up before we even climbed 50′ above the cabin.
It was only a little over a thousand feet to the pass and there was another cabin there. By the time we reached the pass, the sun had risen far enough that we were no longer hiking in mountain shadow. I headed straight for the cabin and made some lunch–cheese, crackers, olives, sausage, and pick-ups for dessert. The wraps last night and the frosted flake bars this morning just didn’t place a dent in our hiker appetites. We both could have eaten more, but there was a refuge in less than 3 miles, so we figured we’d grab some more food there.
Having forgotten it was Sunday, we were surprised by the number of hikers already up at the pass. We had started hiking right at 9 (a near record for the last 2 weeks). There were already between 10 to 20 people wandering around the pass when we got there a little before 10. It was another beautiful clear day.
There was another cabin about as far down as we had climbed up this morning. We had considered going there last night, and would have, if it hadn’t already been past 6:30 when we got to Besset. After mingling with some cows for a bit, we stopped at the cabin and split a liter of sports drink between us before heading down to the refuge.
Refuge isn’t quite the right term for this place. It was very classy and nice. Pam and I were the only two hikers eating in the gastronomic restaurant. We couldn’t get a “meal” because we hadn’t made reservations, but they agreed to serve us a salad. I don’t know, nor do I want to know, everything I ate. I know there was pork pate, and some crunchy nuggets. Pam kept trying to figure out what they were, but I insisted she just call them “croutons” so I could eat them (I’m squeamish with new foods; especially meats). We tried to order some dessert but they told us we would have to wait until everyone else finished eating to see what was available, or have ice cream–duh.
All in all, we had a two hour lunch break before beginning our afternoon climb. We weren’t too thrilled with the prospect of a 2400′ climb which is why we took such a long break. It was another surprisingly nice section of trail climbing up to the source of Muscadet River. After 1500′ of climbing, we left the river and got an overlook of the valley and saw the waterfalls feeding the river. By accident, we are actually staying above those falls tonight.
The clouds started rolling in while we still had 500′ to go to the pass. They were dark clouds, but I tried to pretend I wasn’t concerned. Pam heard thunder and then we went to Defcon 4. We quickly scrapped our plans to going to Estaing d’Ayes (a popular lake at about 6000′ elevation) to head to the nearest Cabane we could find. We were only 1/2 mile from the one we are now in. Pam flew down the trail. She’s been doing great the last few days, but this is the fastest she has hiked since I’ve known her.
Heading in, we had mountains towering over us in all directions, but she was still worried about being too tall of objects for the storm (which wasn’t even in our valley). We figured we had enough water to eat tonight since we had filled up at lunch (no Nutella tonight!) but there was a great water trough outside the cabin and the cabin, itself, was even nicer than last night.
We’re all bundled up with mixed expectations for the night. Pam wants a quiet storm free night, but I want a nice thunderstorm to justify the change in plans. It’s leaning towards Pam’s wish as we head to bed.
