Day 50–Friday, August 18. Rouze (10 miles)

Does anyone remember the song “Send in the Clowns?” I woke up at 3a thinking of that song in a slightly different way–“Send in the cows. There ought to be cows. Don’t bother, they’re here.” I guess the herd had moved back into our camping area through the course of the night. The cow bells must have triggered my subconscious song writing skills.

We had a bit of a breeze through the night. There was a steady blow of about 20 mph with gusts up to 40. After the night in Vielle-Aure, I was a little worried about the tent blowing down, but we were able to get tent stakes securely in the ground, so no problem. That is, no problem with the tent blowing down, but the gusts managed to break one of the door clips. Pam remained amazingly calm through the night even if she didn’t sleep any.

I guess I should point out that our number one priority (after finishing the trail) is to see a bear. To that ends, I have made a few changes in the way we camp that we wouldn’t necessarily do in the USA. Change number 1–we regularly eat in the tent. I encourage Pam to be as messy as possible and tell her I will clean up later (and then I don’t). Change number 2–I bought Pam new deodorant. I had to look long and hard to find pepperoni scented deodorant, but thanks to Amazon, all things are possible. Change number 3–Pam insisted we buy honey “for her peanut butter wraps.” She seems surprised at the amount of honey we go through on a daily basis, but I am spreading it around, and on, our tent every night. I hope the Yogi persona of bears is correct. With these additional efforts, I am confident we will see a bear very soon.

When we got out of our tent, Peter and Alaina already had their tent packed up and were eating breakfast. I brewed us some coffee and took our blueberry “cookies” over and we all ate together. Since we are a little tired of the bread and jam French breakfast, we are willing to try anything new. The blueberry things came six to a package which Pam and I split. I think I could have eaten two packages by myself.

We still managed to get out of camp before Peter and Alaina. We owe their delayed start to some rather aggressive horses that took a strong interest in Alaina. I may have accidentally spilled some honey on her pack while I was establishing our perimeter last night. Whatever happened, we were able to get up and over the pass before they caught up with us. After our break, we didn’t see them the rest of the walking day except as a distant silhouette.

The climb to the first pass wasn’t that bad. We were expecting a 1000′ climb which turned out to be 1500′. We handled it without any whining. As least that’s what I think happened. Pam was a little behind me and out of earshot, so I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt here.

After we went over our second pass for the day, the clouds started coming in. Maybe there is something to this idea of Pete’s to get up early and cover the high ground early. For a Canadian, I’m impressed with some of his ideas–but free universal healthcare? Come on. Isn’t it cheaper and more efficient to let our poor die just like all the other industrialized nations in the world? What? That only happens in the third world and the US? Rubbish. Who needs facts? America is great again after just 7 months!

We passed through several small villages, but I’m not going to name any of them because there wasn’t a single cafe in any of them. Do all these people actually cook at home for themselves?

As most good days on the GR10 do, our day ended with a climb into Rouze. It was only 800′, but the trail designers like to remind you who is in charge here. Just to accentuate the point, it started to mist and then become a light rain as we were almost to the gite.

Coming inside, we immediately ran into Peter who told us that the gite was full but the owner would do something to take care of us. We ended up getting the two couches in the common area in front of the fireplace rather than sleeping in either of the dorms. This is a huge win for us. Now the only snoring I have to deal with is Pam’s and I know all I have to do is go pee to get her to stop.

We showered and then sat and talked with Peter and Alaina over beers until they headed to the big house for their supper. Pam and I were the only ones staying behind to cook our own dinner–pasta with butter and tomato sauce. I’ve been carrying this stuff for a couple of days and I chose to lose the two pounds out of my pack rather than have a healthy, decent meal. I have priorities and a lighter pack is number two (after a bear sighting).

I guess I should note that according to the crappy guidebook, which I have graciously agreed to quit criticizing out of respect for the dead, today should be the last day of our trip. 50 days on the GR10. How long is the GR10? 283 hours. See, it doesn’t make any sense to equate distance with time. I guess I do believe in beating dead horses (and writers).