I thought that I had eaten plenty at breakfast but apparently my body was thinking differently; or else there’s an internal power struggle still going on from the other night. The rest of my body wasn’t sharing food with my ass, so it was forced to resort to trying to eat my underwear. All day long I had to keep pulling them back out. The boys up front were complaining about the squeeze being put on them. I told everyone I didn’t want to hear any more about it, just get things calmed down. We all know that the ass controls the entire body. If he shuts down, no one else can work. Fix it now.
Today was the last climb even approaching the 4000′ mark–just a little over 3800′. We’ve got two more days around 3200′ and two days around 3000′ and then it should be smooth sailing. That is, if the dead jackass is even close to his estimates (which he hasn’t been doing a good job the last couple of days).
The hike today was actually kind of pleasant. I don’t know how the day got away from us. We were more than half way at noon, but we lost it on the climb over Col Mitja and the descent into the refuge. It took us almost 5 hours to do one little 2300′ climb and 1800′ descent. The only thing I can think of is Pam–her hips were hurting this morning and her feet this afternoon. She is carrying more weight because she “just had to have” a new pair of hiking pants bringing the total she is toting around to 3 (count them out; 1, 2, 3) pairs of hiking pants.
I’ve also got to get a dig in for all the Ariege haters in France. We spent more time today hiking in forests than we ever did in a single day in the Ariege. Maybe that’s why we only saw two other hikers heading in our direction. We did see a local hiking group of elderly people (all retired and older). The last guy in line took a tumble and rolled down the hill a couple of times but none of his friends seemed too concerned–like it’s normal for a 70 year old man to go rolling down a mountain (maybe he drinks so they just accept it). We talked to him a bit. He seemed to be just fine, probably just a little embarrassed more than anything else, but I’ll bet he’s stiff in the morning (just for clarification, there is no sexual innuendo in that statement–he’s over 70 and just fell down a mountain so he will be stiff).
The worst part about today was all the flies. We tried to take a nap part way up our climb, but the flies were horrendous. Flies are the only thing that will get Pam to consistently swear. It’s also the only time I don’t get yelled at for swearing since she makes sailors blush. We gave up on the nap, but I took some vitamin I and rubbed voltarin gel all over my feet. Pam doesn’t like it because it doesn’t feel natural to not have painless feet.
The climb down the backside of Col Mitja was quite steep which only made Pam move that much slower. After a loss of 1500′ a cow shepherd (?) was running his herd up the trail right at us. He had a dog running the edge of the herd and he kept forcing them up towards the pass. When he saw us, he did move the herd off of the trail to allow us to pass.
Because of our food situation (and me being cheap to make a point–I guess the point is I’m too cheap to spend large amounts on food to allow us to be comfortable) we decided to stay at the refuge, but cook our own supper. We have plenty of suppers, it’s breakfasts and lunches we are running low on. We went ahead and cooked as soon as we arrived. Everyone was envious of the smell of grilling onions and sausage. I even got to use one of my CANS of tomato sauce along with 1/2 of the pasta I am carrying. We did indulge in a blonde beer to wash it all down.
Tomorrow’s itinerary is a short and easy one which means we will be dragging bad. But if it really is only 2000′ of climbing in 6 miles, we will probably push on into Py in the afternoon to find out what the food situation is really like. If there’s food in Py, we’ll be fine (thanks to my not trusting shops in the Pyrennes or dead men). If there’s not food, I don’t know what we’ll do after I blow a gasket. The next shop after Py isn’t for another 3 days. I don’t want to think about it right now.
We are in a unique situation tonight. We have already eaten and are ready for bed. Everyone else is eating right now. I am torn between having another beer or going to bed before everyone else is done eating. I want to be asleep before the snoring begins (or liquored up enough that I don’t care). Decisions, decisions, decisions.
