Day 78–Friday, September 15. Banyuls-sur-Mer (12 miles)

The hiker dominoes started falling at 5:20 this morning. As soon as the first hiker got done rattling all the plastic in his pack at 5:40 and left, the second hiker started rattling all the plastic in his pack. The dominoes kept falling until 7:30 when the last hikers left the cabin. Most unfortunately, I was now at 130% of bladder capacity and no hope of sleep was left.

As surprising as this may sound, Pam and I took our time getting ready in the hopes that the rain and wind might die down. Just the opposite happened, the intensity of the wind increased and the rain tuned to a downpour. At 9, we decided we had better just accept that we were not going to get a break and began our last day of hiking on the GR10.

We ended the trail just as we began it–in the rain. Except this time, it was 30 degrees F colder with a hint of hail at times. The biggest mistake we have made is telling the trail our intentions. Any time we have let the trail know what we had planned, it would turn on us to make our plans fail. Today was no exception.

What was supposed to be a triumphant last day of hiking for us, instead, it turned out to be our most miserable day on the trail in two and a half months. We both wore all the clothing we had (3 pairs of underwear and 3 pairs of socks are probably too much padding, but we’ll know better next time). For the third time in 5 months, I even wore my rain kilt.

In total, we only had less than 1000′ of gain but over 5000′ of loss to get back to sea level. This will be the first time in over two months we will have descended to Missouri altitude levels. We went over 4 passes today and at each pass, it was apparent to us that the GR10 was taking it personally that we were going to complete the trail and was no longer just trying to stop us, it was trying to kill us by blowing us over the passes.

Even with her working against us, we strolled into Banyuls a little before 5 so we could end this ordeal and still find a place to stay at a reasonable time.

In total, we have hiked 565 miles on the GR10 and climbed almost 165,000′ (and fortunately, descended the same amount, the sea hasn’t risen yet). That is the equivalent of climbing Mt Everest from sea level to summit 6 times (and we didn’t use supplemental oxygen even though there were many times it would have come in handy). In total, we took 9 days completely off and had 7 “nero” days (less than 5 miles hiking per day).

To date this year, we have accumulated well over 1325 miles between the 3 trails we have hiked so far. The physical toll on Pam has been hardest. Even though she has lost almost 20 pounds, she is now walking like an old lady from the pain in her: hips, feet, legs, knees, back, neck, and toenail about to fall off. As for me, I’m as spry as a young trophy husband.  I have lost so much weight, I can even wear Pam’s old hiking pants (and they are big on me).

We got in town too late to walk with the marching band that escorts arriving hikers to the Mairie which is the official ending point of the GR10 (apparently they stop at 2p). We were informed of a special awards ceremony later this evening that we have been invited to. Finally, some recognition for all of our efforts.