- Distance: 21.0km
- Ascent/Descent: 880m up, 1978m down
- Time: 8 hr 39 min
A bright sunny clear day for once, as we woke up, from our very not-so-good bed. Turns out the bedsheets were paper (yep), with a duvet on top. My side of the bed was slanted up to the bed rails, so I was constantly rolling over into Chris, and that paper wasn't quite itchy but close, and it sure was crinkly. Not the first time we've seen this, but combined with the meager dinner last night, feh, we're ready to get out of here.
Today is one of those unavoidable days through a roadless area, where the track goes high and crosses at the head of a few valleys before going down to civilization. From our hotel, it was an hour's shady climb of 400m in all of 2km to get to a col, then another immediate drop of 400m in 2km to get to yet another hydro lake, Lac d'Oule. I thought this might be pretty, but nah, it had a barren bathtub ring and the eastern side was out of the forests of the nature reserve, meaning it's been overgrazed and just grassy and weedy.
From the lakeshore, the trail ascended 300m, then just contoured along. Easy wide path... but
suddenly there were lots of
people? Sure it's a mild sunny clear day, probably the best weather so far, but on a Monday?
As we went along,
it got crowded, families with 6 year olds with sullen tweens in tow, some trail runners perhaps
wanting to get some altitude training at 2200m, and not so many bon jours which are nearly
mandatory here, guess
it was just a bit
much.
Where are they coming from, some chairlift? Nah, there was yet another col, but with a parking lot you could drive to, aha, and a little food trailer with treats. I had a Coke as per usual and Chris had the worst lemonade sirop and we enjoyed our lunch. Chris ate his sandwich, I ate a third of mine.
My body has decided a week or so ago that it doesn't need much food--hey, I know by now that I don't have much appetite doing vigorous repeated activities like this, and have probably lost ten pounds or 5kg. I definitely know I've lost some chunkiness around my waist, pants are certainly looser, but the real tell is that it's now uncomfortable to sit down on hard wooden benches because I don't have the ass padding that I used to, I can feel my pelvis on that wood. But there's certainly a benefit, I just don't get much out of breath like the first couple of weeks we were walking.
Past the buvette and the ski area, down along an open ridgeline, getting a bit warm, then steeply down through a forest to Ville-Aure. Saw a few interesting plants, and the trailside at times looks slightly more Mediterranean (I saw my first euphoria plant today). If you don't look right, to the peaks to the south, we could be hiking somewhere in the San Diego backcountry.
The ferme we stayed at was really hosptiable, we were shown to our rooms (hm, that's interesting) and were served a massvie dinner. Gazpacho, yum. Oh wait, there's lasagne. And now a beet/lettuce salad. And cheese. And a little sweet yogurt dessert. OMG I can't eat all of this.
It was a more tiring day than usual, so jotted off this blog entry after all that food, and now in bed. I need the sleep.