September 8, 2019 – Departed 8:20 – Arrived 14:05
As expected the day was almost only going up, except at the very beginning and the very end. I don’t mind going up when it’s a gentle slope like that of a forest road, what I don’t like is when the path cuts directly through the slope and is very steep – that’s where I still have difficulties. Nevertheless the climb went well, despite me missing a turn and losing a good 20 minutes in the process, going up and down the wrong path.
Three quarters of the way up I saw a sign for ‘Cabane de Feas – 300 m’ and since this was not too out of the way I decided to have a look. It’s a small shepherd’s hut which (as some locals who happened to be there explained to me) has been rebuilt by volunteers from the village into a small refuge big enough for 4 to 6 people. It’s quite well done and the volunteers put quite a bit of effort into it, it’s quite amazing. Inside there are two platforms for people to sleep, a table and two benches, and a wood stove. A tiny house before tiny houses were in fashion. The volunteers built this so that it is available to any hiker who needs it for an overnight stay. Isn’t that amazing?
At the top of the Col de La-Pierre-St-Martin (1,760 m) I saw a mobile milking station for sheep, complete with 12 stalls, tank for the milk, etc. The shepherd lives in a small house nearby and sells cheese he makes right there. I bought myself a chunk and chatted for a while with him. He was a bit concerned about the weather turning cold early – indeed it was quite chilly and the forecast for two days from now calls for snow above 2,000 m. Even now at the refuge in La-Pierre-St-Martin (1,630 m) I need to have some extra layers. Speaking of the place, I didn’t know what to expect but La-Pierre-St-Martin is actually a ski resort, with big concrete buildings – quite different from the small villages that the GR10 has given me so far.
The group of people I hike with keeps changing. We actually don’t hike together, we all go at our own pace, but we meet again at the next auberge and usually share the dinner and the dorm. “It’s very convivial”, as one of them put it. A mother-and-daughter team that I have seen for the past 5 or 6 nights is finishing here. Two brother-in-law that I had dinner with for a few nights have left a couple of days ago, so have a husband-and-wife team. Two very funny Dutch men have decided to leap further ahead. We get to share stories, experiences, advice, laughs, just the time of a few evenings, and then we all go our separate ways.
GR10/GR101/GR78 August/September/October 2019 