Merde

After a lovely evening at our closed campsite, chatting with the eccentric British owner and her crew of waifs and strays, we planned for another day dodging rain showers and continuing ever onward...

And then it started to rain.  Some hours before daylight it began and didn’t let up.  We quit hoping around 8:00 and got up to face the day.  Luckily there was “Le Shed” available, and so we set up a kitchen in it, and hung what we could up to dry.  It has always seemed like it should be possible to strike a tent from the inside under the rain fly, and while we managed, it was not a perfect solution.  We were able to get the tents hung inside for enough time to hopefully not rot, but the two flies and our tarp were destined to remain wet, strapped to the outside of the trailer.  One of the challenges of having our wonderful waterproof panniers is that while our gear remains dry regardless of the weather, if we put a damp thing inside, everything else will gain moisture and soon nothing will be dry. So, we bundled up and headed out into the continuing rain.  

The delightful “voies vertes” which are rail-to-trail green ways, are very firm. But with days of rain, the layer of mud on top is not only treacherous, but also makes a rather ugly paste on the moving parts of our bikes.  We stopped to hose them off at one point, and we tried later to diagnose a problem that just turned out to be the sound of the drivetrain eating itself, and not anything adjustable.

It wasn’t particularly cold, but no amount of gore Tex socks were going to keep us entirely dry.  The fundamental parts of our gear worked great, and we remained mostly dry.  The day was not without the usual important things like the miniature petting zoo of goat, donkey and pony - none of whom could be enticed to walk through the rain to see Ruby.

With a full half-inch of rain falling, all our gear wet, and the same thing forecast for tomorrow, we opted to find a reasonable small hotel in a town and have holed up.  I don’t think the management realized how apt the room was for draping gear -

And I am fairly certain they didn’t intend that we would use the room’s hair dryer for several hours continuously -

This evening in Carhaix-Plouguer has allowed us to restock our provisions, which were severely depleted by yesterday’s French holiday and the lack of stores on the way today.  It takes a lot of food to keep this crew moving forward , especially in inclement weather. More than a day off the beaten track can be a problem without a lot of planning and food weight.  We worked our way though the super marche tonight, and have enough to face the next stages.  With the forecast being very similar tomorrow, we will have to look at our options. At the very least, much of our gear will be dry.  Ever forward!

-Dave