Another BIG lock day – 26 locks and 30 Km. We have done 55 locks in two days which is more than we did the entire first week. This puts us at the top the Canal de Burgogne – next is a 3 Km long tunnel to get to the other side of the plateau as we head down toward Dijon.
Highlights from today –
The lock keeper with 3 year old and a 4 year old helpers – tres cute.
Attempting to leave the second to last lock, we realized the boat wouldn’t move! A line had fallen off the back and wedged in the now-closed downstream doors. Oops. Fortunately the nice lock lady cycled the lock to free us.
Lots of cute lock dogs.
Roberta had a good day on the lines. She hit more than 50% of her first casts for the lock mooring posts (which is good).
Big lock day on the Canal du Burgogne! Left Veraney at a little after 9:00 after biking up to a “supermarche” to buy some towels and, of course, more wine. To quote the Waterways Guide “To begin the long ascension towards the dividing pond, you should present yourself at lock 55 between 9AM and 11AM…. Between locks 55 and 16 you will be accompanied by a series of itinerant lock-keepers. At the end of each day you must inform them of your intensions the following day. All the locks are manual so you will need two very full days to reach Pouilly.”
Leaving one lock headed for the next (see ahead about 100 m)
We motored for 4-1/2 hours, 2-1/2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon, arriving at Marigny-le-Cahouet about 3:00PM (where we managed the impossible, finding a place serving cold beer on a Sunday afternoon!). We did 28 locks and 10 Km today, averaging just over 4 minutes per lock. We could often see two locks ahead, and many of the locks were only a couple hundred meters apart.
Biere Froid in Marigny!! On Sunday!!
We have climbed from Joigny (elevation 75 meters) to Marigny (285 meters), so over 600 feet in 82 locks (about 7.5 feet per lock). Tomorrow we attempt to reach Pouilly-en-Auxois, the high point of the canal (370 meters, another 250 feet) where, after a rest day, we will enter a 3km tunnel (the Pouilly Tunnel) as we begin our descent toward Dijon.
And Happy Fete de Mere day! Yes, today is Mother’s Day in France!
Our first full week of barging is over. Some highlights
The sunsets – the light here in the evening is absolutely gorgeous.
The Fosse Dionne in Tonnerre (natural spring from a cave) and the view from L’eglise St Pierre of the city.
Getting yelled at (by an eclusier, lock keeper) for operating a lock without an eclusier present (“c’est interdite!!”)
Buying our first bottles of wine from an eclusier
Wine. Rose. 3.50 (Euros) a bottle.
Biking to the boulangerie in the morning for croissants and pain au chocolate
Picturesque Joigny and the bored teenagers gunning their (one) motorcycle in town.
The market (our first) in St Florentine where the vendor would not sell us anything without us first tasting it, listing all ingredients, and giving us specific directions on how to prepare each.
Learning how to play Spades and having Francis and Emilie with us for the first week.
The very nice gentleman in Raviere who, when he saw us looking at the closed epicerie, would not let us continue without getting a cold bottle of water from his house and giving it to us,l
Bucolic Mooring
Emilie and Francis left us in Montbard to begin their trek home (train to Paris, taxi to CDG, flight to Chicago, then Houston, then Norman). We will miss them! Looking forward to Jackie, David and Emory joining us Thursday. Montbard was a bit of a disappointment – we thought it was a full Locaboat base but it isn’t. Fortunately we arrived on a Saturday – the one day they usually have someone there so we were able to get a little fuel, a kids life jacket and a replacement umbrella.
Sunset in Venarey-Le-Laumes
Speaking of fuel, we now have an estimate of fuel use (~2L/Hr), which is nice because there is no fuel gauge on the boat! With the 400L tank this boat is supposed to have that gives us a range of about 200 hours (4-5 weeks or so).
Today we do our first big lock chain (Echelle de Pouillenay), 18 locks. Should be interesting, especially since we are in the middle of an unusual heat wave – high 80’s and no clouds. Fortunately it cools off at night.
Paris was fun but it’s time to start cruising! We spend a few days in Paris doing the usual tourist stuff (Tour Eiffel, Sacre Coeur, Versailles, etc) but it is kind of nice to be in the country. We left Paris yesterday – our tickets said Paris-Bercy but Bercy was shut down so we had to lug our luggage 1Km to Gare de Lyon. That stupid duffel with our hiking stuff MUST weigh 50 lbs!
The Locaboat representative could not stop talking about our 12 week rental. In 11 year she said no one had every taken a boat for so long. The boat checkout was all in French but the gentleman spoke very slowly and we understood just about everything. Everything important anyhow. We decided to spent the night here in the marina to get settled. Walked to Joigny and had dinner in a nice little bistro in the old part of town. And the sunset was spectacular!
With two weeks before we head to France we have the visitor roster filled out:
Francis/Emilie: May 20 – May 27
Jackie/David/Emory: June 1 – June 4
Richard Wylie: June 4 – June 12
John/Christin: June 27 – July 10
Emerson/Linda: July 20 – July 27
The house hasn’t sold (we had a buyer but they backed out) so Richard (and Emerson) will have to do it without us! And we have our “post boat” adventure (we will be in Europe for a month after we return the boat) planned:
Our friends Jim and Leigh Anne will be joining us for this 12 day trek. Check out the trekking outfit’s pictures Trek Pics .
With just over four weeks before we leave for France we have a tentative itinerary for our summer adventure. We will be in Burgundy the entire time. Our plan has us doing about 1500 KM over 12 weeks. This sounds ambitious but works out to only 10 miles or so a day so should be doable. The side trip to Roanne (Leg 4) and the little jog north on the Saône (Leg 3) can be dropped if we are running behind.
And so far we have three visiting groups:
Francis and Emilie (May 20-May 27, Leg 1)
Jackie, David, Emory (~May 31 – June 3, Leg 2)
John and Christin (June 27 – July 10, Leg 5)
So we still have spots open for anyone who wants to join us! Here is a summary of the nine sections (though I expect this to change somewhat):
Joigny to Montbard : May 20 to May 27, 110 Km, 53 Locks
Montbard to Dijon: May 28 to June 3, 109 Km, 118 Locks!
Dijon to Chalon Sur Saône: June 5 to June 14, 225 Km, 27 Locks
Chalon Sur Saône to Decize: June 15 to June 27, 293 Km, 96 Locks
Decize to Auxerre : June 28 to July 10, 182 Km, 120 Locks
Auxerre to Moret-sur-Loing: July 11 to July 17, 120 Km, 27 Locks
Moret-sur-Loing to Briare:July 18 to July 23, 105 Km, 55 Locks
Briare to Decize: July 24 to July 30, 130 Km, 25 Locks
Decize to Joigny: July 31 to Aug 12, 205 Km 129 Locks
We are 45 days from our flight to Paris. The house is up for sale and we have our first showing this weekend. Our plan is to sell, have our estate sale and move everything we are keeping (mostly art and books) into storage before we leave. However…. if we don’t get an offer in the next four weeks we may have to rethink the plan.
We have our tickets, our extended stay visas and have begun coming up with a tentative sail plan. We need this because we have people planning on joining us at various points. Key dates are:
We finally selected a boat rental company (for a discussion of why we are renting versus buying – see our planning page Planning for France ). We decided to go with Locaboat, as they were the most responsive to our many questions.
After a lot of discussion we decided on the Penichette 1165FB – it was a little bigger than we absolutely needed but, since we plan on having lots of visitors over the course of the summer, we wanted a boat with two heads and two cabins.
The boat is located out of the Joigny Locaboat base on the river Yonne. Joigny is about 150 Km southeast of Paris. In a later post I will describe in more detail where we will be cruising (or more accurately – where Locaboat will allow us to cruise).
We pick up the boat on May 20 and have to have it back by August 12. So we have the boat for 12 weeks. Total price was 26,000€ (about $27,500 at current exchange rates). This is about 330$/day. I’m sure we could have done it for less by going with a smaller agency and, clearly, this is a sizable fraction of what a used boat would have cost.
I think I may finally be done with the PCT. Over the past two years I have done roughly 800 miles (from Campo to Independence). I got off the trail June 1 to spend some time with my family (my wife and I went to Mexico and New Orleans with my brother and his wife). And, while I definitely miss it, I think it is time to start planning the next adventure (the Great Loop is looking good…).
I learned a lot. Mostly about people. Mostly about what you really need. Everything I “needed” for five weeks I carried on my back and weighed less than 15 pounds (not counting food or water), which is pretty cool! Most people, Americans anyhow, have never been hungry. Most take clean, abundant water for granted. Most people have no clue what they really need. I know. I need about 1L of water for every five miles I walk. I need about 2 lbs of food a day (including at least 2 Twizzlers). I need a warm place to sleep on cold nights. And that’s pretty much it.
And the people. Strangers gave me rides, gave me food, gave me water. Just about everyone I met was nicer than I had any right to expect. The trail angels were crazy nice. Scout and Frodo and the Hiker Heaven folks and Ziggy and The Bear. They open their homes to strangers. Every year. And the other hikers were great. You become part of a rolling community.
Okay – some random memories from the trail this year…
Walking down to the North Fork Ranger station saw OB (Orange Blossom) sitting just off the trail.
Me: “Hey, OB, how’s it going.”
OB: “Okay – just stopped to do a little surgery.”
Me: “Blisters?”
OB: “No, I got an abscess on my waist from my pack. So I just lanced it and was draining it.”
Me: “Sounds like fun.”
OB: “Not really, but very satisfying”
Overheard at Hiker Heaven…”Yeah, that one 50 mile day really wiped me out… Probably not a good idea.” 50 miles??!!?
A Hiker Heaven helper, Burning Time, explaining why he had done the PCT more than once…”Well, did it the first time and got home and my wife said she was leaving me. Bitch! So I did it again!”
I saw the Milky Way one moonless night. I have only seen it a handful of times.
Hikers at the Acton KOA explaining their system for eating the microwave meals sold in the the little store there..”You zap the burrito and then the little pizza. Then you roll the burrito in the pizza and eat it like a taco….”
Butterfly to me one morning….”wake up bitch!”
List of injuries other hikers told me they had:
Blisters (of course).
Septic blisters (more than one hiker)
“Swollen foot”
Achilles strain
Shin splints
Sprained ankle
Unexplained, strange, pains in various parts of the feet
Swollen knees (I saw several people with knee braces)
Stomach issues (maybe Giardia).
Cuboid Subluxation
And, of course, with our lovely health system, I ran into at least one hiker (from Israel I believe) that should have been at a clinic but was not going because of the money.
Bear (of Ziggy and the Bear) to a hiker who asked him if he could go along after overhearing The Bear say he was going to the store: “No.” Hiker: “Why not?” Bear: “I don’t want my car to stink.” Hiker: “Oh… Okay.”
Me, to a day hiker near the Devils Punch Bowl when asked where I started: “ The Mexican border.”
Hiker: “No!”
Me: “Uhmmm…yes.”
Hiker: “Where do you sleep?”
Me (looking around): “Anyplace flat.”
Hiker: “No! Where do you go to the bathroom?”
Me: “Anyplace kinda flat.”
Hiker: “NO! What about showers?”
Me: “Showers?”
She just walked away shaking her head which was too bad because she smelled really nice. Much nicer than Butterfly anyhow.
73, to me, when I said I was thinking of taking an extra zero in Big Bear: “I don’t do zero days, I do zero WEEKS!”
Clare and Will (England) explaining their discovery of Honey Buns: “They’re like squished doughnuts…. Really wonderful!”
A stunned female hiker at the Acton KOA pulling a “white” hiking shirt out of the washer that still had big grey stains on it..”I JUST washed this!!!….it looks the same!”. Me: “Yeah, but I bet it smells a lot better!”
Clare (of Clare and Will) on being asked at a restaurant if she wanted Habiscus iced tea or black ice tea…”Uh…uh….uh…..a coke please.”
Butterfly to me (on more than one occasion)..”Okay, I’m calling your wife!””.
Overheard hiker “I used to do drugs….. I mean, I still do ‘em… But I also used to do them.”
Another hiker to me as I walked by at Hiker Heaven (I had a 10 day stubble going at that point) “I didn’t know John Stewart was hiking the PCT!”
How to describe a place like Hiker Heaven….. Well, first of all it’s someone’s (Donna Saufley) house on a large (probably 2 acre) lot about a mile from “downtown” Agua Dulce. They have 5 dogs, three horses and a bunch of chickens. They also have, at any one time, 20 to 50 hikers.
Hiker Heaven looking toward the house
I counted 35 tents this morning. There is a shower, TV and small kitchen in a trailer next to the house. They have a two night, 3 day maximum stay limit, though this appears to be flexible for people with injuries. Talked to a hiker from Australia who was on her 5th day and another guy on his 7th.
Hiker Heaven “guard” dogs
They run a shuttle every hour to town and once a day do a run to the closest REI. They also shuttle people to the closest urgent care clinics for injuries. They have two tents set up, one with four computers with internet access and one with sodas and sewing machines for repairs.
Computer tent at HIker HeavenThe sewing tentAnd the sewing machines do get used – I saw proof!A little repair work on a favorite hiking shirt
Everyone gets a short orientation upon arrival. You put your laundry in a mesh bag with a post-it note with your name and your clean laundry comes out an hour or two later. There is only one shower so there is a line but it moves pretty quickly. And this is one of those places just about everyone stops. I’ve met four people here from my April 24 Scout and Frodo class. And I ran into Pensioner, the hiker I shared a pizza with at the KOA, in town.
Pensioner in Agua Dulce
Guitars and beers come out in the evening an the atmosphere has a laid-back summer camp vibe. Very nice.
Our Adventures 