Calenzana to Refuge D'Ortu Di U Piobbu

I arrived on the island of Corsica yesterday, after many connecting flights, from Chicago, and a short taxi ride from the airport near Calenzana, my starting point for this trek. As I settled into my room at the Gîte another hiker checked in to the room across the hall, and I recognized her from the Luxembourg airport and I distinctly remember thinking "hmm, I wonder if they are going to Corsica to do the GR20". Sure enough, here they were. Her name was Perine. We grabbed some dinner, and then decided to set out at 6:00 am tomorrow morning. I can't wait to be back in the mountains.

I nearly quit on the first day.

I woke up at 5:30 am after a night of restless sleep. The windows had been left open all night, due to the heat (no air conditioning), and it was comfortable but still warm in the room. So, with little sleep, I began packing up. I ate a simple breakfast of yogurt with cereal, a banana, and some bread and butter that I had purchased yesterday at the local grocery store. Perine and I hit the trail at 6:20am on the dot. But shortly afterwards we became separated as she was a much faster hiker than I was. Admittedly I had not done any training other than taking my dog Dax for walks.

The trail started going up right away, and it didn’t hold back. While this wasn't a high elevation I was having trouble catching my breath due to all of the steps up on the various switchbacks, and my Garmin Enduro 2 watch told me all I needed to know: my heart rate was staying steadily in the "endurance" zone, 5 of 5. Needless to say, this was too high. I rested for a minute at every turn or corner in the trail, and would pop-a-squat every so often for a few minutes in order to catch my breath and chug some water.

But all this didn't stop me from taking as many pictures as I could.

A cow started coming down the trail while stopping to graze here and there, and I sheepishly waited for someone else to come along and scare it away for me (I am still scared by that bad experience with a cow in Switzerland).

After 2.5 hours I reached a Col and saw that the trail was going down and staying level (thank god). Sadly this happiness didn't last long. Upon the descent through the trees the trail started to go back up again, but only this time it decided to throw in something new: scrambling. There's nothing wrong with scrambling, but it was at this time that my quad muscles decided to start seizing up on every push up to the next rocky level. Ow did it hurt! I tried stretching it out with lunges and pulling my heel up to my butt, and while these temporarily worked the issues kept coming back.

Did I stretch this morning? Of course not. I knew I forgot something!

So now I had these issues on top of the breathing. But that wasn’t enough, no. My water was 1/4 empty (between the two water bottles) at the Col about an hour ago. I had chosen to bypass refilling at a water source about 10 minutes before then because things were looking good. But now I'm rationing my water...

More scrambling and climbing up rocks.

The little devil on my shoulder said I could still turn around, there was still time. I ignored it and said "nah I got this". And Im glad I stuck it out. I happened upon a small trickle of water at the base of some small boulders, and it was a huge turning point. Now I had ice-cold water! I drank my fill and refilled my water bottles. While this helped with my spirits, I still had more trail to go, up and down, and more leg pains.

I saw my destination for the night in the distance and prayed that I wouldn't have to go up and down a lot. Unfortunately I sorta kinda had to, but the ups and downs weren't that bad, and didn't last long. There was a lot of scooting along on my butt though thanks for the rocky terrain. I made it to the refuge and found a level spot that was exposed to the sun, but I didn't see any other options.

I set to work getting camp set up, showering, washing my clothes in the sink, getting water, hanging the laundry, ordering dinner + breakfast, and then getting some much needed lunch: an omelette with bread. I hung out at the eating area, which was a collection of picnic tables, in the shade.

I found a table to sit at with someone who speaks English well enough, and they were debating staying here tonight or going to the next stop. They decided to stay: they would arrive too late at the other spot. But two stops in one day!?! Wow, the commitment and the physical fitness astounds me.

There's a lot of people here, it's going to be busy on the trail, and at the refuges, but that's good: more opportunities to make friends! Oh, and there's tons of little lizards running around, plus three cows who keep tramping through the area with the tents. I hope they steer clear of mine.

I had a really fulfilling dinner with people from Germany (Denis), Netherlands (Peter and Tyezet), and Belgium (Charlie and Sophie). They're all way younger than me but they accepted me as part of the group. We would end up walking and camping together for the next 9 days.