Day 6, Xertigny to Munster, June 6, 88 km

We got up this morning to a dark foggy sky. At least the rain had stopped. Everyone donned their rain gear. My newly purchased rain jacket turned out to be a lifesaver, although all I have done is store it in Las Vegas. Today we had a big mountain, LeHohneck, to climb - 1160 meters. We only got 20 km out of town and it started raining on us. Oh well, so much for the beautiful scenery. This eastern part of France starts transiting to Bavarian style architecture. Our climb up the mountain was fun. I couldn’t see anything in the thick fog, but I stayed warm. We passed a bunch of ski slopes and I wondered if we were going to get some snow, but we didn’t. I was part of the first group to make the summit and we were greeted by Duncan, our tour leader, with hot coffee and tea. The fog was so thick he had trouble seeing the riders go by.
The decent into Munster was a blast – 18 km of all down hill. Since the roads were wet and the fog was thick, it wasn’t too fast. We passed several scenic overlooks into the valley, but could see only clouds.
Our camp site was first class in the town municipal park. To celebrate, Terry and I explored the town and brought back a small keg of beer to share. Dinner was a superb meal of leg of lamb, beans, and potatoes. I and three others had KP duty and spent an hour after dinner cleaning up the huge pots Jon used to cook with. By 8:00 it was raining again. Though it doesn’t get dark until 10:00, I was in my tent by 9:00. It rained off and on all night, but my trusted REI tent kept me dry.