7/12. Le Hohneck to Grand Ballon

In the morning the wind continued strong as ever, quite cold perhaps 9-10C - and of course the rain started in the cloud surrounding us. Low visibility made for extreme conditions. We layered up with our warmest clothes + raingear. I safety pinned a sock into my hat for warmth and wore socks on my hands. And this worked fine. We spent 4-5 hours in horizontal rainfall in a cross wind thankfully with intermittent trees which gave relief. We followed the GR5 variant across the exposed crest of the Vosges finally linking up with the main route coming up from Mittlach. On a clear day our route would have been sensational. As it was we were bone tired when we reached Grand Ballon after 7 hours in tough conditions. But through the fog we could see massive meadows full of wheat we reached the ski village of Le Markstein where we stopped for a coffee / hot chocolate and a blueberry tart ( tarte myrtilles) . As we pushed on the weather brightened and the forest walking was beautiful to the col du Haag. Reaching here the GR climbs the peak then drops over the back to the hotel. There is a branching route off to the left which goes to the hotel directly. We tried this and mistakenly went a quarter mile down a gravel road before realizing the error and backtracking. We got on the RWR rectangle marked route and in about half a mile stumbled into the hotel. It's rustic with obvious history like a national park lodge in the US. The public areas were fine but the room cold and with the radiators off for the summer...I guess? Warm comforters though but not great for drying wet clothes. Our dinner started with a plate of mountain meats as an appetizer. One of which was liver sausage which I had not tasted since my grandmother made sandwiches of it when I was 10. Funny how taste provokes some recollections. We enjoyed a fine bottle of Alsacian Auxerois wine- my favorite white wine. After dinner I spotted Nick in the lobby - he ordered food and we talked until dark when he left to pitch camp outside! Exhausted I slept well beneath the comforters in the cold damp room .