July 18th, 19th

July 18th -Yesterday was an uneventful day. It was one of our Moderate hiking days. We walked through forests and on pavement. We went through cute little villages with cute little Swiss houses.
We did upside down mountain which means we descended before we ascended again. We had a beautiful campsite that would’ve been like a 4 Star place.

July 19th - Today’s hike  was quite a bit more challenging. As usual we got up at 6:30 AM packed up the tent had breakfast and were ready to go by 8:10. We started ascending right away. Up, up and up some more we went. We arrived at a little café where we had a short break. Some had pie some had coffee we had a Coca-Cola. After the short break up and up and up some more we went. We are making our way to a col for the Italian version of it (I'm not sure what I was saying here!). When we got to the col,  there was an option to go up to a mountain peak for an extra challenge. Rémi and I are the only ones who took the challenge of going up Tête de Ferret.  We started to make our way up the mountain. It was quite steep to get up.  When we got to about the middle, I was getting a little afraid and was going to turn around when John, our guide, suddenly appeared behind us. So up and up and up we went to 2700 or so meters. Boy was it worth missing our break to get to see this fabulous view. After a few pictures, we made our way down which was not as bad as I had expected. It was steep but not so steep that it was scary.

 When we got to the bottom it was time to take our group photo while everyone was there (We've had a few days where at least one person was missing). We took a couple shots and off we went this time down, down, down. I’m not sure which is worse; going up, or going down. Going up is difficult physically as you get out of breath and you go very slowly. Going down is difficult on the knees. Rémi and I like to run the down hills as it
causes less pain on your knees.

 When we got to the bottom, there was a beautiful little café where we took another break. Another Coke down the hatch. We then walked for another 40 minutes or so downhill the whole way to the bus stop. We took the bus to the campsite a ride that lasted about 15 minutes. The views were absolutely breathtaking. This campsite is a quaint little place! Lots of trees, lots of people it’s quite the happening place.   Makes me think of a campground my parent would've gone too when they had their RV.

We are looking forward to tomorrow as it will be a rest day. We plan on going for a short run of 2 to 4 km. Then we plan on just chillaxing at the little ski resort village close by called Courmayeur. For now... ciao!