Saturday July 20th =rest day!

July 20st - Today is Saturday and it is a rest day for us!  It sure will feel good to not have to put our boots for a day!  We got up this morning, Rémi and I and went for a short run. We did 5 km up in the mountains. John had suggested what was supposedly an easy 5K run. We ended up going up a mountain for 327 m and then back down. In the middle of the trail I thought for sure John was trying to kill me as this definitely was not an easy course. Still was a fabulous run! It felt great to move in a different way  then when we are hiking.

Our campsite has a fabulous children's playground.  We had fun trying out the structures and the exercise machines!


After our run, we did some laundry in the sink.  Time for some clean underwear!  Hung it to dry and off we went to town (Courmayeur). A short 15 minute bus ride in switchbacks, over bridges, not knowing if the road was wide enough for the bus and cars, we arrived alive and well!  We walked around, had lunch, took the bus and came back to the campsite. That pretty much sums up our rest day. Tomorrow we start hiking again for three days. Three days of hiking for one day of rest. Sunday will be a moderate day the rest of the days will be difficult days. Let’s see what that will be like. There’s also a heat wave coming that will not be fun.  The heat adds a whole other lever of difficulty!

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!

2 days one post

Tuesday, July 16th - We didn’t have great Internet access yesterday therefore you get two days in one post today.

Let’s start with yesterday. We got up at 6:30 like every other morning. We took our tents down had breakfast packed our lunch (more Nutella and bread) and off we went. We started climbing right off the bat and climbed for what seemed like days.


We had beautiful views throughout the morning. We came to some steps that ended up being quite scary for me. I had a few tears but pulled myself together and got it done.  Boy was it worth it. We climbed up and reached our first summit what a view and accomplishment!

We descended this mountain and ended up at a little restaurant café that served coffee and tarte.   They were not very friendly people. This place was also our first encounter with cowbells. You can hear the cows from quite a ways away. It’s quite interesting!  Wondering why the cows wear a bell?  It keeps them from wandering away from the group.

After a short break, we continued on our merry way. We had two options: do the crest of the mountain or climb to the top. Of course we opted to climb to the  top! We were promised some great
views of the Rhone valley and I think the Swiss Alps and boy was it a special view. It was a very tough climb but again well worth it. Rémi even got to throw snowballs and have some fun. The top is also where we crossed into Switzerland. We climb down the mountain and eventually arrived to our campground for the night. We had dinner at a restaurant where the food was edible. After dinner, Rémi and I walked up to a pretty little pink church. We met the priests’ assistant outside. He let us in and showed us the inside of the church. What a beautiful place!  He also told us a couple funny stories of him and the priest -for example how the priest won't use the pulpit as he's afraid it will fall -so the assistant went up, jumped up and down to show him it was safe saying something like shouldn't you have more faith in God that he'll protect you?.

We had a challenging but great day.

July 17th - Today was a bit of an easier day. Even though we walked farther, the climbs were not as difficult. The descents today we’re much steeper. My toes hurt, my feet hurt.  As usual we put down our tents had breakfast and off we went starting with an uphill of course. It wasn’t too difficult but it was long. We seem to have walked around one side of the valley from one end to the other as we saw the same city throughout the day. We had a couple of breaks, different restaurants today. It was nice to be able to take off boots and socks.

We saw many cows again today wearing their lovely bells. I sure am happy not to be a cow having to wear that heavy bell!  Poor things!

Overall the day was easier but longer. We were all glad to get to camp tonight. Rémi and I made our wait to the lake Champex where we thought we could go for a short swim. Yeah. No. Did not happen. The water was freezing!  Instead I opted for a nice warm shower.

We had dinner, and today was the first time I had a real meal. I hope this will help me tomorrow as I’m starting to need more energy. Off to bed we go.

First Hiking Day

Monday, July 14th - Today was our first hiking day we got up at 6:30 put down our tents and had breakfast. For lunch we made ourselves some sandwiches I made myself a nutella-peanut butter sandwich and a piece of bread with butter some ham and some cucumbers. I also grab some fruit so that I could eat throughout the day. We started off walking. We did a lot of walking today 14 or so kilometers a lot of it was uphill some of it was downhill but it was beautiful views all around.

 After breakfast we started walking to the bus stop as we were going to take a ride down to Chamonix to get to Panpraz to go up the mountain in a cable car to start our walk. Once up top off we went. The views are absolutely beautiful. I don’t think it’s anything comparable to Peru though. We have beautiful views of the mountains beautiful views of glaciers the city down below it is absolutely beautiful.

 When we stopped for lunch it was quite cold and windy.  We stayed here for about 30 minutes.  Once we got going again one of our walkers found that she had a hard time walking her knee was in quite a bit of pain. I believed it was her IT band as I have lived through it before and she was describing the exact same pain I’ve had. So instead of coming with us, Remi offered to accompany her down through a different shorter and more direct route.  Since he speaks French he would be able to get the information required to get back on track if they got lost.

The rest of the group continued going up.  We saw a beautiful waterfall, a couple of ibex. We got a few pictures of them and off we went. At this point we were descending a mountain. The trails today were very technical lots of rocks and things to trip on. We finally made it our way made our way down the mountain to little village called Argentière.  This is where we met up with Rémi and Beth.  People had beer and we made our way to the campground which was about another 20 to 30 minutes
away.

We had dinner here tonight.  What an odd dinner for campers... a mix of potato salad, some sort of coleslaw and beets. After the salad we were served mussels and french fries.  Let's say I let the dinner table still hungry as I don't eat any of those things. For dessert we had some watermelon which taste like absolutely nothing. Hopefully the food tomorrow will be a little bit better as I’m going to need more food for all the energy that I’m spending climbing mountains and descending them.  Well that’s it for now I am off to bed as I am very tired...we’ll see what tomorrow brings!

Chamonix

 Sunday, July13th -  Our first day in the Chamonix valley was more of a tourist day for us. Rémi and I went around town just walking around taking in the views. We decided to go paragliding today instead of waiting until we were finished the trek as it was perfect conditions.  A little funny story: as we were walking down to one of the offices to book, we saw Beth sitting at a restaurant. She told us she would like to go as well so we said we would let her know how the booking went.  We get to the office to see it was closed.  We decided to walk up the hill and see if anyone there could help us. As we passed by Beth again, we told her we were booked (her as well) in 30 minutes. Oh my!  The look on her face was priceless!  Her response was well, I just ate all these eggs... at which point Remi and I burst out laughing.  Told her we were just kidding.

When we arrived at the top of this huge hill, bottom of the cablecar, we found a little shop that had openings and so we booked.   What a different experience than the last time we did it in California! Different types of air currents is what makes the sail full of air.  In California, to take off, you run off the cliff and you just start to sort of float. Here in Chamonix, in the mountains, when you stand up once the sail is fully opened, you fly off like a bullet! It was a little scary! It felt like I was going to fall out of my harness!  After the take off, it’s absolutely magnificent!  The view is spectacular!  My pilot let me drive for a minute, showing me how to turn right and left.  He then asked if I wanted some strong feelings... why not... right?  OMG!  Sharp turn this way and that way! Up down all around!  Felt like being in a roller coaster!  Thank goodness that wasn’t any longer... I would have vomited! 😂. The landing was pretty smooth. 

Once we finish paragliding we went downtown, had some wonderful ice cream and then it was time

to go to our campsite for the night.  We met our guide John and camp support Emily. They briefed us  on our trek and camp experience. We then had our first dinner. It was not very good food. At least I didn’t think so. It was over cooked rice with mushrooms, which I hate, some salad which was actually decent. For dessert we had fruit salad. We then went to bed at which point I was not able to sleep.  I was up until about 3 AM as it was pouring rain and making a lot of noise.

Let’s see what tomorrow brings!

The Adventure Begins

Time has finally come for us to embark on your journey around Mont Blanc. Our flights to Geneva were pretty uneventful. I missed the bus ride from Geneva to Chamonix because I slept the whole way! I couldn't keep my eyes open... so tired!

Our hotel in Chamonix is called Rocky Pop Hotel.  It's a cute place!  They have sort of an 80s video game theme going on.  The elevator is decorated in Pacman and the likes, the hallway carpet is all about Space Invadors, the signs in the hallway are Pacman, some rooms have names like Donkey Kong... the rooms have rubics cubes and our floor is lumberjack pattern.  The rooms makes me think of Ikea...

We got to just visit Chamonix today.  We all stayed at the hotel until 5 when we all took the bus to Chamonix for dinner.  We walked around a little, had dinner and returned to our rooms.  Pretty uneventful day...

It's quite nice here.  It's how I had imagined it...  The mountain is quite beautiful when the light hits it just right! Huge glaciers, peaks hiding in the clouds...

Tomorrow, Remi, Jodi and I will see if we can get to go paragliding.  Afterwards, we will just walk around, visit the little shops and just relax.

Almost time!!

It's almost time for our adventure in France!  8 days to go!

Training is going well.  Lorna, Holly and I hiked 10k yesterday - we did Luskville Falls and went all the way to McKinstry cabin.  It was a lovely day!

Packing is also coming along.  We have everything we need... now to make it all fit in our bag!

After the hike, we are staying for 10 extra days - visiting the south of France.  Really looking forward to it as well!  Everything is planned and booked.  We have hikes, runs, beaches, medieval villages planned.  So exciting!