Mileage: 12.5 miles
Elevation gain: 4500 ft
Camping: In the field behind the tourist office
I wish I could say that I slept like a baby in the tent. Sadly, I heard every single noise that happened. I decided that from here on out, I would sleep with my headphones and music playing, which ended up working very well.
We woke up, had a little breakfast at the campground and got everything packed up to head out for a long-uphill day of hiking. We starting hiking at 8:00 am.
Who's ready for a long day of hiking???
The first mile or so was very flat and followed along a stream. Soon, we stumbled upon a beautiful church, which was the Church of Notre Dame de la Gorge.
The Church of Notre Dame de la Gorge
It was a welcomed little stop before we started climbing.
Ready to start climbing. The first few miles of climbing were pretty mild and dare I say pleasant?
We had beautiful views and blue skies for our climb
Nothing beats hearing cowbells in the Alps!
My hiking partner was all smiles and getting excited about the upcoming snow passes to hike thru!
We saw a little refugio and decided that we should stop for a little sunscreen application and a Coke. I have never drank as much soda as I did on this trip. Anytime we stopped at a refugio, I wanted something that was halfway between water and wine, so Coke it was!
The building on the right is where we stopped for a quick break.
We met some girls from Rhode Island and they insisted on taking a picture for us. One of them told us that she knows what it is like to be on vacation with her husband and only have selfies. It sure was sweet of her to insist on a picture. She did this every time we saw her.
I am not much of a hat person, but I believe wearing a hat on this trip saved me a lot of burning.
We knew that we would be hiking in snow, but that it would not be dangerous. We had been monitoring the snow on the TMB Facebook page and thanks to the heat wave that hit the area the week prior, we knew it was safe to pass without crampons or snow spikes.
He was so excited about the snow. I was okay with it as long as there were no steep drop-offs on the other side.
Snow ready!
Snow!
We reached the top of our first Col, the Col du Bonhomme and took a little break in the snow. The sad part was that I could see the area where we were going next and it looked as though one of the passes thru the snow would include a steep drop off.
On the way to the next col, we were treated to some amazing views.
We made it to the top of Col de la Croix du Bonhomme, our second col of the day!
I was pretty relieved that the snow passes were behind us for the day!
Refugio Bonhomme
We stopped here for a coke and some delicious pasta carbonara. The bathroom situation here was my least favorite on the entire trail. I chose to just hold it.
There were some beautiful views from the refugio!
After we enjoyed our pasta lunch, we started the long trek down to Les Chapieux. I really dislike hiking downhill for so long, but we were treated to beautiful scenery.
We were just a few days early for the flowers in this field to be blooming. I cannot imagine how beautiful it would be.
Mount Blanc looking beautiful
We were having a great time together
We had the most amazing weather and felt so lucky that we were getting to see the views that we did.
We could have sat there for hours and enjoyed the sunshine and scenery
The final few miles were a little rough being straight downhill and all. We arrived at Les Chapieux at 4:00 pm, set up our tent and stopped off for drinks at the local refugio.
Rose for the win!
We ate dinner at the refugio and were seated next to an Italian couple. The wife spoke a little English, but the husband did not. I was trying to explain to here what we were doing, but I am not sure she completely understood. Either that, or she thought we were crazy.
Our little set up for the night.
The view from our tent
I liked sitting by the stream and listening to the bells on the sheep.
My favorite part of the evening was when the farmer called out for dinner time and the sheep came running down the hill for dinner!
Doesn't everyone sleep with muffins above them? This was our breakfast the following morning.
We were in bed fairly early for an early wake up the next day. We had a 19 mile day ahead of us!
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