The last stretch to the top involved walking on loose rocks and doing some scrambling. At one point my body was on empty. I stopped to have a cliff bar. Five minutes later I was at the top of Fenetre D'Arpette. We stopped for a break and then we had to hike down on the other side. It was all boulders and scree. My leg muscles would surely feel this later.
We stopped at Relais D'Arpette to check out a place to stay. It was too expensive so we continued another half hour or so to Champex. We checked into Pension En PleinAir. She didn't want to take credit cards but that is all we have. There was suppose to be a bank here but there isn't. Don't know here we can get money. Hopefully tomorrow. It is suppose to be a short day so if we have to we can take a train someplace to get money.
We showered and then walked into town to try to find a reasonable place to eat. We found a pizza place. We ordered pizza. Mine was delicious. Good thing because I was hungry. I didn't order a Coke becaue it cost about $3.00.
My body is tired and sore, but a good rest should help. At least tomorrow is easy. All down hill.
Today we did about 9 miles. It took us about 9 ourse. Total elevation gain 4,546 feet and total descent 3,930. The book said it would take about 7 hours. The end elevation is at 4,808 feet.
September 3, 2003
Today was an easy day, which was a relief after yesterday's hike. We read that it was only going to take about 4 hours. So I stayed in bed a little longer. We skipped breakfast and we were walking by 9:10. It was beautiful day. It was a nice walk out of Chamonix. There was a lake and mountains all around. The mountains were reflected in the lake. Pretty as a picture.
Once we were on the trail, it went steeply down. Any elevation that we had gained yesterday was lost. Actually after reading the book, I found out that we are at the lowest elevation since we started. Well, that is discouraging, especially since I know the mountains are going to get much bigger. Another thing I read, was that once we finish this walk we will have crossed 11 passes, hiked up over 39,400 feet, and descended 32,800 feet. I am tired already just reading this stuff!
Anyway, the hike was great. Great views, great weather, and great that it was short. We went through woods, pastures, and villages. The village of La Grande was small and had an old church there. Everything is so close together. We didn't see anyone around.
The next village was Sembrancher. It was much bigger which isn't saying much. We wanted to find a bank because we needed money. We got there too late. It closed at 11:00 am. The streets here were also empty except for a cat or two.
We managed to find our way out of there and headed for our end destination of Le Chable. We stopped about noon to have an egg sandwich for lunch. I wanted some food before we had to climb up.
The up on the profile map looked worse than it was. As soon as we were up we had to climb down.
We got into the village and had to find the pension that was suppose to be here. We just found empty streets. It is so weird. We ended up finding out that the pension was "fini" closed, gone. So we had to check out the hotels. We checked out 4 of them, looking for the best price. They were all pretty much the same, but we went with the Hotel La Poste. It was almost double of what we paid last night. Hopefully we won't have too many more that expensive.
We checked in finally to our room. It was plain. Two beds and a sink. The toilet and shower was across the hall. I haven't seen anyone else here. Where did everyone go? We had been seeing lots of hikers on the trail except today. Today we didn't see a soul. I think the majority of them are doing the Tour of Mont Blanc which went a different route today. It was kind of nice though.
I showered and washed my clothes by hand. We have them hanging in the window. Laurie and I then checked out the grocery store and bought a few items. We need basically lunch stuff. We haven't been able to cook dinner so we are just carrying extra weight. Except tonight we are going to cook on the ledge from our window. Hopefully, nothing will fall off. We are having stuffing with chicken and cranberries. It was a great dinner I learned on the AT.
We would have loved to sit outside at some cafe and have something to drink, but it is way too expensive. I bought a package of ice tea mix. It is my substitute for Diet Coke. I don't even mind drinking it without ice.
So we are in our room, eating chips, drinking and writing notes. We are about ready to cook our dinner. Bon Apetite. Total miles today a little over 8.
September 4, 2003
We were blessed with another great day as fas ar weather goes. The sky was blue all day, without a cloud in sight.
We ate our cereal and were walking by 7:40. I misunderstood some directions ad we had to back track some. We wasted about a half an hour.
Right away the walk was up. The whole day it was up with a few small breaks of flat ground. The hike was only 5 3/4 miles, but we had 5,366 feet of elevation gain. It took us 7 1/2 hours which included breaks and retracing our steps.
Even though the hike was steep we had beautiful sights to see.. First the trail goes through some small hamlets on lanes. From a distance, the buildings look like uninhabited barns and buildings. It is not until you are close that you realize they are homes that are very much lived in. They are so close together and then there is nothing around, but land. One thing about hiking this trail is that I see things that I never would have otherwise.
