We left early in the morning to tackle “Stage 1” of Tour du Mont Blanc - the beautiful sun rays were a beautiful omen of the day ahead.
Ready to go!
Our first goal was getting to the top of Col de Tricot. The sign warned us that it wasn’t going to be a piece of cake.
We hiked down a steep gorge and then crossed a rushing river on a suspension bridge. It took courage to cross the river on a bridge that you could feel swinging - you just can’t look down!
All smiles on the other side!
Shortly after the bridge, we came to a beautiful valley where we took a short break.
We then hiked the rest of the way up to the Col de Tricot where we were greeted by a herd of sheep. At the col, we had a beautiful view of where we had just come from. . . . And where we were going!
We then hiked down a steep path (an hour/1 mile plus) to the valley below where we came across the Refuge de Miage - a beautiful place to stop for lunch.
Our special hiking sandwiches - French style!
After lunch, we had another big climb up - both Kevin and Greg made predictions about how long it would take. After reaching the top, we celebrated beating their predictions by 15 minutes - feeling STRONG!
We then reached another quaint spot complete with more spectacular views and a herd of cows.
We then had a final hike down to Les Contamines-Montjoie on a pathway through the woods.
We were so ready to get to our inn - after cleaning up, we enjoyed spending time outside in the garden. Tom was concerned about having enough Euros, so thought he might need to offer to cut the lawn :-)
We then walked a short distance into town and had dinner. After that, it was lights out for all! So happy to not set the alarms as we will have a rest day tomorrow.
A final shot of our climb from Tom’s Garmin that shows our the vertical and descents from our hike today.
Statistics from today: 8 hours of hiking, 2133 vertical ft gain, 4000 ft descent, 7.4 miles.
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