6.72 miDistance
3,031 ftElevation gain
2,147 ftElevation loss
6 h 25 mTime
A chilly morning started the day, and thankfully the whole gang is moving. Charles and Sophie debating calling it quits last night, but I offered the use of one of my knee braces, and she accepted. I will just have to alternate my single remaining one throughout the day. It's day seven, and that means there's only seven more days to go. The trail has been hard and I'm enjoying it, but I'm also starting to look forward to the hotel at the end.
Breakfast was more bread and jam, this time with some apple sauce, and some more chocolate milk. Not the most filling, but what are ya gonna do?
We had a slow start to the day once we got going. The way out of the refuge was back over the bridge we had come in on, and then the trail turned to the right and headed up towards a mountain ridge pass in the far distance. Just above the refuge was more bog-like grounds, and it was tricky once again trying to find a way through it.
The trail went through shrubs of trees and rocks as it wound its way up the stones towards the ridge pass. We took a wrong turn at one point and had to double back, losing some time. The sun was rising behind this ridge, and thus the whole trail was in dark shadow. It took us about two hours to get to the top. We took a well-deserved break on the stony ground near the ridge pass, with a huge dropoff danging below us.
The way down to the next, lower, ridge wasn't that bad. There were some drops were we had to scoot down on our butts, and rely on some chains for the other parts. We decided to take an easier lower route from there instead of taking the harder upper route and scrambling over sharp-looking rocks.
We took a break in some shade of a large boulder after completing the lower route, and before continuing along the trail that seemed to run for a good while along the side of a mountain. It was chilly with the wind in the shade of this boulder, which meant we didn't hang out here long. Overall it's very windy in this area.
About an hour and a half later and I finished the flat section of the trail and made it up the ascent to a snow-patch covered area with ice-cold waters perfect for dipping your feet in. The waters were too dirty to fully get into, but they were just right for my feet.
With cold refreshed feet I continued on towards the descent into the next refuge for the night. The way down was a lot steeper than it looked from high above. It was filled with switchbacks, very steep switchbacks, and waterfalls, making the rocks extra slippery. But I made it down faster than I thought I would, and when I went to checkin I ran into Peter and Tyezet chilling in the shaded eating area of the refuge. Once again they had saved some spots for us.
I got the tent set up, but I could tell that it was going to be a windy night. I still haven't figured out how to properly pitch the tent, and that's also probably due to having to use rocks for the tent stakes at every campsite because of the rock-hard ground. I hope they hold.
This place has Sundaes! And eggs! I ordered a plate of fries on top of fried eggs, a coke (first of the trip), and a sundae for lunch. Super healthy, right? I didn't care, it was amazing. It hit the spot. We played some exploding kittens, and I read for a bit, while waiting for dinner.
Dinner was pre-assigned seating, which meant our group wouldn't be sitting together. Bummer. I ended up eating dinner with a bunch of non-english speaking strangers except for two other Belgians who spoke English, so I spoke with them while we ate. Everyone is amazed that I came all the way from Chicago specifically to do this trek. I still haven't met any other Americans though.
After dinner our gang played some more card games, one called Liar this time. Supposedly the refuge tomorrow has amazing lasagna, so I'm definitely looking forward to that!
