Category: GR5 2018

I woke this morning to the sun warming up my tent around 8am. It certainly went below freezing last night, and paired with the slow drizzling rain and sleet, made for a very lovely sleep in my awesome 10° zpacks sleeping bag. I havent slept that well in a while. I actually had dreams for once!

And what a contrast had the surroundings of my pitch undergone. No longer were the mountains and the lake shrouded in fog, but were wide open with clear blue skies overhead.

I was gonna seize this awesome weather and make it into Chamonix this afternoon for a well deserved burger and a few nights staying at the local hiker hostal, the Vagabond Inn.

Today was rough.

It started out great, with a nice breakfast at the auberge (I had the whole place to myself last night as I was the only person to book! Very strange for a Friday night in the Alps, but I did enjoy the solitude) and plenty of time to collect strength and wait out the morning drizzle.

I left the Inn about 9am and hiked 3km up a road to the beginning of the real trail for the day, which started by a small restaurant at the end of a road called Le Lignon. Along the way I passed a beautiful cascade! It would’ve been a lot more beautiful if it weren’t for the dreary fog, but that’s pretty much the story of this entire day of hiking.

There was about a 1,000m climb from the inn to a plateau with a refuge in it. Near the plateau, the trail was an awesome ridge trail, but again, the fog destroyed any hope of a good view.

At one point, I waited on the edge of the ridge, and I was lucky! The fog kinda cleared long enough for me to snap a picture of the village of Sixt Fer du Cheval, where I started this morning.

The trail came to a plateau and the rain continued to assail in periods of drizzling and slightly less drizzling.

To make matters worse, I had to deal with sharp stomache pains all day, the fallout from the stomache flu I got over a week ago. They would not go away!! Very aggravating. That forced me to take more breaks and overall I felt sluggish because of it. I only made about 11km today, which is well below my average, but there is only about 15km to go into Chamonix tomorrow, where I have booked a bed for 3 nights.

Hopefully all of this will clear up, both the meteorological and physiological funk that has been wrecking this hike the last few days. It’s very discouraging to have to climb so high, doing 3-5,000 feet of ascent, and to have nothing good to show for it.

I’m really positive Perry today if you can’t tell! I just want to feel normal again and have clear skies for photos! This is not asking too much I hope.

Anyways, I hiked to the Anterne refuge where I had a coke and met up with a couple of Brits who had spent the last few years working here in this very valley! They live in Samoens, where I was just a couple days ago, and were out here to explore this area and try out the refuges. I was jealous they they were done at 3pm and already having beers!

There was also an awesome water wheel at the refuge, with a big gear hooked up to spin an alternator, which was powering all the lights and things inside! Very cool display of renewable energy! I’ll have to try to make one of those sometime.

I carry on another 300m up the mountain and find a nice spot to camp by Anterne lake. Man it was nice to get out of the drizzle and cold and into my warm sleeping bag tonight. What a tough day. Tomorrow will be better. Chamonix will make all the hard parts worth it.

Short 3km hike to the village of Sixt Fer du Cheval, named after the horseshoe like feature of the riverbend in town. Surrounded by impressive sheer mountains on all sides.

Grab a few comforts at the supermarket and hang out. I booked a bed at an Auberge in town, but have to wait til 5 to check in.

In no hurry to do these last 20km to the marvelous Chamonix-Mont-Blanc. It’s Friday today, and everything there was booked this weekend, so I reserved three nights at a hiker hostal, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights.

I’m glad to beat the mad rush of the weekend in probably the most touristed center of all the Alps. Chamonix is world famous for its mountain views, especially of the highest mountain in all Europe, Mont Blanc.

Getting in on a Sunday, I’ll be able to lounge around and wave goodbye to the stream of tourists flooding out of the valley to make it home for their Monday commutes, haha.

And further, I get to take some time to rest and take it easy. I am still recovering from the nasty stomache flu that knocked me on my ass for three days, and took much of the joy out of the following three days of hiking.

And I get to wait out this dreary rainy foggy weather of the last couple days, to see these famous Sixt Fer du Cheval views in all their glory. As my hiker friend Croc Rocket told me before starting the CDT, one of the best things you can do on trail is to be flexible, and this is a perfect example!

The owner of the auberge is super nice, and was very fun to talk to. Being that I was the only person staying at this inn tonight, it was fun to ask him questions and get his story as to why he decided to buy a travelers inn and make this his lifestyle in his retirement years.

“It’s very important to be around and have interactions with people. And here, no matter whether you are Swiss, French, German, American, you can have a bed and a full day of meals, and that is the same for all people, it is a necessity of all people, regardless of nationality.”

I paraphrase, but that was what I remember from the conversation.

Hiking down into the village of Samoëns.

Then, hiking out a little ways into the woods to pitch camp early around 5pm.

Another 17km, this time through Switzerland!

Sick with the stomach flu, I spend three days at a couple different hotels in Chapelle d’Abondance, not getting out of bed or eating very much, until the last day when I felt a bit better. I knew I had to eat to get better and to have the strength to hike out the next day, but it is very difficult when your body just doesn’t want you to eat!

I guess this isn’t the worst place to get sick, but I wish I could’ve avoided this altogether..

I spend the morning hiking past two cols and down to the village Chappelle d’Abondance, but it becomes increasingly apparent that something’s not quite right with me..

I feel off. Suddenly I have lost any drive or energy to hike out of town, which is totally not normal.

After asking at a few different “hiker” hostels and being rejected (reservation only) I had no choice but to settle for a $150 room at a really swank resort spa hotel.

I’ll leave out the gritty details but I had to spend the next 3 days basically in bed due to illness and the associated fatigue of not really being able to eat.

Today was the first full day hiking the Grande Traverse of the Alps! I awoke at my wooded campsite in the hunting preserve, and packed up to hit the trail by 8:30.

There was nice level trail through small subdivisions, nice forest parks, and along a mountainside, winding down to the River Dranse. I stop there to grab some water and make coffee.

After, I cross the river on an old stone footbridge and climb steeply up a wooded hillside, eventually coming to a country road that leads on to the next stretch of trail. Wow, some of the houses here are immaculately cute! Every details, and many things you would never even think to do to a house, have been done just to make every inch of the living space truly beautiful. These people obvs take a lot of pride in the homes that they own.

The trail leads down to a nice stream, which was a great place to stop for lunch. I found some awesome little fruits on a nearby tree, I don’t know what to call them! They had the taste and pit of a peach, the consistency and skin of an apple, and the size of a cherry! They were totally delicious and a great random snack to find in the woods.

Then, it was time to start the 1,000m climb of the day. I climbed up into the mountains on trails, dirt roads, asphalt, gravel, through forests and grassy meadows and past cows and stables and chalets, all while being wowed by ever more impressive views of Lake Geneva.

Finally, I came to the top of the mountains at the Tete de Fieux, and the amazing ridge walking began. I had a bit of a climb up to about 1,900m and then was able to ride a very steep ridge for a couple kilometers, soaking in the first real views of the Alps of France and Switzerland.

I find a nice lake and go ahead and make dinner about 6pm. It’s been surprisingly hard to find water today! Probably because I’m not quite in the mountains yet, but on the cusp of them, at their front door.

Hiked on a bit further and found delightful views of both the East and West ends of Lake Geneva. Found the first real mountain spring and happily fill up with 2L of fresh water. And theres a sweet camp site with a view just a hundred meters away!

The GR5 has seriously cranked out the views today. I heard it was really scenic, but come on! What trail is this pretty on day 1?! Crazy.

Looks like rain tonight, with frequent lightning and thunder in the distance back the way I came from.

Good night!

Today, I will start the GR5. Or at least try to. Even one step on the trail would be good enough.

I say goodbye to my friends that run the Hotel Canal Banyuls, who are hikers themselves, and head to the beach for one last view of the Mediterranean Sea in this Paradise Promise Land of the post thru-hike, where (naturally) it’s perfectly acceptable to drink and be topless whenever and wherever you like. The French and Spanish don’t judge. Alcohol and the freedom of the body are some of their most beloved cultural traits! To protect and entertain, in party we trust.

And of course many of the best dance music aficionados hail from France. Daft Punk, Justice, and Madeon, to name a few.

To make it to that first, contractually binding step of the Grande Randonnee Cinq through the Alps, I only have to make it through four train rides with a mile-and-a-half walk and a bus ride sandwiched in between:

Banyuls to Montpellier, 1hr change

Montpellier to Lyon Part Dieu, 14min change

Lyon to Geneva, 40 minute change

2.3km walk to a different station

Geneva to Annemasse, 30min bus

Annemasse to Thonon-les-bains, the official starting point of the GR5 through the Alps.

Thonon-les-bains to Nice, 400 miles of the most resplendently pretty mountain walking (on any planet that we know of).

I make it through the first connection to Montpellier alright. I befriended a couple french girls, although they didn’t speak much English. It’s fun to try and communicate with people when they literally cannot recognize a word you say! Thank Nature for Google Translate.

Once at the station, they want you to pay a few cents to use the bathroom at the station, but some revolutionary soul was pressing the exit button on repeat to let everyone through for free. Viva la France!

The second train to Lyon also goes well, and arrives 5 minutes ahead of schedule, making the 14 minute layover feel a little less stressful. I pushed past the large group of kids and chaperones who were also getting off and was relieved to find that the train to Geneva was just one platform over! Ahhh. The sound of stress evaporation.

The third train led immediately into an immense canyon which goes up towards Lake Geneva, the largest natural lake in Europe, with several small towns along the way.

There were a couple Americans on board, from Seattle and New York. It was a treat to get to speak to people in a language that you comprehend! You truly don’t realize how good you have it in an English-speaking country until you jump feet first into foreign lands.

I hopped off the train in Geneva and had a nice 2.5km sunset march across the city to another station, Eaux-Vives, where I caught a bus back into France at Annemasse, and finally, the last train of the night at 9:52 going to Thonon-les-bains, the official start of the GR5.

I quickly snapped some start photos and made my way along the well marked path through town. Finally, after a another 2.5km, I came to a densely forested hunting reserve, which I took as the perfect place to pitch camp at around 11:00pm.

GR5, begun.