Sabbatical - 8/21 - Collapsing Into France
So what happens when you hike for eight days in a row, the last of which leaves you utterly bone tired?
To put that in context, my first Grand Canyon hike was one very strenuous day. My second Grand Canyon hike was two very strenuous days in a row. A really heavy workout week might involve 90 miles of bike riding broken into ten segments, three nights of CrossFit and another fifteen miles of walking the dog. Do you know what all those workouts have in common that hiking dozens of miles in eight days doesn't share? Down time to recover beyond sleeping. Heck, even when I worked out prior to boot and lifted weights twice a day, five days a week, and ran 6-10 miles every single day, I still had plenty of recovery time that I didn't get here, and I'm a lot older now.
In short, when the start of the hike was a steep climb on a hot morning, my knees buckled and I went down hard. Fortunately, we were barely a mile into the climb, so after I recovered a bit I was able to make it back down to the van. So instead of walking back into France, I rode in the van.
Prior to this, the day had started off fine. We had the usual excellent breakfast, then checked out some old WWII military installations near the hotel. The hotel overlooked a pass down to Germany, so during the war there were some bunkers built to guard it. To hide these bunkers, they were actually built under a fake house, and then the gunports were hidden behind fake boulders. We were able to go into the bunkers and look out. I wouldn't have wanted to be first guy to attack them up a long pass, that's for sure. We took a short van ride to the start of the hike and then the trouble started.
Once back in France I and the other van riders for the day had our lunch at a park in Chamonix and watched a bunch of people parasailing over the valley. From there we went headed to the ski resort that is on the border trail. Although the snow was long gone from this run in August, the lifts were still operating, because in the summer the ski resort hosts hikers and mountain biking. We took the lift all the way to the top, and from there had a short walk to the chalet that rests on the border between Switzerland and France. At this point the weather was crisp and clear and there were gorgeous views of the mountains in all directions. We got the obligatory photo with the border pylon, then took the lifts back down. I was dropped off at the hotel early. I drank a beer at a English ex-pat bar called "The Office", then passed out in the hotel. I slept all afternoon until dinner, which was another group outing involving a lot of delicious fondue and another round Genepy, which hadn't improved since we drank it in Italy. Then I went back to bed and slept like the dead until morning.
On a side note, the mountain bikers were a lot of fun to watch as we went overhead in the ski lifts. They all wore copious body armor - not just a helmet, but kevlar jackets, gloves and pants. I've seen motorcyclists who were less protective gear.
Photos thirty-two through forty of this set are from August 21, as are photos one through four from this set.
To put that in context, my first Grand Canyon hike was one very strenuous day. My second Grand Canyon hike was two very strenuous days in a row. A really heavy workout week might involve 90 miles of bike riding broken into ten segments, three nights of CrossFit and another fifteen miles of walking the dog. Do you know what all those workouts have in common that hiking dozens of miles in eight days doesn't share? Down time to recover beyond sleeping. Heck, even when I worked out prior to boot and lifted weights twice a day, five days a week, and ran 6-10 miles every single day, I still had plenty of recovery time that I didn't get here, and I'm a lot older now.
In short, when the start of the hike was a steep climb on a hot morning, my knees buckled and I went down hard. Fortunately, we were barely a mile into the climb, so after I recovered a bit I was able to make it back down to the van. So instead of walking back into France, I rode in the van.
Prior to this, the day had started off fine. We had the usual excellent breakfast, then checked out some old WWII military installations near the hotel. The hotel overlooked a pass down to Germany, so during the war there were some bunkers built to guard it. To hide these bunkers, they were actually built under a fake house, and then the gunports were hidden behind fake boulders. We were able to go into the bunkers and look out. I wouldn't have wanted to be first guy to attack them up a long pass, that's for sure. We took a short van ride to the start of the hike and then the trouble started.
Once back in France I and the other van riders for the day had our lunch at a park in Chamonix and watched a bunch of people parasailing over the valley. From there we went headed to the ski resort that is on the border trail. Although the snow was long gone from this run in August, the lifts were still operating, because in the summer the ski resort hosts hikers and mountain biking. We took the lift all the way to the top, and from there had a short walk to the chalet that rests on the border between Switzerland and France. At this point the weather was crisp and clear and there were gorgeous views of the mountains in all directions. We got the obligatory photo with the border pylon, then took the lifts back down. I was dropped off at the hotel early. I drank a beer at a English ex-pat bar called "The Office", then passed out in the hotel. I slept all afternoon until dinner, which was another group outing involving a lot of delicious fondue and another round Genepy, which hadn't improved since we drank it in Italy. Then I went back to bed and slept like the dead until morning.
On a side note, the mountain bikers were a lot of fun to watch as we went overhead in the ski lifts. They all wore copious body armor - not just a helmet, but kevlar jackets, gloves and pants. I've seen motorcyclists who were less protective gear.
Photos thirty-two through forty of this set are from August 21, as are photos one through four from this set.