Sunday, August 18, 2024
End: Ruins of Plate-Lombarde Fort
Ascent: 1000 m
Descent: 1300 m
Distance: 23 km
Total: 102 km
It was a bit chilly for me, sleeping up around 2400 meters. But there’s no doubt it was a beautiful spot to wake up, next to the very blue Lake Behind the Cross. We packed up and got hiking early with a mission: get to Larche and buy some food.
The weirdest thing was that as we were leaving, our children were singing Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini. You can’t make this kind of thing up.
The valley was beautiful, even wrapped wrapped in fog. We hiked down and down for a long time, passing sheep in their pen. As we went farther down, we started passing more and more hikers going up. This is the pattern of hiking in the Alps. People stay in town and do day hikes up in the mountains nearby.
We eventually got down to a parking lot and started down the road to Larche. A navette passed us a couple times, shuttling hikers up from town. We made good time descending the mountain, ready to get to town.
After several hours of continuous hiking, we approached the town. We came across a campground and went into the camp store to buy some food. I decided we would just buy the children lollipops, which are vital for Daniel’s motivation. I knew there was another store in town.
We headed into town and found that the other store had moved to the campground we had just visited. At the information center, we found out about another food store in town. Alex went to find it while I charged my phone. The woman at the center said they see few hikers on the GR56, and most people are on the well-known GR5.
Unfortunately, due to miscommunication, Alex didn’t find the other store, and by the time I found it, it bad just closed. That’s life in France on a Sunday.
We went back to a restaurant where we had been told to order a pizza. We sat down and were told that they only serve pizza in the evening. We ordered some overpriced stuff and did our best to get the children to eat.
After lunch, I went back to the campground to get some more food, and found it was closed until 2PM. Thoroughly frustrated, we determined to leave the joke of a town that is Larche, and continue on out hike.
The afternoon was a long climb up to Mallemort Pass, high above Larche. We hiked up to an old bunker and took a break. Alex did her best to clean the children up in a stream.
We crawled up the mountain at a drunken snail’s pace, with sunshine broken up by dark clouds. There was occasional thunder in the distance, but I was encouraged that we seemed to be hiking away from it.
After a few hours, we were close to the top. I got a photo of a tame marmot that was curious as to what we were doing outside his home. We were warned that there were shepherd dogs on the other side of the pass, so when we descended we cut on the near side of the old army barracks to stay away from the huge flock of sheep. The shepherd and his dogs were in the ruins of the barracks.
Our final mission was to get over to Vallonnet Pass and descend to a good spot to camp. I was getting a little cold as we were up high, and there was a little breeze. I really wish I had brought a jacket on this hike, but I couldn’t afford the weight at the beginning when I was carrying 5 days of food.
We made it up and over the pass, then started down. I wanted to see if there was a cabin for us down at the old fort ruins. I filtered some water and we went to find out.
Unfortunately, there was no cabin. There was a private cabin, but that was it. I was unhappy to have to set up the tent again, as I haven’t been sleeping well in it. We set it up on top of the old bunker, and had our dinner.
It was another long day, but we accomplished a lot. We were in position to get more food the next morning.
