We had an early shuttle from Bourg St Maurice back to the trail at Les Chapiuex, because we had a big day in front of us to get all the way to Courmayeur – 19-20 miles and 5500’ of climb! We grabbed some breakfast on the way to the shuttle from a local cafe, but I found later my chocolate croissant was missing! 😦
I grabbed a quick coffee in Les Chapiuex, as well as a chocolate croissant to replace the missing one, while the others started out. But after I finished, I jogged to catch Kelly and Kelly and we hiked the 1st few miles together.
Some photos on the road and trail up to Refuge des Mottets, where we’d start our 1st big climb.
The climb to Col de la Segne, the border between France and Italy, had amazing mountain views the entire way. On the way down to the valley, I couldn’t find the water source — in hindsight it must have been up the side trail to a Refugio a bit. But I kept on going, which would later come back to hurt me a bit.
Our friend Jase was going to be in Courmayeur to run the GrandTrail Courmayeur 100k that night, and I started seeing these flags on the 2nd big climb… So I texted Jase to see if we were on his race course and we were!
I also caught up with Scott at the top, so we did the rest of the hike together… down a big drop to a Refugio which thankfully had some water – I had been low for far too long! I Ddrank a lot of water here, and then headed down down down. The ladies would end up taking the chairlift and gondola down from here, as it was an extremely steep 2-3 miles without any views.
We had a couple miles to hike through town to get to our bead and breakfast – Maison La Saxe, which was very nice, though not so easy to find! (All those little streets were a maze and google maps was not very helpful.)
After we all cleaned up, we headed into town, quite hungry (hangry?), and we found an amazing pizza place, Ristorante Pizzeria du Tunnel.
And of course, good gelato. Mine was dark chocolate (darkest ever) and coffee:
After that, we met Jase and his son Cade near the race start at 10 pm:
Then we headed back to the bead and breakfast to crash — we were all so tired!
(I’ll try not to go 2 months between TMB posts, or I’ll forget too many details!)
After breakfast at the Refugio, we opted to head in to town to buy some lunch for the day. We ended up w/ salami/sausage and cheese, not just cheese, due to a language barrier, but eventually got some very nice cheese only. That and baguettes and we were good to go. I wanted to hit the rest room before we left, and this is what I found at a public one in town:
After a short flat trek, we came to Notre-Dame-de-La-Gorge:
And then it was a big climb…. And this is where it started to feel pretty crowded! I passed a lot of people, and it was all beautiful.
After the pass on the way down, I ran into this!:
And the did block the trail!:
Scott and I had a couple hours in Les Chapeaux, and we had very little cell coverage with Kelly and Kelly, even if I got on the local wifi. We were supposed to take a taxi in to Bourg St. Maurice, and found there were vans running every so often. But several were booked, and Scott and I didn’t know when the ladies would arrive. We ended up just getting 4 tickets for the last shuttle, which was a lot cheaper (and safer!) than trying to get a taxi. Safer just because we weren’t sure how long taxi drivers were going to be around!
We had a nice hotel in Bourg St. Maurice and a good dinner right there too. We had a big day the next day, so booked an early shuttle back to the TMB the next day.
I should rewind a bit after the prelude, and talk about the logistics of the trip. I would guess upwards of 75-80% of people who hike the TMB use tour guide companies to at least help with accommodations, though a quick check with Grok and it might be less. Either way, self booking can be pretty complicated. There is a site that ties most/all of the Refugios together, but if you want to mix it up and use some hotels and some Refugios, it gets harder. That combined with having a distance range in mind per day, trying to secure lodging when different places open reservations on different days, etc, and it can be quite difficult and time consuming. All that said, KellyE took it on to manage all of that, and KellyB and I are incredibly grateful! From securing lodging, buses, breakfast/dinner/lunches, and luggage transport, KellyE had it all planned and documented for us!
Wednesday, July 9th, we woke up in Chamonix, had breakfast at our hotel “Plan B,” and jumped on an early bus to Les Houches. We were getting a little nervous that maybe we were at the wrong place as our bus was late, but there were other folks there that were obviously going out for long hikes. We later found that the buses in the area are often several minutes late. Our bus eventually arrived, we boarded and had a good 10-15 stops before Les Houches. At each stop, more and more people got on. It was soon quite crowded! But we made it to the bus stop right across from the Arch that is considered the start of the TMB.
And we were off! (After we watched everyone else get photos, and we took a few of our own.)
We had about a mile or two on flat ground before we started climbing! Scott and I got ahead of the ladies, and I quickly saw that navigation was not always going to be obvious. There weren’t always signs at road/trail junctions, or if there were, I thought they could be a little confusing. I was using Far Out and could see where I needed to go, but I was worried KellyB might not have been as familiar navigating with that. So I jogged back down to Kelly and Kelly, got KellyB set up with Far Out and the TMB maps, and started back up. KellyE always had paper maps as well as the book descriptions of what to look for. We really needed all of those sources over the course of the trip!
I reached a water stop and bathroom, and opted to run back a little to the ladies so we could enjoy some of this section together:
There were some huge slugs!
It was near the water stop when I overhead a group of runners talking about pin holes in their bladders, and I asked if they had tried to patch, but the one had just received a replacement from Salomon.. I told them that I had several pin holes right before “a big event,” and the patches didn’t help, so just had to order a new bladder rather than try to get a warranty replacement. One of the ladies asked what the big event was, and I was like “uh, Barkley.” I hadn’t really planned to say the event name, but she asked directly! They were all quite surprised! Normally I don’t really talk about that event much, and this was the only time all week it came up with anyone outside of those I was with.
Eventually I took off from the ladies to run the last bit. This was when there started to be some discrepancies between Scott’s GPX files and the Far Out app. And even the street signs weren’t always that helpful. One example:
The red line is supposed to be the main route, and the purple is an alternate. I ran up to the red, but it was just a paved road, while the purple was a trail along the river. So I opted for the latter which looked much nicer. This would become a theme the rest of the trip… Debating between Scott’s GPX files, the Far Out app, and what was actually there in real life! Scott’s was nice because it actually took us right to our lodging locations when they weren’t on the trail, so I just used a combo.
I got to the Refugio and it wasn’t open yet, but Scott and I sat on the deck for a while. Eventually the owner came and let us in, and I got cleaned up and had enough time to wash and then dry my clothes in the sun. We had a nice dinner and the four of us were in a private room, with a shared bathroom (with a bunch of ladies from Norway)!
Originally had “Day 1” vs. “prelude” and had “day 1” in quotes because this was far more than a day…
I first saw a warning about tropical storm Chantal on Friday, just as a high pressure weather system hanging on off the coast of NC/SC. Didn’t really think much about it at 1st.
By Saturday it was a real concern, as we were supposed to get Grampy’s boat from Little River to north of Holden Beach — on the water! — Sunday morning. We opted to get the jet skis out of the water Saturday afternoon and this was what Reece saw, sharing with the family with the caption “Grampy going out for a joy ride.”
And what I saw the other direction…
Over (Saturday) night, there was a ton of wind and rain keeping both Kelly and I awake, as the rain beat on the windows of the condo and the wind howled. This was probably just before that time:
Kelly woke up with a plan B: to get Grampy’s trailer by driving and hour north and then back, get the boat off the water locally, and get out of town – in cars rather than on the water. So Grampy and I drove up and grabbed the trailer, then Grampy drove the boat the couple miles on the water to the boat ramp, and I dropped Reece off to help Grampy load the boat. I had to get on the road quickly to get home to PBO and then quickly get to the airport.
I later learned that Reece and Grampy had quite the time getting the boat onto the trailer in the wind and rain and river current, which was running high due to all the over night rain. Additionally, they had a flat tire on the trailer on the way home. Reece was our ride to the airport, so things were getting tight!
I got home with the skis and Kelly came in right behind me. We had both driven through “flood waters” in the Fort Bragg area (I’d say 8-10” of water on the road in some places) and had less than an hour turn around to get ready to go to RDU. We had of course already packed, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t last minute things we had to do.
We were ready about the time Reece pulled in and we quickly loaded our bags, picked up the Evenson’s, and made it to RDU. It took a little while to check in (had to check a gear bag) and I think our rep was trying to help with the 10 hour LHR lay over, but no luck. We ended up with at least 45 minutes, maybe an hour in the lounge, before it was time to board.
Amazingly, even with the tropical storm and flooding, our flight took off on time, we landed in London on time, and now had 10 hours to kill. Somehow Kelly’s boarding pass showed “emerald” — I’m going to credit our rep that checked us in, which allowed us to get the Evensons into the BA lounge in Heathrow terminal 5, which is quite nice.
10 hours in LHR — that’s a long time. We took advantage of the lounge — Kelly showered, I think we all ate 3 meals, some of us slept.
No photos of the ladies sleeping — they found some nicer, more comfortable chairs…
There was also a point where I saw power outages in Pittsboro via some of the home automation apps (HVAC and cameras offline), so I messaged Reece. He said there was some weird beeping in the basement, and my 1st thought was “oh no!” That’s probably the water sensing alarm. I had him go down, and yep, that’s what it was. I had hoped it was just the condensation pump over flowing or the HVAC dripping, but nope, this was more than that.
About 20 years ago, the house drain pipe had been clogged by a bob cat driving near it and pushing Chatham County clay about 6 inches in. So I had Reece go find it, and sure enough, somehow it was clogged again. 😦 Reece cleared it out, and then had to deal with the water in the basement. Luckily it was caught early, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t a lot of work. Towels and shop vacs and fans and some help from Grampy, and all was well.
After LHR it was on to Geneva, where we took a bus to a hotel not too far from the airport. A quick sleep, a good breakfast, a bus back to the airport, and then it was just over an hour bus ride to Chamonix, where someone got another nap in:
Our hotel:
A few shots around Chamonix:
We had crepes for lunch!
Where the UTMB race starts and finishes:
And TACOs for dinner, on TACO Tuesday!
And then it was back to the hotel and time to get some sleep before we’d start our big adventure in the morning! That would be Wednesday July 9th after leaving NC on Sunday July 6th… Sunday night in the air, Monday in LHR, Tuesday Geneva to Chamonix and an afternoon there…
The kids were off to Camp Booyah Sunday – Friday, so Kelly and I got to take the van out for it’s first real road trip — five nights in the van exploring parts of NC we’ve not been to as much as the Boone area.
We drove to Lake Powhatan Camp Ground just outside of Asheville for our 1st night.
We love Asheville so decided to head into town, park the van (in downtown — it fits in a regular parking spot!), and go to one of our favorite restaurants – Salsa’s.
We had enough time to walk around a little, and came across this old London double decker bus that is now a coffee shop — it had quite the driver:
Lake Powhatan camp site was pretty nice – tons of trails to explore! The next morning, we explored the area by bike, and stumbled across the NC Arboretum, so we spent some time there. They had a pretty amazing bonsai section that we both really enjoyed.
On day 2, we drove from the Asheville area up to Hot Springs NC. We had a camp site right on the French Broad. While this camp site was not quite as nice as the Lake Powhatan one, it was good enough for us. We spent two nights here, chilling by the river, hiking/running, and enjoying the hot springs (which are hot tubs that have the hot spring water pumped in), as well as the local restaurants.
After two nights in Hot Springs, we headed south back through Asheville on the way to Brevard, where we stayed in Davidson River camp site. We restocked groceries in Asheville, and had our 1st lunch in the van in the grocery store parking lot. 🙂 Davidson River Camp Ground was very nice, and we definitely plan to come back and stay longer.
Brevard is known for it’s waterfalls, so we did go in search of a few. I think we hit four in one day, a few much more remote than others! One was right off the road (Looking Glass Falls) and is the most photographed waterfalls anywhere, another was a secluded drive on a forrest road to a mile hike (Log Hollow Falls), and another was a much longer but less secluded forrest road to a 2+ mile out and back hike (Twin Falls). We also rode our bikes into town and ate at Pad Thai on night one, and hit Oscar Blues Brewery on day two.
Brevard has white squirrels — I thought it was an albino, but come to find out, this is their normal color! Amazing we had just seen black squirrels in Niagara the week before!
Van life is definitely for us — can’t wait to get back out there!
While this road trip was in a van, it was not a #vanlife road trip. We rented a 12 passenger van for Kelly’s dad, sister and her family Loci and the boys, and us. So 9 of us in a 12 passenger van to Canada! At least we broke the drive on the way up by stopping after 4-5 hours, but on the way back it was one straight shot!
Before we got to Niagra, we did stop in Buffalo at the home of the original wing:
Make that 250 million!
We have a lot of photos, but I’ll try to capture just a few things. The 1st evening we just walked around “up top,” and didn’t venture down. The shots from there are not that exciting, so I won’t share them.
The next morning, Kelly and I got up and did an exploratory run, so here are some shots from that:
We found just a few Canadian Geese in Dufferin Island park!
But then we got our 1st views of the powerful falls!
Later we caught up with everyone and walked around more, but also made our 1st (of 3!) ventures up the Skylon tower. (We bought a day and night pass, but then found our tour the next day also included another trip up!)
The tower does some funny photos:
Later we drove to Niagra-on-the-Lake on Lank Ontario which was quite a nice little town, and stopped at a couple wineries on the way back.
The next day we had quite the tour planned! We would meet our guides at 8:30 in the morning, and the first stop was a surprise — back to the Skylon tower! After that, we Journeyed Behind the Falls (well worth it!), drove north along the river, and then got to venture out on the famous Hornblower, which brings you right up to the falls!
Later we ate at the locals’ recommendations (Chucks – reasonable prices compared to most other options) and a few of us ventured into the Myrtle Beach-like section of town:
The next day Kelly and I ran from Canada to NY! We ran the 1.5 miles from the hotel to the pedestrian bridge, and even though we had our passports (required), we did not have the $1 toll! 😦 So we ran back to the hotel, picked up some dollars, and headed back. I’m so glad we got to see the NY side – well worth it! Niagra Falls State Park in NY was really nice, and we got to see the US side of Horseshoe falls, Bridal Veil falls, and the American Falls, all from a different perspective.
We liked it so much, we talked the rest of the gang into going that way 1st, on the long drive back so they could see it too.
Lots of amazing rainbows on the NY side!
Kelly had the ACCS conference in Atlanta, so we dropped her off at Buffalo International, and the remaining 8 of his drove the 11 hours back to NC. It was a long drive, but we survived.
Well, there’s a bit of a back story I’ll expand on some day, but for now, let’s just say we got started on van life a little earlier than anticipated. This new category of posts will cover our van life trips.
For the maiden voyage, we just went one night in our new conversion van (rv) to Cedar Point Campground, near the mouth of the White Oak River, in the Croatan National Forest. The camp ground is relatively small with just 40 sites on two loops, but it was well-equipped and quiet. We had electrical for the van, but the water was a faucet shared between a couple sites and didn’t have a hose connection for us, so we used the water on board. (We thought we had run out of fresh water, but alas, we probably just didn’t know to use the water pump – lesson #1 learned). Other than that, we are starting to get the hang of all the features of the van, but still have a lot to learn!
The camp ground itself wasn’t super exciting, but the Cedar Point Tideland trail was beautiful. Over the evening and morning we were there, we ran, rode, and paddle boarded all around. Here are a few photos:
The next day after we packed up, we went over to Emerald Isle and hung out on the beach and in the rented home of one of Riley’s friends for the day. Emerald Isle is a beautiful beach, and we all got a little too much sun.
Kelly and I celebrated 25 years of marriage by heading to one of our favorite places, Grand Teton National Park. While we had wanted to backpack the Crest Trail, we were too early in the season. The park ranges had told us we’d need to carry ice axes and know how to self-arrest! We opted to do some canyon backpacking instead — in one canyon, then out to the next. We still want to go back to do the entire Crest trail some day — but now know that needs to be mid to late July to (very) early September!
We flew in to Jackson Hole and had a couple nights at a fantastic Bed & Breakfast, Teton View B&B. (When we landed in Jackso, the stewardess welcomed everyone there, but gave a special welcome to “Mr. and Mrs. Butler, celebrating 25 years…”) The hosts of the B&B Franz and Carole were extremely welcoming and have a lovely set up. They were especially helpful in finalizing our hiking and backpacking plans, which we would need to alter again based on input from the rangers as well, as to where snow was, etc.
I’ll just do a single photo mosaic below but walk you through what we did. After arrival at the B&B, we headed to Teton Village and took the Bridger gondola to the top, which is free after 5 p.m. We had a drink and a bite to eat, and then headed down to eat at the Mangy Moose.
The next day, we decided to day hike Amphitheater Lake. We ended being turned back a little over 9000 feet, half mile short of the lakes, due to high snow. We didn’t need to take any chances with Kelly’s knee before we started backpacking! I did go one or two more switchbacks, but the trail wasn’t marked, and there was boot pack going in 2-3 different directions at each one, so decided it wasn’t worth it.
We headed back down and ended up at Trappers Grill at Signal Mountain Lodge, which has great deck seating and amazing views. We ordered Reece’s favorite from last time — the huge plat of Nacho’s.
Upgraded on DFW – JAC flight!
At the B&B in our surprise jeep rental car!
A bit chilly at 9000 feet.
Crazy Austrian Coffee machine.
Hiking to Amphiteather…
Reece’s favorite menu item from the trip here 3 years ago.
The view from Signal Mountain Lodge.
Here’s the Strava info for the Amphitheater Lake hike.
28 miles, felt really strong and had to hold back since I knew what today would bring
Trucked over to the Eucalyptus House, where we would be for 12-13 hours…
Lunch at arrival, Dinner at 6, “breakfast” at 11 p.m., in the trucks by mid-night to drive through the middle of Port Au Prince, then starting a 52 mile run to finish things out
Tried to rest as much as possible between lunch and dinner, dinner and “breakfast”
So this run we’d be in pods. I was given the choice of pod 1 or pod 2, as I’ve been in a bit of “no man’s land” between those in pod 1 and pod 2. In reality, I’ve run in to the 10k or 15k marks with runners in pod 2 most of the runs, but finished just a few minutes after runners in pod 1 on those same runs. (I guess that makes me a slow starter — or maybe I’m just maintaining? Would have to check Strava data, I guess.)
Anyway, I chose pod 1 so I’d be with Jase, Matt, and Dan. They told me they’d be happy to run 9:00’s for the 1st 25k, so that’s what we did. Well, the 1st couple were a touch fast, but the guys backed off for me. But it soon became apparent that I was struggling at even 9:00’s. Where did yesterday’s easy 8:45’s go? And then I was struggling at 9:15’s. I tried not to slow them down too much, but then my stomach started to turn.
I watched them quickly run off after 25k, which allowed me to do my own thing. I soon had to make a pit stop to move the bowels, but immediately had hot chills for 5-10 minutes. Uh-oh! The chills passed, and then my stomach turned nauseous. At 30k I asked for a pepto tab, took one, and 20 minutes later when nothing had changed, took another. I found the thought of taking in food at this point stomach turning. I slowed some more, but kept working at it.
I finally hit the turn up the mountain, and after 3-4 miles of mostly power hiking with a few seconds of running here and there, finally started to get some food down. I eventually left the low places, but never felt as strong as I had in the runs earlier in the week. I’m sure much of it had to do with the building fatigue of 150 miles in 7 days, and some of it had to do with Haitian food and beverages eventually catching up to me. But I was able to maintain a good power hike/run combo to the top (which took forever), and then start to run down (which also took forever!).
Here are some shots:
There’s water down there – the finish!
I came up on this guy playing drums on the guard rail and stealthily took this video:
When I hit the 75k mark, with 9k to go, I was told Josh was catching me. I decided to keep moving at my slow walk/run combo, as I thought waiting might allow stiffness to set in and make it difficult to keep moving. When I reached town, with just a couple of miles to go, Jules was there and he let me know I was to have a truck “lead” me through town as there were several turns. We were making our way pretty good, and even saw some of the crew pointing in the direction to the finish, but at one point reached a place where the driver wasn’t sure how to proceed. He asked people on the side of the road where I was supposed to run, but no luck, and then called the crew, but we still weren’t sure. Eventually Josh showed up, and he said just go straight. But he was bonking hard! Luckily, Peaches had some beef jerky that he threw down, and then we were able to run it in together.
The finish! 200+ miles across Haiti, coast to coast!
It was a beautiful site:
We walked about 500 steps up towards the hotel, and found the gate was locked. We yelled a bit, but no one was coming, so we had to climb. 😦
More shots from the hotel level.
I got some food in, and headed back down to the finish to watch a few more runners come in. I’ll have to write a follow-up post soon.
2sparrows 