Daniel and I woke up a bit earlier this morning than usual as we wanted to arrive at our first hotel room of the trip at a decent time this evening. The campground restaurant was open as we were preparing to leave and I quickly ordered a perfect Italian cappuccino and a fresh chocolate croissant.  The nice food amenities and the blue sky were a very nice way to start the day! 

We had a one hour uphill hike out of the campsite to the trail head and, as usual, the climb up was steep for the first two hours. My legs did feel better today after some rest following the hard day yesterday. It was really a gorgeous day to be in the mountains   We passed several other hikers and took time to talk to some. We had to take a brief break as a small cadre of donkeys/burros made their way on the same trail we were on. They didn’t even give us a second look. I suspect it may have been because they smelled better than we did as Wednesday morning was the last time we had showers (though the rainstorm on Friday cleaned us pretty good). After the donkeys made their way through, we passed probably 200 sheep grazing on the mountainside just a few feet from the trail. 

After we began our descent we had some nice sections that weren’t too steep and we could really enjoy the view and the nice weather. Just as we started our final descent we passed a refuge with outdoor  eating, near the top of a ski area, and we stopped for something to eat and drink. Daniel got a pasta plate with a side of Minestrone soup while I had a great salad and a bowl of the same soup. Afterwards we began the final descent to the small hotel we are staying at in Courmayeur, which was a steep decline and took about two hours to complete. We arrived around 3:30 pm. 

I have now showered and feel semi-human again, and I think we will try to go to a nearby restaurant before turning in early tonight, as we start out again tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, we did not build any rest days into our schedule as we just couldn’t seem to make it work. It would have been a great (and smart) thing to do and I regret it now. Some of the sites that we camp at require reservations in advance and there are many places along the way where camping is not possible either because of how steep the mountains are, or because the local laws do not permit it. So, sticking to the itinerary is fairly important. 

One last thing. I really regret that I have not included more photos in my blog messages but it takes so incredibly long to upload them. The 5 pics I sent last night took 40 minutes. At the end of a long, hard day of hiking it just isn’t possible to spend more time than that trying to upload them. Here at the hotel we are staying at tonight there is hardly any wifi reception and I had hoped to catch up by posting more photos, but it may have to wait until the hike is over.