August 29, 2024 Day 1 Les Houches to Les Contamines

 Beautiful hike today.  I had a few good learning experiences taking some wrong turns but all turned out fine.  It was mostly decent though super green alpine forest and seeing huge mountains overhead  It was a nice, not too hard way to start my Tour du Mont Blanc.

Sun just hitting Mont Blanc from my bus ride from Chamonix to Les Houches where I caught a cable car up

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It was pretty warm and I need to remember to drink more water.  I was certainly sweating a lot today.  That made it extra nice when I arrived at my hotel and saw it had a swimming pool!  It was tempting to see what the water was like in several rushing creeks I crossed but there were stern warning signs pasted saying that the water could rise very quickly due to dam releases and glacial calving.

I’m starting to meet people so that’s fun, Eric & Cathy from Anchorage, Brent & Linda from Vancouver, Kate US Military in Germany.

Right before I start hiking 

Passed load of these guys wearing giant cowbells today. I was hoping he remembered that that little tiny wire separating us was electrified. 



Lunch stop 

Unfortunately the WiFi & cell signals seem to be dying and I need to sleep.  I will have an extra hard day tomorrow and I’ll be in a hut/hostel so I may not have enough connection to post anything.





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