Hiking A Section of the Chamonix Marathon Route in Vallorcine, France
Cloudy this morning with unsettled weather scheduled for today. An early breakfast to make the 9:17 a.m. train to Vallorcine. Rushing to the train station, the departure board showed retard, a word I'm all too familiar with that means "late." Ten minutes late to be exact. The platform was wall-to-wall people heading in the direction of Vallorcine and the Swiss border. Of course, today is Friday. The Europeans usually begin and end travel on weekends.
When the train arrived, not one seat could be found and one train car was almost completely taken up by a group of young children off for a day's excursion into the mountains. Screaming, yelling and having a wonderful time. NOISY. Even if there was a seat available in this car, I would have stood. The train emptied out at Le Planet-Montroc including all the children. Just two more stops and we were at Vallorcine.
The Sunday Chamonix Marathon will make it's way to Vallorcine, the 18.21 km/11 miles mark, altitude 1,260m/4,133', and then head uphill to Col des Posettes, 1,997m/4,133', the 22.77 km/14.1 miles, more than half way through the marathon. The signs at the bottom said 2:20 to the Col and we began by following little pink and black signs with an arrow on it, not that you needed the arrows to follow the course. This steep, grassy section of the course had just been mowed and was easy to follow but very slippery since it rained heavily last night. The bottom third was also steep. The trail/course went through the forest on a wider pine needle and rocky path, and eventually turned into a jeep road.
It took 2:15 for the 2.28 miles to the top (Garmin Foretrex GPS), with occasional drizzle, sun, clouds, more drizzle and sun and I couldn't even visualize running it. Good luck to them! The Col de Baume from the other day was still higher than we were and what a pleasure. Downhill with the Charamillion gondola in sight (1,850m/6,069'), we switched into high gear and really moved down the wide road hoping to make the 1:30 p.m. bus back to Chamonix. At the gondola and down in plenty of time to make the bus back to Chamonix.
We got off at the wrong bus stop in Chamonix and ended up circling, completely out of the way. Just what we needed. More walking past the Sports Center where Red Chamonix Marathon t-shirts were on sale for 15 euros. Not running...didn't buy.
Next, a pilgrimage to buy mini-dvd's for the camcorder. I thought I took a extra double-sided one but dum-dum took a single-sided one and we're heading to Annecy. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be a problem but stores are closed on Sunday. A long hunt through Chamonix walking into every newspaper, optical, supermarket, and camera shop, asking but not finding while each shopkeeper gave new instructions where they thought mini-dvd's might be had. Finally, one woman said there was a television store another 500 meters down the road. Got there and it was closed with a sign saying overt (open) at 4:30 p.m. (another 1-1/2 hours away). The two of us peered through all the windows trying to spot dvd's to see if we should bother waiting when the owner suddenly appeared and began unlocking the door. Asked if he had mini-dvd's, a big "oui". Entered and bought the most expensive mini-dvd's ever taking into consideration the Euro to Dollar conversion. But he who dances must pay the fiddler.
