One of our major goals of the summer was to ride our bikes on the Tour du Mont Blanc. With a favorable weather forecast for the next three days we decided to give it a go now. On day one we had some last minute planning, packing, and purchasing to do. Our plan for day one was to ride to La Fouly in Switzerland. This would be conquering days one and two from a guide's itinerary that we were trying to follow. This meant we had about 80km (50 miles) of riding and 2925m (9600 ft) of climbing to go. With a noon start, we decided to bypass the Petite Balcon Nord trail to Le Tour and just take the road. At Le Tour we took a bump up the gondola, the only mechanical assist we were planning on getting. From the Col de Balme we headed down in to Switzerland. The really nice thing about following the TMB trail in Switzerland is that they have two routes, one for hikers, and one for bikers. The biking route is clearly marked, which makes the route finding so much easier. The descent from Col de Balme to Trient was rocky and rooty and fun. There were a few sections that were smooth and fast too. From Trient we had the first pass to conquer over the Col de la Forclaz. This was a relatively easy ride up the old dirt road, zig zagging with the new highway. From the Col the hiking trail goes East in a more or less direct route to Champex-Lac. We were told by a woman we met here that if you take your bike on this section of the TMB you were in for a 3 hr hike-a-bike. The biking route we planned to follow goes down the road to Martigny (a loss of 1026m!) and then back up to Champex-Lac. On the way up towards Champex-Lac I saw a hiking sign that said Champex-Lac was 4 hrs up the road. Rather than riding the highway I thought it would be nice to take the side roads. We made the turn and headed up the road. We came to a fork where it was somewhat unclear which way we were supposed to go. Bucky thought left, and we went that way for a little bit. When the road went from a paved road to a double track and there was a mail box I assumed this was someone's driveway, a dead end, and the right fork was the way to go. We went up the right fork and climbed very steeply for about an hour. At that point we came across some guys hunting for mushrooms and asked if we were on the right road to Champex-Lac. None of them spoke English, so the communication mostly involved hand gestures, but we got the idea that we were indeed on the wrong road and that there was no way to get back on the right track without going all the way back down to the bottom! We were certainly disappointed, but we thought that there must be a trail or something from the end of the road we were on up to the TMB hiking trail, despite the men's assurances there was not. We found exactly where we were on the map and realized we were very close to the end of the road so we decided just to explore for ourselves. We got to a switchback that had a singletrack trail leading away in the direction of the TMB so we headed down it. Not 10m down the trail Bucky ran over a stick that got caught in his wheel, spun around, jammed on his derailleur, and snapped the hanger right off! At this point I thought it would be prudent to roll back the way we came to Martigny and find a bike shop. Bucky thought we were headed to the TMB, which was a hike-a-bike anyway, and we would find a bike shop in Champex-Lac. We went with Bucky this time and hiked on down the trail, which promptly came to a dead end at a 20 ft drop into a creek. We noticed a bunch of heavy anchors on our side of the creek, as well as a trail that headed up the other way, and determined that there used to be a bridge, but the bridge was long gone. We explored a little trying to get down to the creek, but couldn't find an easy way and decided to head back and hike up to the end of the road and see if there was a trail there. On the way we came across some hikers who told us there was definitely a trail that connected to the TMB. With that good news in our pockets we hiked on and on and on and on, up a very steep trail that was heading West, when we wanted to be heading South. After about 2 hrs of hiking we finally arrived at the junction with the TMB! We took off Bucky's derailleur and chain and figured he could roll all the downhill and hike the uphill. We also decided that I should take all the tools and pump and charge down the trail and try to get us a refuge in Champex-Lac before 7pm so I could get us some dinner. After I charge the downhill I met up with the road and started climbing the last few hundred meters up the road to Champex-Lac. With the slower pace and the smooth paved road I heard my phone buzzing. I missed the call, but I checked my missed call log and saw that I had missed about twenty calls from Bucky in the last twenty minutes! Apparently, about a minute after we split ways, he t-boned a rock and got a flat. Since I had the pump he was walking all the downhill now too! I was too far down the road to go back, so I rode on to Champex-Lac and found us a refuge. When I told our story to the lady running the refuge she said her husband could definitely go pick Bucky up! He was about 6km down the road when we got to him, a very short drive, but it would have been a very long walk! The best part of it all was that we made it in time for dinner! Day one was in the books, we were about an hour and a half away from where we had planned on going for the day, we had a broken bike, and the future of the trip was looking a little hazy.
Check out the video of the trip here:
Tour du Mont Blanc - Youtube
No comments:
Post a Comment