After such a big day yesterday Bucky and I managed to sleep in until 9 this morning. Then we putz'd around for a little while, then I laid back down and started reading and promptly fell asleep again. I woke up at noon to Bucky asking what in the world I wanted to do because it was such a beautiful day! I replied that I felt up for some cragging or a bike ride. We agreed on bike ride and Bucky went off to run some errands while I planned the bike ride as well as the upcoming trip to the Dolomites at the beginning of September. After some more putzing about we finally began our bike ride at 7:20. I decided that we should attempt the Caillet trail. The introduction to the trail in our guide book goes like this:
"Start off at the microbrewery then head uphill on a long, steepening drag that will sap your energy and have you stuffing in Powerbars until your teeth turn to mush!"
Both the climb and descent are rated 8/10, the most difficult ratings in the entire book, but it is also only 7.1km long. Otherwise known as a real doozy! The climb starts out pretty steep, and then it gets steeper. I was in granny gear and thinking that I wouldn't be able to handle 600m of elevation gain at this rate. Luckily, soon after I started this thought train the slope slacked off and turned into a really manageable climb. I honestly thought I was going to be walking the climb based on the description, but I have to say, the Chamonix Classic was a much more difficult climb despite the 5/10 rating. After about 50 minutes of climbing we arrived at the Caillet Chalet drenched in sweat. We had come up to the Caillet once before while running. That time it took us 37 minutes and we were also drenched in sweat. Last time the guardian of the chalet told us we were crazy and that the record for running, as far as she knew, was 30 minutes. We actually ran up the trail we were about to descend on and from my memory I knew it was going to be technical and steep. This time when we got there I think she remembered us because she smiled and immediately started using English to chat. After a brief interlude we prepared to descend. I tried to turn on the GoPro and for whatever reason it refused to work. So unfortunately for those of you who enjoy my videos (thinking of you Kake!), there will not be one for this trip. It is really unfortunate because it would have been a good one too. Full of endos and various slide-outs and other mishaps. About 3/4 of the way down Bucky endoed off the trail on the downhill side. He managed to start the fall feet first but was quickly cartwheeled down and around, smashing his back and ankles (I don't know how) into a tree and ultimately landing in a thorny bush. I was waiting down the trail a little way at the time so I missed the crash, but I did hear groaning in the aftermath. Looking up I watched as Bucky slowly gathered himself and trudged back up to the trail and his bike. He assured me that we was OK and had me check out the locations of his various pains after riding down. He managed to sustain a few scratches, bruises, and some sort of allergic reaction to the thorns, mere flesh wounds. The rest of the way down was pretty uneventful as the trail started to mellow out the closer it got to town. All in all, it was a good trail, not great, and only about 1.5 hours so it will be good for a supplement to a short climbing day.
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