The Tour du Mont Blanc or TMB is probably Europe's most famous hiking trail. With its almost 170 km trail length you are able to walk around the Mont Blanc Massive while crossing Italy, Switzerland and France. I have always wanted to hike a long distance trail with Sierra and decided to start with one of the most epic one. This is how it went.
Les Houches - les contamines
On this day we woke up pretty early to get a head start on all the other hikes on our campground Bellevue. I wasn't sure how Sierra would get on with our first day. If I am being honest, I was quite worried. A few weeks before we were still working with our trainer on how to walk past others dogs and people and here I was trying a hike a trail filled with other people and possibly other dogs. What was I thinking?
I should have probably focused on other topics at this point because as soon as I finished my thought I realized that we had missed our turn. So we turned around to walk all the way back. To top things off, it started raining. Typical.
We started making our way up to Col de Voza, past ski lifts and big fields that would be covered in snow during winter. While I was huffing and puffing, I saw a trail runner come towards us. I moved aside, which seemed to fuel Sierra in her anger, as she did not see the ladies permit beforehand. The first escalation. At this point, I was not sure if it was safer to turn around. What would we do if we started heading towards the more narrower paths, at least this one was extremely wide with more space to step aside. I decided to try it a little bit longer. No matter how frustrated I felt, I knew that Sierra just had a really stressful day before and probably just had to adjust. When we reached Col de Voza the rain had soaked me through to the bones. I made the rocky mistake of not wearing my rain jacket because I was so hot, carrying an absolute heavy pack and was grateful for every rain drop on my face. I should have known better. Of course, I immediately changed into something dry, but I knew that this mistake would hunt me later. We filled up our water bottle, took a little break and started our descent towards les Contamines. I wanted to stop before, but there was no spot or a hut where I was able to set up camp that was dog friendly, so I decided to take the momentum of walking downhill and walk to the campsite we had booked in advance. It was an absolute beautiful way down past beautiful french cottages and sheds.
The more we descended, the more hopeful I got. Sierra was doing really well. We walked past other hikers, took some longer breaks where she caught up on some sleep, and even walked past a couple of dogs without much of an issue. As much as I enjoyed the downhill, the way towards the campground seemed never ending. Neither Sierra nor I had our trail legs yet, were a bit out of tune and a bit overexcited about little things we saw along the trail. I had to really focus not to let Sierra run too fast or get caught in playing too much. I am a firm believer that breaks have been invented to rest and not to play. Especially knowing that there are still a few miles ahead and the journey far from over. Saving energy is key to a healthy and safe hike. We were only on day one, and I really wanted us to succeed.
Once we reached the campground, I checked us in, set up our tent and took Sierra for a can of tuna and a treated myself to a cold soda. Tuna is always a staple and can be found almost everywhere. A nice little treat and extra protein for the little one. She fell asleep under the picnic table while I used the Wi-Fi to get some messages across to my friends and family. As it was the first night, I took Sierra with me to the public bathroom and told her to wait outside while I got ready in record time. I really did not want to risk it. But I was nervous for no reason. Sierra was incredible and there were no issues at all. We grabbed some more water and returned to the tent, where we fell asleep within minutes. Hiking all day really is the best recipe for a good night sleep.
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