Beautiful stage through the Vanoise. The stage hikes out of the valley with its many glaciers, back towards the valley of l'Arc and stays there on the north slope. The route alternates ascending and descending making the 700 meters up and 700 meters down a good hike. There are again stunning views of the valleys and surrounding mountains along the way.
When we wake up at a quarter to 6 in the morning and unzip the tent, we immediately have a view of the most beautiful landscape. The vast mountains with clouds around them and the first glow of the sun, this is how we'd like to wake up every day. But we still have a long way to go until the Mediterranean Sea, so after our breakfast we pack everything for another magnificent hike through the Vanoise.
Today's hike isn't very long with it's 17 kilometers and we stay fairly high in the mountains. But thunderstorms are predicted for the afternoon, so we hope to arrive a little early at Refuge du Plan Sec, our last refuge in the Vanoise.
It takes a while to find the right path to take. Once we find it, we start descending a bit. We walk on small paths and large rock formations and cross some streams. We are still walking on the high mountain slope above the tree line, so apart from a few bushes, the vegetation consists of grass that has turned yellow by now. We get closer and closer to the big waterfall we heard roaring down from across the valley days ago. Last time we were late in the afternoon and the stream was wide with several side waterfalls. Now it's still big, but a bit more modest in size. Apparently it has been freezing well at the height of the glaciers, because there is a lot less meltwater coming down this morning.
We cross the stream by walking from rock to rock; fortunately, we reach the other side with dry feet. The large valley through which the river l'Arc flows and where there'll be villages and roads again, comes more and more into view. We approach the point where the trail turns southwest and exits this beautiful valley. The landscape becomes more open and rocky, and we pass huge plains of dozens of meters wide and hundreds of meters deep, strewn with loose graystones down the mountainside. Virtually nothing grows here; apart from a few willowherbs, all that can be seen are rocks. It's pretty risky for the ankles, a slide is easily made, but the scenery looks impressive. Except for passages like these, the hike goes smoothly: up a bit, down a bit, and the kilometers go by nicely. This is real enjoyment...
Now that we have a better view of the large valley and we see more and more villages in the distance, we look more often around the bends to see Modane, the village through which the route will pass tomorrow. Not because we are so anxious to get out of the mountains again, this area it truely beautiful, but because Mark's parents have sent a message that they are camping below. We will meet there for the first time since March. A nice prospect!
Beyond the rocky plains, the landscape flattens out and becomes more grassy. We walk around a bend and suddenly find ourselves face to face with a large herd of sheep. They stand on the path, as well as to the left and right of it, and there doesn't seem to be any movement. The flock is so large that walking around it isn't possible. There's no shepherd to be seen, so we decide to walk calmly, step by step, between the sheep. When we are halfway, we see the shepherd sitting on the other side of the flock and she finally notices us. She jumps up, shouts something and makes wild gestures at us that weshould stay put. She comes closer and asks if we are still in our right minds. She has 3 dogs around her, 2 sheepdogs and 1 calm guard dog, but apparently one other dangerous guard dog is lost and running somewhere in the large herd, and she has no idea where he is. But if he would see us walking, in the middle of the sheep, he'd definitely attack us. Omg, this sounds pretty serious... She herds the flock of sheep off the path and let's us know that we can continue walking. We ask her what to do best in these kind of situations. And that's exactly what our instinct told us yesterday: go far around it if you can. Otherwise wait until you see the shepherd or until the flock is completely past. The wacky thing is, that even though we've been coming to these mountains for years, and we've come across signs with warnings that we're about to enter an area with flocks of sheep and guard dogs regularly, nowhere we were able find guidelines for what to do in those situations. But thanks to today's encounter we now know. Merci, shepherdess! And by the way, the dangerous guard dog was fortunately nowhere to be seen...
A few kilometers further on (well away from the herd) we make a break, after which we'll start the last part of the hike. The first part is quite steep downhill, but runs on a nice, seemingly recently constructed trail that's easy to walk on. Then the trail goes up a slope, with cable cars going to a village 1,500 meters below. From here it's about 2 more kilometers to get to Refuge du Plan Sec. The skies on that side are starting to get pretty dark by now, so we push hard. Just before 3pm we arrive at the refuge and we are lucky. It's located a few hundred meters outside the national park, which means that the rule that you can't pitch your tents before 7pm does not apply here. After a friendly tour of the grounds, we can start installing the tent right away. And it doesn't take long before it starts raining.
This is truly the nicest and most luxurious refuge we have bivouacked at in the Vanoise. It has a nice flat tent area and we can enjoy a nice hot shower, overlooking the 2 lakes below us. There's a place where we can safely charge our phones and power bank, and even delicious coffee with myrtle cake is served. What a treat!
Outside the weather is beastly, but we enjoy ourselves in the small stone restaurant, nicely sheltered by a stove.
What a beautiful day again today....
