We provide this log for those who might be looking for a marvelous vacation that involves a little exercise. This has to be one of the top three trips we have ever taken. If you are in reasonable condition and enjoy outrageous views and natural beauty, you will love it. We hope this provides some sense of what it might be like for you and gives you some information that may be helpful along the way, if you decide to do it.
We begin the trip in Los Angeles with airtravel to Dusseldorf and then Geneva. For us the hiking trip on the 'Grand Randonnee Five' starts at St. Gingolph, the other end of Lac Leman from Geneva.
We arrived in Geneva rather tired from a long day and jet lagging. We then made our way to the closest campsite, seven kilometers distant. From our campsite we could see the great fountain of Geneva.
The next morning we needed to find a way to St.Gingolph. One alternative was to go back to Geneva central and train to a point opposite St. Gingolph and then boat across the lake. It was quite expensive and would have taken a while. We asked at the campground about buses to St. Gingolph but they knew of none. We asked about the possibility of hitchhiking, but this didn't seem to be an option they would even consider.
We understood the context of the advice and chose to try hitchhiking on the road that borders the lake. Our luck was good, getting rides easily with fine and friendly people. With one of our rides our host wanted to stop in Evian for water. This town is the source for the bottled mineral water of the same name. He invited us to lunch at his house. We declined, anxious to get on the trail. From a public fountain the water flowed freely, so we filled our water bags with the special mineral water of Evian. Our last ride was by a kindly couple, one from Africa, who insisted on taking us an extra 10 km out of his way to end our hitching and to show us where the GR5 path began for us.
Arriving at 1:30 P.M. we had forgotten to take into account that many stores in France are closed between 1 and 3:30 P.M, more or less. We needed to buy bread, cheese and wine before we could begin our trek since we planned on camping 'wild' that night and not near providers of sustenance. (Wild camping is any camping outside a designated campsite. It is legal, by law on public property above the tree line, and other places.) Bars and cafes, and places of restauration were not closed during the afternoon break time, so we stopped at a creperie, had a beer and a salmon vodka crepe and watched a boat come in that might have been ours had we tried the alternative approach.
The first stage of six looks like this:
Having our supplies now (bread ,cheese, sausage and wine), we found the first sign to our first step of the GR5
The GR5 is way-marked with a white stripe above a red stripe. It's actually quite reassuring when you see one, especially the first one after only reading about it.
After hiking for about an hour, we get our first hint of views to come.
I didn't expect the Alps to be so green. I also didn't realize that we would sharing much of our trail with cows. A foreshadowing, I suppose.
The wild flowers are small and have a sensitive beauty
Rising another 3100 feet we find Col De Bise. A "col" in French, is a "pass". This would be our last look at Lac Leman.
We saw another hiker at that point. Maybe we would see him again. We are on the trail earlier than most so there may not be many others doing this trek to see again.
.In the direction we were heading, lay the mountains we would be transversing. Amazing!
We hiked a bit further and camped in a pretty green meadow. This put us about 30 minutes from a cup of coffee in the morning. But the morning had a nuance we didn't expect. We woke up that morning well rested and with the sound of cow bells in the background. How sweet. The day earlier we were singing songs on the trail from the "Sound of Music". Getting up and out of the tent to stretch, Debra says "Oh look. There are cows heading in this direction." She went for her camera. This was great.
I was a bit less pleased and worried that the cows might choose to walk over the tent. I thought it might be a good idea to pack up quickly. Debra thought it was a good idea to take a picture of me packing up quickly.
Soon, the cows surrounded us and decided to lick our plate (our only plate) and eat one of Debra's socks (she had two). I thought it might be prudent to stuff my pack with what I could and run the pack to the top of the hill. I had a sense that these guys would not want to go back up the hill, after having just lumbered down. I then hurried down to help Debra get more stuff out of the way of the cow 'stampede'. Debra was busy aggressively swinging the tent in a 360 degree motion , trying to make them leave. She was also trying to keep them away from things like food and my GPS. (How long does it take for a cow to pass a GPS?), when one of them got irritated and bucked her with his horns. She then became aware that she didn't really want to get too close to these guys, if you see what I mean.
I came back to help Debra gather more stuff and take it to the top of the little hill. The packs were safe and the cows did not pursue, but we'd lost a sock and our plate was totally slimed.
The guy we saw at the col passed by as we finished packing up. Now we were off to see our first Chalet.
Chalets or refuges are a way to see the Alps without carrying a tent and a sleeping bag. You can sleep overnight in one for about 12 to 25 Euros a night per person for the fancy ones, about $15 to $32 in 2006 (or more, for the ones with a jacuzzi) .
At this time you may wish to note that the dates on the pictures are a bit off because the camera was on L.A. time, 9 hours earlier.
On our last big trip was the John Muir trail where we had to carry as much as 2 weeks of food, so we were not prepared to see cars after 4 or 5 hours of hiking.
Chalets provide food and drinks for hikers, even if those travelers are not guests of the 'hotel'.
The bowl that looks like soup is actually coffee. Actual coffee cups proved rare in this part of France.
After sharing the breakfast, we ascended 1000 feet to the Pas De La Bosse. At the top the signs seemed ambiguous, so we asked a hiker sitting nearby if the left-most path led to our next stop La Chapelle D'Abondance. He said it did, so we hiked up that path which took us about an hour out of our way. We did get to see a goat or two though.
Not so bad, but we were getting tired. We retraced our steps and took a second look at the sign. At that point we learned two things: to read the signs more carefully and not to assume that strangers know the trail better than we do. When you see a sign, mentally lay it flat on the ground, 90 degrees away from you, and then visualize where the arrow points.
This sign would indicate that Abondance is on the path 45 degrees to the right of straight ahead, not up a hill that ascends steeply.
We found the correct path and descended into the valley of D'Abondance
The downhill was rocky and hard on the feet. We arrived after 5.5 hours of hiking. It wasn't really a difficult day in terms of elevation gain and yet we felt very tired. Maybe it was jet lag or perhaps we were dehydrated. But for whatever reason, we decided to relax and not make the trip harder than it needed to be. There were no campsites in town so we stayed in a Bed and Breakfast for 15 Euros per person. We went to dinner that evening at a nice restaurant. D'Abondance is a ski town and most of the restaurants were a bit pricey.
We were amazed at the sheer number of planters with beautiful flowers surrounding homes and businesses . The hotel in the following picture was fairly typical.
We awoke refreshed and ready to find the GR5 path ahead. It was a good day. Many wonderful experiences. Let me share a few..
In the picture below, our first snow crossing. If you look closely you can see someone on the snow. We would see this person again. His/her hiking poles made it much easier to transverse the snow. It was a bit tricky for us, but with sharp rocks in hand we could dig into the snow if we started to slip.
Here are some pictures of flowers that we would see a lot of in the next few weeks.
After 6.5 hours of hiking we arrived at the Col De Bassachaux. We were looking forward to wild camping near there.
We shared a montagne omelet (potatoes, cheese and lardons!), frites, and a cold beer. Afterwards, we weren't ready to hike on so we laid out our thermarest pads on a nearby grassy area and enjoyed laying in the sun for a few hours. Feeling refreshed after that we decided to hike on a bit.
We arrived at Refuge de Chesery about 1 hour and 45 mins later. This was a nice stop also. We were feeling pretty strong this day even after 8 hours of hiking ascents and descents.
We have one more ascent to do to Porte du Lac Verte before we would camp that night. In the picture below we have the lake that the Porte overlooks
At the top, we found an unexpected dirt road which was perplexing given our directions from "Walking the French Alps" by Martin Collins. The book does mention that this "panorama is breathtakingly beautiful and one of the highlights of this stage." It speaks truly.
Turn left or right? We saw a sign to a restaurant that looked
like this 
. Could that be a variation on
the red and white GR5 waymarks? The road must be new and created
after the book was published. The right side went steeply up and
the left side went down. Debra and I decided to go in opposite
directions for a quarter mile or so to look for standard waymarks.
Neither of us found any markers or other clues. We both came back
to the lake overlook convinced that the other was on the right
path. We decided to take the steep path and explore it further.
About a mile later we were both sure it was not the correct way.
We went back down and found a little path off the road to the
right, about 300 meters from the lake overlook. Soon after, we
saw the waymark on the path and began looking for a nice place
to wild camp.
We found a beautiful spot and pitched. The view from inside our tent is stunning and magical.
We slept well and heard no cow-bells. We awoke on our 4th day of the hike with the stunning view and surrounded by marvelous flowers.
We lost the path a couple of times this day. Once was when we got off the trail to avoid some rowdy cows. Some seemed to be playing some version of leapfrog and so we kept our distance. Another time we lost the path because it got covered with brush and trees from storms. Today we met a few fellow hikers. We stopped at a refuge for coffee and met a guy from England who was hiking the GR5 and staying in refuges. Although he carried no tent or sleeping bag his pack was just a few pounds lighter than mine. Still he was moving faster than us.
Also going our way were the French couple that we saw on the snow path yesterday, Maelyse and Laurent. They were taking the GR 5 but planned to end their trip in Menton instead of Nice because it is a smaller village on the Mediterranean. Maelyse was small but she was carrying about 35 pounds, about twice as much weight as me and 1/3 of her body weight. Maelyse and Laurent were carrying all their food and cooking equipment. We would see them again a few more times. We were glad that we had decided to travel light and not carry much equipment or food.
Later on ,we met a 60+ year old Swiss lady who was hiking the trail south to north, the opposite of us. She had started 40 days earlier and was nearing the end of her trip. Some of the refuges weren't even open when she started, so the trip had to be much harder.
Later in the day, the views were still beautiful but had a misty quality to them.
We made several stops along the way for beers and such. This would prove to be our standard way to enjoy our trail with 2 or 3 stops in the middle of the day. There was intermittent thunder but fortunately it didn't rain. We arrived in Samoens quite tired after about 7.5 hours of hiking (plus stopping times). The path was rocky coming down to Samoens and our feet hurt a bit. Debra had a couple of blisters on her toes. On the way through town, looking for the campground, we found a small market and bought a couple of popsicles. Our French friends showed up about 20 minutes later at the same market. We were about 1/2 mile from a campground. The campground had pizza places near and washing machines and SHOWERS. It felt good to get clean again. Debra left 2 books with the manager for the camp library because she wanted to lighten her pack. We went to a outdoor restaurant and shared a pizza, some frites and a couple of beers. That night we slept well.
We began our fifth day of hiking with coffee and chocolate croissants. Then we walked to the center of town to get some supplies. Debra wanted to buy some socks. One and a half pair was difficult to work with. She bought two more pair. In the sports store she found hiking poles for 40 Euros, like the ones we saw others carrying. I was waiting outside when she came out with the poles and socks. I decided I wanted a pair also. Several days of walking on rocks and gravel and seeing how our French friends cross easily on the snow with them convinced me that they might be helpful. Also, my shoes were a bit worn and this might take some stress off them. I didn't want to buy new shoes on our trip.
We hiked along a river and after 3 hours found ourselves at Cascade de Rouget
Our book just said "car parking", but there was also a snack bar and it was quite welcome to us. We soaked our feet and after a beer went on.
It started to rain a bit as we climbed higher. It was light and on and off, and it felt good to have poles on the rocky path.
The next cascade had this sign. This red and white is an indication that our path is taking a left turn.
There is much to do here, hiking biking, sailing through the air.
After 5.5 hours of hiking we decided to camp near Collet D'Anterne. It was raining a bit and it was a good time to get some shelter. Debra heard cow bells but there were no cow paddies nearby so we felt pretty safe (from cows). We covered our tent to keep out the rain, enjoyed some bread, cheese and wine, and read books for a bit.
When it cleared we would have great views of Mont Blanc.
On the sixth day we wanted to make it to Col du Brevant. From there we could take a cable car and telepherique to Chamonix. We stopped at refuges, as usual, getting our coffees and beers, etc. but by 4 o'clock that day the rain started and there was some seriously threatening thunder in the background, growing stronger.
We saw some great views on this day.
We started to look around for places to pitch our tent to protect ourselves from the rain. Most of the ground was rocky and on a slant except for one spot. We had to decide whether we should go on or pitch since the weather was looking pretty nasty.
As we stood their talking about what to do it started to hail and the wind became ferocious. I put on my rain jacket only to find that it wasn't really water proof. We put up the tent as fast as we could, getting soaked in the process. Parts of it were trying to blow away, like the rain guard, and the tent itself. We threw packs in the tent to keep it from flying off and pitched in about 3 minutes. It was 4:30 p.m. and the lightening was getting closer. Some of it hit within about 200 feet.
We hung out, read, ate a bit and napped. At about 8 p.m. it started clearing and we thought about hiking a bit more, but decided against it. It was a long night so we caught up on our sleep.
On the 7th day we awoke refreshed after 14 hours in our tent and the sky was clear. It would not be too far to Brevant
The poles came in handy. Crossing some snow banks would have been difficult without them.
When we get close to the top we now have the best view of Mont Blanc we will ever have.
We made it to the telepherique but it didn't open until 9 a.m. A cloud moved in while we were watching the view. We discovered that if we had pushed on the night before we still wouldn't have gotten to Chamonix. The telepherique closed at 4:30 pm
We caught the cable car down to Chamonix, which is not technically on the GR5, but we had been in Chamonix before and welcomed a revisit. Besides we needed some supplies and wanted to check our emails. It rained a bit on and off that day. We decided that we needed ponchos if we were to survive the rain. We bought 2 at InterSport for 5 Euros each.
We stopped a Mojo's Sandwiches which had internet access and checked our mail. Debra made her last 3 postings for her online graduate nursing class. The people there were very friendly. We found a modest campground and enjoyed the day by mostly resting up. We also found a pub with 1/2 priced beers on tap, (au pression). We had a savonyarde (regional) meal at a restaurant where we cooked beef and cheese on a grill which was served with potatoes, bread and sauces. It was similar to a fondue. Although it rained most of the night, we slept well.
The eighth day started with light rain. On most of the trip it got cloudy and rainy in the later part of the day around 4, so we expected it to get worse. I suggested we stick around Chamonix one more day, since it's not much fun hiking in the rain and I liked the place. But then the sky cleared and I couldn't use that as an excuse anymore. So around 11 am we took a bus to Les Houches, a town officially on the GR5 and about a three hour walk from Brevant, the place where we left the trail for Chamonix.
The book we are using "Walking the French Alps" by Martin Collins, breaks the trip from Lac Leman to Nice into six stages. Les Houches is the last stop of the first stage. Keeping with that classification, you may view see more by....
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