Yesterday was a partial rest day poking around Briancon, the "highest city in Europe" at 1040M (about 4000ft.) The ancient medieval section is a crazy fortified village perched on the edge of a cliff far above the valley floor. It's replete with huge stone walls, moats, watchtowers and giant gated entryways nicely preserved from the olden days before the modern town sprawled out into the valley.
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| Briancon |
In the evening I got a head start up the next big climb to the Col d'Izoard and puttered up the first 5 or so miles and found a nice free campsite next to the mountain stream. In the morning it was back to work up switchbacks that literally double back upon themselves.
From the top looking back:
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| Col d'Izoard at 2360M |
A nice long descent down to another valley at about 1000M, then right back up again to tackle the Col de Vars.
Did a bit of walking around while taking a break at the second summit of the long day.
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| Col de Vars at 2109M |
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Bombed back down another lengthy screaming downhill and found what I thought would be a nice free campsite for the night in a National Forest near the river... but it was infested with midwest-caliber mosquitoes... too late in the day to find an alternative, I donned my full rain gear (since I have no insect repellent) while cooking a quick dinner and retired immediately to the safety of my tent. Tomorrow awaits the biggest climb of them all so far... better get some rest!
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