Day 17 – Gawd bless Camping Les Combes in Modane!

Day 17 – July 19 – 21 KMS – 6.5 HRS – 320 KMS TOTAL

Start: 7:51 AM, Peyra Levrousa, End: 2:35 PM, Modane

Ascent: 625 m (17 840 m total), Descent: 1675 m (17 020 m total)

I woke to my favourite alarm clock, the shrill, staccato call of the marmotte, echoing across the mountain range. It never gets old. Also camped out here last night was a small group of German cyclists and a few male solo hikers. Inside the restaurant, I have a Mars bar and an espresso for breakfast. The day begins under a nearly cloudless sky. Happily walking along the trail, I mindlessly swat at flies on my legs, which actually turn out to be not flies at all but my long leg hairs blowing in the wind, a sensation I am thoroughly unaccustomed to feeling. It tickles. The sprawling brown-grey mountains sport stylish camo-green skirts and stand stubbornly in aquamarine lakes. White water flows fiercely over scattered boulders in a narrow stream, delicately cutting across a pasture like a perfect Bob Ross painting. Here we go again: another day of non-stop gobsmacking beauty. 

A dam below traps terrifically turquoise waters between two mountains, reflecting them like a mirror. At lunch, I stop at a tiny stone chapel, old but restored, locked and shut up, for viewing purposes only. Making use of the log benches outside, I make myself a coffee (two instant coffee packets, a few scoops of powdered milk, and water, shaken in a Nalgene bottle). An hour later, on the long descent into Modane, my destination for the day, I find myself on the WORST downhill hike of the GR5 so far. It is so incredibly steep and littered with a million pommes de pin, or pine cones in English, which was akin to throwing a bag of marbles on a hardwood floor then running across it. I fell countless times. The falls were nothing serious or scary, but this section was beyond annoying! The angle was so steep it took fully-engaged abs and calves to even remain standing in place (after a fall and before attempting to continue again). As it turned out, Modane was not the bustling town I had heard it would be from other hikers. In fact, it was quite sleepy. The only open grocery store was about a kilometre off trail, an Auchan Supermarché. Since I was 100% out of food, I had no choice but to add the precious extra distance to my day and go there.

This grocery store was heavenly and huge and I felt like a kid in a candy store. I purchased: five boxes of cereal bars, a litre of orange juice, a bag of fresh apricots, two bags of grilled almonds, two boxes of instant coffee packets, a can of ravioli for dinner later on, a tin of Cassegrain ratatouille for 2nd dinner later on or perhaps the next day, a box of powdered milk, a Ferrero Rocher white chocolate and hazelnut bar and a banana, the last two items of which I ate immediately upon exiting the super-duper supermarket and totally ruined my dinner. On a bench outside the store, I de-boxed, unpackaged and compacted everything into my Ursack. What didn’t fit in there was tucked into the crevices and random pockets of my faithful backpack, which was now a monstrosity due to all my fun food purchases. Fully loaded up, I lugged the noticeably-heavier pack to the town campground. There was a section reserved for tenters and I pitched my beloved Six Moons Lunar Solo shelter at the very end of it, closest to the washrooms and common room, which had the best wifi connection I have had since Canada. Taking full advantage, I busied myself editing videos for my YouTube channel (@womaninthewoods13) and uploading as many as possible. What a relief to get all that footage safely stored on my channel and off of my phone. As well, I was thankful to backup my phone to the almighty iCloud! Handfuls of hikers drifted in as early afternoon turned into evening. People gathered in the common room to charge their phones and chat about their hikes, which direction they were going on the GR5, their start date, etc. etc. There, I again ran into Berend, the young Belgian man I first encountered a couple of days ago at the camping behind the Plan du Lac refuge. Later in the evening, I found my appetite again and enjoyed the tin of ratatouille. The campground had its very own pizzeria food truck, which, thankfully, also sold beers. It was a fun night of socializing where everyone conversed with everyone. This campground is delightful and meets all the needs of a tired and hungry thru-hiker. Two thumbs way up to Camping Les Combes in Modane.