Stage 6 La Fouly to Champex

Today was a short day. We looked at doing more but high variant on the next stage had few places to stay and rain was forecast for the afternoon so decided to keep it short. 

The days hike passed under a pretty waterfall. 

Then through some small villages or hamlets with narrow winding streets. 

In one of these small villages we took a wrong turn but realized it and backtracked to get on track. In our defense there was only one sign. It indicates turn right for La Fouly. As we came from there we turned left. We identified our error and backtracked meeting another group who had just made the same mistake. We had a nice conversation with them. They live in Scotland but the woman was from the US and then man was originally from Switzerland. 

We worked our way through the villages and stopped at a restaraunt / pub to use the restroom.  We decided to buy sodas there. While drinking our soda at 9am we became aware of a couple of people having their morning beers. That led us to the question of were they just drunks or is it more acceptable to drink beer early in the day in some countries. Leah and I did not agree. 

From there we began our climb up to Lac Champex. For a change we saw lots of wildlife. 

Just kidding !  The trail was lined with wood sculptures. 

We reached Champex and took a few photos of the lake before locating our hotel. 

We then meandered up to our hotel which was closed. Being an overly aggressive American with a heavy pack, I wandered the halls asking if we could check in early or if we could at least leave our packs. I found someone who was not overly pleased to see me. She told us to leave our packs in the bottom at the front of the hotel. That wasn't to secure but I counted on the fact that not one would be very interested in some old hiking clothes anda pair or $1 flip flops. 

We went to get a snack afterwards we went to stop by the market but ... Oops it was closed until 3. Siesta caught us again. We walked around a bit and soon the tourist information was open at 1:30 after their siesta. We asked the lady to make some onward reservations for us. She was not at all happy to do so but helped us get a reservation for one of the two nights that we didn't have them yet. The place we wanted to stay on Aug 1 was sold out. I was a little heartbroken because it was the only place that I really really wanted to stay. However after checking the weather it is probably just as well. The weather on Aug 1 is predicted to be very, very poor. Almost an inch of rain is predicted. We are thinking that we may not hike that day. Instead we can head down into the valley and the next day take a cable car up and hike up to Lac Blanc. Then hike one to the next cable car and take it down. That would mean we would do part of both Stage 10 and Stage 11. 

We checked into our hotel and the rain started and hasn't stopped today. We expect it to be clear for tomorrow when we attempt another high variant on the TMB.