Into the Alps

To Saint-Oyen, Italy -- 39.5 miles, 9.2 mph, 4350 ft

The skies were full of clouds when we awoke this morning. In fact, the skies had been rumbling since midnight. The kids were energized and ran off to a nearby teeter totter to play just as a few big drops began to fall. Meg and I, on the other hand, were a bit more subdued and anxious in anticipation of the biggest climbing day yet -- and perhaps the entire ride. The good news is that we planned our lodging to break up the primary climbing into two days. 

The day’s climbing started out fairly gently and we managed to avoid the rain as we stuck to the two-lane highway in spite of Miss Cranky’s constant prompting to turn onto side roads -- ”You have left the tour, please look at a map!”  I have no doubt the smaller roads would have been more scenic, but given the near certainty we’d be getting wet today, and the 4000 ft of climbing in front of us, we were primarily interested in putting some miles behind us. 

The skies darkened again as we entered Aosta, a sizable town where we would say goodbye to the gentle grade of the River Dora Baltea and really start climbing up one of the side valleys.  As we rode into town, I sighted an outdoor gear store across the road. Twenty minutes later, we each had a pair of new nylon rain pants... just in case. From the look of the skies, we didn't get them a minute too soon. 

Mannequin Kylie...with new rain pants

Looks like rain

No sooner had we pulled back onto the highway, then the skies opened up. We made it to the nearest Carrefour market and waited out the rain, doing our daily shopping.  We focused on storing up energy for the looming climb -- at least the adults did.

By the time we finally figured our way out of town, it was 2:00. As we began grinding up the twisty back roads, the sun came out, and we were treated to a glorious day. Gone was the muggy haze from yesterday.  Despite the unrelenting up, the views were spectacular.

Kamoots view: the road up

Unfortunately, Meg suffered a bit on the climb -- heat, sore bum, lack of energy -- but she and Dex kept moving. At 5:30, we slowly climbed into the town of Saint-Oyen and our beautiful hotel. I finally got a smile out of Meg.

At dinner, in the downstairs restaurant, we toasted to another good day, and our last night in Italy. Switzerland, here we come.