July 29, 2024 Rifugio Bonatti to Auberge des Glaciers, La Fouly 12.4 TMB miles 14 miles total with side trail Alarm goes off. Snooze. Goes off again. Snooze. It’s going to be a big hiking day, an a challenging one, and I know that I need to get up, but I’m still so eepy and …
July 28, 2024 Courmayeur to Rifugio Bonatti (then bus back to Courmayeur) 7.6 miles Today is an easy day, and we’re slackpacking, and we’re staying in the same place tonight. So there isn’t much of a rush this morning to get up. The ability to spread out in my own extremely comfortable bed after the …
July 27, 2024 Rifugio Elisabetta to Courmayeur 9.8 miles Rifugio Elisabetta may have been hell, but everything else has been heaven. This morning is especially so—after we escape, that is. I didn’t end up going rogue last night; I dilly-dallied as long as I could in the restroom and then accepted my fate and climbed …
July 26, 2024 Les Chapieux to Rifugio Elisabetta 8.6 miles When I poke my head out of my tent this morning, Grace’s first question is “Coffee?” Man, it’s nice hiking with a fellow caffeine addict in a country with copious coffee. We start with some camp coffee though—to be followed by coffee at the store …
July 25, 2024 Les Contamines to Les Champieux (camp) 12.4 miles Breakfast at the refuge this morning reminds me deeply of the albergue breakfasts on the Camino. It’s self-serve style, and it includes coffee, cereal with milk, fresh bread which can be toasted, an assortment of jams, and yogurt. We sit with the same family …
July 21-22, 2024 0 miles hiked Many miles flown When my friend Grace first asked me last November if I wanted to do the Tour du Mont Blanc this summer, I immediately agreed. She was one of several people who had mentioned something to me about the TMB that year, and it felt like a …
July 15, 2024 Canal Park in Duluth to mile 262.8 4.6 miles hiked Staying in town for one last night means, obviously, that we do not get an early start. For one, it’s Machine’s birthday, and I wake up early and attempt to subtly decorate the room before he wakes up. Back in Two Harbors, …
July 14, 2024 White Pine campsite to Canal Park, Duluth 14.7 miles Town day! Town day! I rally myself out of lethargy as well as I can and get moving. I’m not messing around with the DEET again today. It’s a two-wipe morning. We only have a few miles of real trail left before the …
July 13, 2024 Fox Farm Pond campsite to White Pine campsite 15.9 miles The frogs were singing last night. It was cozy. It’s so much easier to enjoy the nature out here when I’m in my tent away from the bugs. There was also something scuttling around my tent that woke me up. Mouse? Chipmunk? …
July 12, 2024 Stewart River Campsite to Fox Farm Pond Campsite 20 miles In the morning I have a relatively quick coffee and pack up as fast as I can. We have a big day, our first and maybe only 20 miler of the SHT, and it’s time to get to it. The latrine at …
Sarahmarie Specht-Bird 