French Valley

We ate a breakfast of eggs and mystery meat, then started our 11 hour hike into the French Valley. It was the most incredible hike we've ever done. It starts out with long flat paths weaving along the crystal-teal lake. Then the path climbs up and down for about 2 hours. We would stop along the way and fill our water bottles with rushing water from the glacier. Definitely the best water we've ever had. Next the path was all uphill, through forests and boulder-fields. The rocks were small and slippery so we would slide around as we went up and down. Our destination was a viewpoint on top of a giant rock that gave a 360 degree view of the surrounding snow-capped mountains. We left our camp at 830 am and after 7 hours of solid hiking, we finally reached the viewpoint. The view was incredible. We would hear bursts of thunder in the sky and look up to see an avalanche on one of the nearby mountains. The entire trek through the French valley was so surreal, and our ridiculously aching bodies is a fair trade for the incredible experience.