We met three Australians yesterday, two of whom are on a 6 week holiday. Apparently they’ve been doing this every other year, for years. They’ve been all over. For some reason they were quite impressed with us. They were great to talk with and we got on really well. Our cramped dorm was completely full. Thankfully Zoë controlled a window so we didn’t overheat. We were up ahead of breakfast at 6:15 because we knew we’d have a long day, so we wanted to be out right after breakfast. Breakfast was incredibly disappointing. It was basically a drink (tea) and bread. That’s it. How the hell were we supposed to fuel for a big day with bread and jam?! ...

So our hotel was fine but somehow worse than the Refugios, despite being on a road with access to regular amenities. At breakfast this morning, they had plenty of food but somehow I didn’t want to eat any of it. I think the quality of everything was just a little too low and I wasn’t up for stuffing myself. By the time we left it was 8:45. This was our short day. We should have no problem getting to our next Refugio, Volpi al Mulaz, before 18:00. We left our hotel, walking along a narrow shoulder of road as cars whizzed by. It was a popular area, but there wasn’t great options for pedestrians. We took a trail that had us climb up ski slopes. There was not a cloud in the sky so we got to see what we couldn’t yesterday. We may have missed more than I thought yesterday, walking in the clouds. ...

Dinner last night was pretty weak. I think that’s been my impression for most of these huts: the food is deeply mediocre. Italy can do much better, but these huts just don’t. Our main course was about what you would expect on an airline, and Rifugio Castiglioni Marmolada is car accessible, meaning they can get fresh supplies regularly. I ended up full at least. There were only 3 of us in our 8 person dorm and it was silent yet again. I guess the smell of horse shit blew in all night towards Zoë’s bed, but I didn’t smell anything. My mattress was too soft and I ended up bowed like a banana and woke up with a sore back. At least we were out of the rain which started sometime in the night and was still going when we woke up in the morning. ...

Another great day in the Dolomites. Last night we talked with some Polish students who are studying medicine. They failed their exams so they have to retake them in September so they brought iPads to the hut to study. Apparently 50% of their class failed so it’s not uncommon. Also in Poland, undergrad seems to be combined with medical school, so they do 6 years of school before residency, rather than 8. The funny part was, they had rented a car and driven to the base of the mountain. They had booked this specific hut without doing much research I guess, for 3 nights. They figured it would be a short walk from their car and that they could do day hikes from the hut. They were then greeted with the via ferrata section after a very steep pass. I’m surprised they kept going up. ...

I can’t believe no one snored last night in our 10 person dorm. Someone closed the window and I woke up at 3:00 sweating. Who likes sleeping in the hot? I don’t get it. We got up at 6:30 which was plenty of time to do everything else before breakfast started at 7:00. The breakfast wasn’t bad. It was a buffet of breads, jams, some cheese, ham, hard boiled eggs, yogurt, muesli, tea and coffee. We made sure to eat our fill so we could make it to lunch with minimal snacking. I even had two cups of tea which felt like a real luxury. ...

Today, we found ourselves hiking again. It was a somewhat restful period between our last hike, the Pyrenees High Route, and now. It was only made less restful by the fact that we had all the usual travel logistics to deal with every day in between: where do we go, what do we do, and what do we eat? We solved it by renting a car in Verona, Italy and driving around the Italian Alps for 8 days, sleeping in campgrounds. ...

Our last day on trail. Our last 2 hours really. Last night, the intense thunderstorm ended up flooding our tent. When it paused after 45 minutes, we tipped all the water out, but the ground was wet all night. Atop our sleeping pads, we were dry. It continued to rain for several hours. I wondered about the people caught out in the hail. That would truly be miserable. In the morning, we took as long as we wanted getting out. Our plan at this point was to walk into town, get some food for a day, and then try out a campsite labeled on my map that set us up well for a bus tomorrow. We walked the trail into town which started off nice and quiet and got more busy with mountain bikers and other hikers the closer we got to town. It reminded me of towns like Bear Bear, California. There were ski resorts, mountain bikers, and hikers. There were even wooden cabins off to the side of the trail. ...

We woke up with condensation in our tent. We sleep with our doors open, so it’s rare it happens. Condensation on this trail seemed to be even rarer still. But we had a wet tent, which was a bit surprising. The last time we had one just a day or so ago, a cloud blew through our camp. Perhaps we’re entering an area where condensation regularly happens. The weather has been great lately. It hasn’t been too hot, and then afternoon thunderstorms roll in and cool everything way down. It’s been awesome during a time in which we aren’t hiking nearly as much because we’re sort of waiting out the days until August 10 when we have accommodation booked. ...

One thing to mention about the campground last night, it had bathrooms but no toilet paper. Zoë found this completely unacceptable. Thankfully I had spotted that on a review before we arrived, but it did seem a little odd. It’s also odd to us that almost none of the campgrounds seem to have soap in their bathrooms, despite having sinks and potable water. I don’t know how these places aren’t ground zero for norovirus outbreaks all the time. ...

We woke up with condensation inside the tent, which was a first for us on this trail. I actually packed a wet tent this morning, which was slightly amusing. It was nice and cool, much more so than our hotel from the past few nights in town. It was also dead quiet. I woke up feeling not very well rested. Thankfully, on paper, we mostly had descending to do for a while. I don’t know why I’ll always think that will be easier. Out here it always seems to hurt me more: my knees, my ankles, and my mind in that I think we should be going a lot faster than we are. We had a brief climb, behind some obnoxiously loud hikers. Thankfully they disappeared somewhere after not too long. ...