We woke to brilliant blue skies, but the forecast suggested this might be just for a day and we would have serious rain again. After our experience on the Bonette, we knew it would be best to avoid rain at elevation. John had been going back and forth between not feeling good and feeling ok. We looked at the map and forecast, as well as our daily averages on paved roads, and decided to pull the plug on getting over to the gravel route. Our plan had been to cross the border at Isola 2000, so I suggested we at least head up to the border, and then aim for Nice. We opted for a little backtracking over a climb from a few days prior with a stop in a village, Valdeblore, we had flown through on a descent. John reserved a hotel there and we set off for Isola. The road from Isola to Isola 2000 is a pretty wide main road, but started off brutally steep. Knowing we were doing an out and back on this road, I suggested we find a place to leave our bags. We spotted a good spot that we would be able to find on the return, and left gear there. Then we continued up.
I rolled on, figuring John was taking lots of photos, given the glorious conditions. I arrived at the lower part of the ski village, where it is clearly off season. There were cars and people, so I had some hope of finding an open café. I climbed quite a bit more, before seeing a restaurant. They only served full meals, so I couldn't just get a coffee and croissant. John and I texted back and forth. He was feeling bad and had stopped at a bus shelter. He said to go to the top and then come back down to find him at the shelter, where he'd be taking a nap. So I finished off the climb, put a foot in Italy, bundled up and began the descent.
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