The hike last week was cancelled owing to persistent rain. So this Thursday with the BLeader being in the South Atlantic no biking was arranged and instead a delayed hike was organised. Following Mrs Pashley finding the excellent, recommended and newly made “3 villages path” (above Bassins, Le Vaud and Marchissy) recently, Jill and I hiked it and I spotted a possible new section of forest to explore upward of this. Hence 6 of us with 2 hounds assembled at Marchissy (883m) at 10.15 am ready for an ascent to Cret de La Neuve (1494m). I had reckoned on 611m of up (simple math really).
Attending : 6 :- Peters Strebel, Solomon and Taylor; MikeH; Ross; RichardS; with dogs Kobie and Rocco. I had apologies from many, some ill, some away, some busy, some just chilling.
Happily the paths above Marchissy are now well mapped and signposted and it seemed that my target of Cret de la Neuve was reached simply by following the Sentier du Coq, then heading NW up the ridge.
The forecast was good, and so it was a little disconcerting to be starting in the mist, the cloud had yet to lift. We set off in good cheer though following the wooden Coq signs, gently upward through the autumn forest colours.
At one point we had to leave the Coq path and take to tarmac as loggers with noisy chain saws had closed the trail. It took about 2 hours to reach the top of the Jura ridge at the Perroude de Marchissy hut, with tell-tale (and very small) signs of the snow that had fallen recently. We turned right and wandered up the sunny slope to our old favourite lunch spot at the Cret de la Neuve.
A bottle of Bordeaux helped to relax the party and stopped me from choking on my sandwich. One hound perhaps ate too many of my chews too quickly and made an offering to Richard, which he then consumed (again). We met a courageous young lady (from Paris) there who was cooking up her lunch on a stove. Her pack included a tent and she was solo en route from Marchairuz to St Cergue.
Topics at lunch were many and varied. We toasted absent friends and one member told his favourite Margaret Thatcher joke – when visiting a care home she asked an old lady in a wheelchair – “do you know who I am?”. The old lady replied “I don’t know love, but if you ask at that desk over there they will tell you”.
Richard dug out his famous bottle and several of us benefitted from some Russian vodka.
The cloud rose as we moved to go and it suddenly got chilly.
The descent, after a first steep section, was long and uneventful, easy angled with much walking on wide trails and some tarmac and the sun came back. At least this enabled plenty of chatting, and we were soon back at the cars, well before 3pm.
I think we all enjoyed this one, visting an old haunt (for some of us) from a new angle, moderate hiking, in fine autumnal weather. My measurement today was 616m denivellation and 14km. Thanks to attendees and to those supplying photos.
