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The good weather in August continues so it was time to head up the Jura again from L’Isle (previously 16 Sept 2021), this time without cold rain and hypothermia.

Attending Messrs Hempstead and Rocco, Mark2ts, Finkelstein, Neivens and for lunch only, Mr R Saynor. No Kobie, as I had booked a table in the Buvette de Châtel for lunch.

This next bit was copy pasted from the 2021 Blog.

We assembled à l’heure at 10 am at the parking at the station at L’Isle, a place worth visiting for its magnificent chateau. First then some culture:-

“Also known as the “Petit Versaille de l’Isle”, this magnificent château was built in 1696 by Charles de Chandieu, a Lieutenant General in the Swiss Guard. It was the first regional monument of classical architecture.

Built in 1696 by Charles de Chandieu, the Château de l’Isle is a monument steeped in history. Originating from around 1700 during the classical era in France, this building greatly resembles that of the architectural movement of the time, where the Château de Versailles was built.

The, “La Vénoge” river has enabled the Château to benefit from a beautiful French garden, as well as a river basin bordered by two tree-lined paths. At first the Chandieu family lived in the old residence until the end of the 18th century. François Louis Roulet of Neuchâtel was the first to live there in the 19th century, and then it was handed down through marriage to the Cornaz Family of Montet Cudrefin.

In 1876, the commune of l’Isle bought and restored the château. Today it houses the municipal department of housing and classrooms. Since 1941, the château has been a listed building.”

It was indeed going to be a warm day, and for a 750m denivellation, we were going to sweat our way up. Happily most of the ascent was in the shade.

We passed by the château and it’s about-to-open Brocante in the grounds, some old and slow moving items there too.

The early part starts from 660m gently and gradually rises up, after 7.5km to the summit plateau. A long hike that for opposite reasons from 2021 we found quite trying.

We were making steady progress and not hanging about at all. In fact we arrived 30 minutes before the 1pm time of the table I had booked.

On the way up we traversed a short stretch of road, carrying a number of cars full of folk going up to eat at the Buvette. It was going to be busy up there.

At the Buvette (1395m) we were uplifted by the beaming smile of Richard who had been hoping to hike down to meet us, and only slightly disappointed that we were early. No worries we were soon ensonced at a corner table and supplied with beers from the friendly waitress.

The food was great (well my En-croute-with an egg was), the beers too, and we had no need for desserts, only coffee. Some chf 35 per head – good for Switzerland.

As usual, apart from remembering absent friends, my recollection of the lunch conversation ended up limited – and realising this would be the case I dictated this wording at the time :-

“Swiss Chateau theory and GINI coefficients (Mike), death, electric cars (Mark as his Audi has pegged out), cancel (actually Cancer – thanks Richard), Portugal, Temu, female Dentists and their warmth (patients with bald heads), no Scottish Independence, dental appointment as an excuse, Friday, excuses, excuses excuses, excuses, excuses excuses Mark Warren (?) excuses (sic).”

Also how a certain member’s spouse had been locked out of her car at Signy Centre owing to ignoring the “CHANGE THE BATTERY KEY” for several weeks, and the best ways to solve the problem, after the event.

All too soon it was time to descend and we said our farewells to Richard who was heading down to the Lac de Joux.

We set compass for the north and passed by a herd of cows, unnerving Rocco (who had been very well behaved at lunch!).

After a couple of kilometres we headed off down and right. A sketchy section on our maps showed no path connecting two tracks and the way we wanted to go. Nathan’s simple advice was “wing it”, so we did and it worked fine. Down in the clearly unfrequented Combe à Berger a series of quite remote trails led in 5 or 6 km to the outskirts of L’Isle reached shortly thereafter. Just before the edge of the forest it began to rain heavily and we donned jackets. We had heard the roll of thunder several times on the way down, but it seems back over the Lac de Joux area. The rain stopped after 2 minutes.

Some of the party (not Rocco) were now showing signs of being the worse for wear. Were we missing the digestifs (RS had some but we passed on it after our lunch) ? Last time the descent passed quickly. It had been 16.5km in total and 750m up and down in some heat, happily a bit more shaded in descent. We found salvation at the kiosk next to the château with cokes and ice creams.

On the way home (thanks Mike for driving) the temperature showed 33C on the autoroute. I was home by 6pm.

A long and steady hike but take plenty of water in hot weather, and good rain gear in poor weather…

Still in the warm August heat, but not quite so hot now, this hike repeated the ascent of the Pointe de Poêle Chaud also made on hikes of 31 Aug 23, 28 May 22, and 2 Nov 2020 with 31 May 2020 (the latter both Swiss section only).

Seven of us appeared at the five star car park at La Givrine on a fine morning, variously Ross, Thatcher, Mervyn, Nathan, RichardW, Andrew and me, and Kobie. I had apologies from quite a number of folk, most seemed genuine. We missed you all.

My plan was to ascend via my “secret” path to the col just right of the Pointe de Fin Château, then ascend the ridge to the PdPC, down to the Col de Porte and ascend to a recent lunch spot near La Barillette.

This ascent has the advantage of having morning shade.

It was sad to me to find out that, like Kathy Kirby, the Secret Path was not secret any more. We met a couple coming down and then were overtaken by a sizeable organized and fit-looking hiking group going up. The forest was cool, dank and green.

However we re-overtook that team when they stopped for a rest, and on breaching the col we found another 15 rucksacks stashed under a tree. A second team were clearly out taking in the views on the PdFC. We did not let this unexpected traffic dampen our spirits as we ascended in clear air the ridge to the PdPC, where the sun was warming things up.

We were soon at our goal.

It was apèro time and Mervyn opened a bottle of chasselas, luxury.. and we took in the views and solved the world’s problems.

Onwards downwards to the Col de Porte where we eschewed the choice of summiting La Dôle again and instead headed down left past the Chalet des Apprentis.

Down at the dip we could see on the left the hardy and brave Bent Tree still showing some greenery.

A quick scramble up to the picnic spot that we found on 18 July when we had hiked up from the Barraque a Kuffer, with a fine view to the Dôle ridge and showing stick people in silhouette.

Lunch was most pleasant – as we had the choice of sun or shade, and Richard opened his screw-top bottle of rouge. More world problems were solved and Andrew did some paperwork. Others slept. Kobie filched some quiche.

After an hour or so of lounging in the sun and shade we packed up and headed up over to the Tower of Power (apparanetly a rock group Ross knows about).

We passed by the Barillette Restaurant without stopping for beer (again!) and descended towards the tricky section past Couvaloup de St Cergue and eventually back to the restoration at La Givrine.

We were sipping beers and coffee in time to witness a large crash on the tv in the Tour de France Femmes Zwift.

A very pleasant hike, 13.5km and 564m deniv (Nathan may have a different summary). Thanks for the fun and tolerating my hound, who had a great day out too.

PS That night the heavens opened in Coppet, 34 mm of rain in as many minutes.

We met a Divonne at 08;

45.

Participants: Nathan Finkelstein, Bill Westermeyer, Mark Warren, Drew Meek. Paul Dworjanynn, a visiting friend of Drew’s from Australia, joined us. He’d recently finished two months and 1600k walking the Camino and had lots of pilgrim’s tales to share.

At Divonne, Nathan was in discussion with Frank at the Refuge de la Loge about likely storm arrival and, on arrival, telecabine staff also gave warnings of storms. There was some concern about whether the telecabine would be running on our return for the descent and possible impact on scheduled  timings for some after the walk.

We arrived Lelex at 09:45. Telecabine up to top station.

It was hazy but there was a pleasant temperature for most of the hike. No rain was seen by the time we got to the telecabine to come down and after that, we didn’t care. It was so much hotter on return to Divonne so we were glad we’d spent the day in the mountains.

We started from the top station at 10:10. Our route followed the darker blue line on the map. Nathan led us up into the forest and away from the refuge to avoid any early stopping for beer or lunch.

We walked out of the denser forest to the Sous-crêt, arriving about 11:20

mark had indicated he wasn’t going to proceed to the Crêt de Neige. While the remainder of the party went on to the summit (round trip around 45m) Mark rested there for a while but also took a stroll up to the Brand Crêt for a view from 18m inferior to ours.

The path along from the Sous-crêt to the peak was quite rocky and I recall it being easier on a previous winter’s snowshoe outing. However, that trip didn’t have the wildflowers seen on this trip.

We arrived at the Crêt de Neige peak (1720m) at about 11:40

After returning to the Sous-crêt to reconnect with Mark, we headed down the main path to a point where Nathan consulted his e-thingy (around 12:30) and we diverted down a path les travelled , reportedly a short cut to the refuge.

It was a fairly steep descent with some parts of slippery scree to negotiate. Mark made a rapid descent to earth on his arse , losing a bit of bark on his elbows but there was not much claret.

Just after 1pm we reached the bottom of the diversion and headed across the fields till we hit the path leading to the refuge

We arrived around 13:15. There were many hikers there. A pair of women on the next table took our group photo. They were en route on a 100k, 5 day hike to Bellegarde.

Perhaps Mark’s earlier fall has some additional consequences as he had difficulty opening his beer cans, the second instance requiring Swiss army knife intervention to open the can after he pulled the ring pull off an unopened can.

Finally, sufficient amber fluid was consumed with our plats de jour (croque or pork brochette). This was followed by a whisky digestives before tartes myrtilles, coffee and genepi (the latter offerred by our hosts).

We left the refuge shortly before 3pm for a short walk to the top station, where, in the absence of storms, the telecabine was running. We arrived back at Lelex around 3:15. Nathan departed for his first aid duties back in Geneva. Thanks to him for organising a great day’s activity. The rest of us returned to Divonne.

Attending – all at Divonne except Rob, Drew and Rodney(who biked up !!)

1.Nathan

2. Mervyn

3. Drew

4. Rob

5. Mark 2rs

6. Mark 2ts

7. Ross

8. Nicolas and Onyx

9. Bill

10. Philip

11. Rodney

12. Peter and Kobie

I had received apologies from several – Peter Strebel in the Engadine, David Colledge and Thatcher – both in Villars, Stephen Long – child minding, Richard Saynor – knocked out by therapy, Peter Drew – clubbing in Berlin, Larry – abroad, Paul – with guests, and I knew others were away, so I was pleasantly surprised when the list grew to 12.

Chapeau first of all to Rodney who biked up. I had done that the day before to check parking, and at over 700m to the Baraque a Kuffer at 1142m on the Barillette Road, I can attest that this is penible.

The following rather useless heart rate map shows our anticlockwise track – the Barillette tower being above the “g” of “green”, lunch under “w” of “watch”

To cater for the assembled punters this was planned to be not a very challenging hike, 9km and 420m, but in the hot weather I think most found it acceptably sufficient for the day.

We set off from the sign on the road under which we parked the cars and bike:-

It was a warm day – for shorts – but Nathan and Drew were protecting their legs from ticks. I use the hairy dog protection method, sending Kobie first through the jungly trails.

The initial track led us gently upwards to underneath the Rochers de Pierre Lente. Is this slow Peter, or slow stone ? – please advise if you know.

We traversed a scree slope and across to where the path forked steeply upwards in the forest. One member complained that I had not mentioned that there was a vertical section in the hike. In truth it was steep for a while but not impassable and soon the slope eased and we were ambling up through sunlit glades.

It was not long before the Barillette restaurant was encountered. I believed this to be the crux of the whole route, how to get 12 thristy hikers to walk past a terrace of beer without stopping? The sign “COMPLET” helped, and my thinking was that we had enough alcohol in our sacks – sadly I was mistaken.

I urged the team not to linger and we passed on up.

We reached the Barillette Mast and although the views to the alps were a bit hazy, being the top of the hike there was some good cheer :-

We meandered down across to the path that leads to the Col de Porte, and stopped under the shade of a tree on the fresh grass for our lunch:-

It was a pleasant lunch spot. We drank a toast to the health of absent friends, especially Richard, but in veritas there was not a great deal of vino to be had. (Note – for future picnic hike leaders to pre-encourage a little more of the fruit of the vine to be carried and tasted up out in the fresh air). Thanks to those who did supply us though, and to Rob for Scottish fluid and Mark2ts for his hot strong black liquid, Mervyn for milk. Conversation flowed – I can only remember that Mervyn was to be blamed for something… I believe the dogs behaved, but let me know if mine stole your sandwich. We had great views of the Col de Porte and the Dôle ridge.

Time to be off and we traversed down and round through a field of cows – without incident with our hounds, I always prefer a direct approach (and with Kobie not on a leash – so he can run off):-

The journey back down involved wide tracks in the forest, the first of which had been decimated by a huge logging machine, unpleasant. All went well, albeit I somehow lost my dog-chewn straw hat (I’ll try and go back to find it soon).

Just before the cars, there was a choice of steep shortcut down through the forest or a trail to the road and down, each taken by equal numbers, and we all reached the cars within minutes of each other.

These are the good days. May there be many more.

Thanks to all for coming, and to drivers. And for coping with our hounds – I think they behaved pretty well though. Next hike in two weeks.