Chickens In The Rain
Chickens in the rain, for a change.
It’s a lake that was dug out when they built the A1 motorway. The quarry that was left behind became a lake. For a long time cars could drive around the lake.
The loop around the lake is good for walking, cycling, rollerblading and more. It is around 3.6km long and there are plenty of parking spaces beside it. If you want there is another option.
That option is the Voie Verte as it is called in France. There used to be a train line from Nyon to Divonne but it was destroyed to make way for the motorway. Some of the tracks were pulled up and it went wild.
Eventually they cut all the overgrowth, tarmaced the road, and gave it to cyclists, walkers and more. It’s a way to go from Crassier to Divonne without putting up with cars.
The advantage of this lake is that it is a flat loop. You can use it to run, cycle or rollerblade laps. You can use it to run a specific distance without having to invent a route along roadsides and more. It’s a way of working on endurance without the challenge of undulating terrain.
Aside from the lake there is a model solar system that is to a scale you can walk along. It gives you an idea of how much space is between the planets in the solar system as well as the relative size.
On the opposite side of the lake you have a reconstructed aqueduct for children to see how water was taken from Divonne to Nyon at the times of the Romans when Nyon was Julia Equestrius.
The lake is a tame simple walk that can be used for a number of things. It also has the advantage of being tarmaced. This means that even people like me can go for a walk without getting muddy shoes.
For the second time in a few days I ran over five kilometres in the Trail Glove 7 shoes without my knees or other parts of my body suffering. With other shoes I would have stopped after two kilometres but for some reason I can run further with Trail Glove 7
At the moment I am running 5k but one or two weeks elapse between runs so my body has time to recover and adapt to running. My knees are under less stress as a result.
With normal shoes I would rely on the heel of the shoe to amortise the shock that is then transmitted to my knees. With the Trail Glove 7, especially warn out ones I tend to land on the front of my foot and absorb some of the shock before the heel hits the ground. I also adapted my walking style after several months of walking in various barefoot shoes.
When possible I was running in the grass by the side of the road. This lessens the forces that are at play. I think my body does benefit from trying to run along a softer route.
According to the Suunto App my run saved one kg of CO2 yesterday. That’s good for the environment. If I get in ship I could run to the shops and back, rather than using a car and I would save more, benefiting the environment.
For an activity to count as saving CO2 it has to start at point A and end at point B. If you start and stop in the same place it does not count as saving Co2. This is a shame as I think that walks that start at home and end at home, without the use of a car save CO2.
Looking at headlines the two unique selling points are that it can track naps, and that it is more wheel chair friendly. The drawback to this watch is that it is a 500 CHF watch that wants to be a smart watch and a fitness tracker rather than a sports watch. For this reason I have little to no interest in it, despite liking siestas.
The Apple Watch Challenge for this month is to stand for 12 hours a day for at least fourteen days. That’s not a challenge. That’s forcing me to wear the watch, like an addict, for 12hrs, to stand. I don’t want watches to make me stand. I want watches that let me live my life, and track how my fitness is improving, or degrading over time, without using “addiction” as a motivator. That’s why I like Suunto.
I don’t regret getting the Trail Glove 7. I find them comfortable for walking and running, especially on grass and soil, by the side of roads.
Yesterday i drove through the rain for two hours at night and it was so demanding that i stopped the audiobook to focus on driving. It was harder to see the lines, and the rain was heavy enough to impact visibility.
I made it but i would think twice about driving through such rain at night on a 12hr drive for the last two hours.
I have seen combine harvesters at work over the last two days. Yesterday I saw them harvesting colza, and today I saw them harvesting wheat. At the moment you see grapes that are still in a juvenile state, and apples that look a little more mature, growing on their respective plants.
When you walk every single day of the year, you see nature change. You see plants flower, the fruit or nuts grow, the harvest, and then the next crop, You see this all year long. At the moment as I walk by the vineyards I can see the grapes growing every day. They were tiny and unrecognisable and now we can see what they are, but we can see that they still need to grow more juicy and filled with fluid. There is no rush. They have three or four more months.
Despite the rains, the ground is dry again, so it is easy to walk without getting too muddy. The rivers, too, despite the flood warning for big lakes, are low again. The soil around here was not saturated.
Today I was at a petrol station and I could feel that someone was standing right behind me so I asked “pardon me, but could you step two meters back, and could you wear your face mask, as I gestured a mask on my own face. I said all of this automatically, without thought or consideration. It was a reflex. I’m old-fashioned. The limit is one metre, not two. I surprised myself with that reaction.
What’s of interest is that I was then thanked by the person at the petrol station because usually he’s the one that has to tell them to wear the mask, so I avoided him that unpleasant chore. I think that it might be the first time, this pandemic, that I say this. I haven’t been in such a situation as I tried to avoid people for the last 470+ days.
When you wake up in the Europahütte and look down you can see the span of the longest suspension bridge in the morning shade of the mountains. It’s at this moment that people like me think “shame, not ideal for pictures”. My advice is to plan the day of hiking so that you arrive at the bridge when it’s lit by the sun to get good images. Plan to arrive in the afternoon. I’d be tempted to start from Zermatt if I did this hike again.
When I crossed the bridge it took about six minutes slowing down occasionally to look at the view. It’s stable and hardly swings. I was able to walk with a camera in one hand without holding on to the cable. It’s nothing like via ferrata monkey bridges and others. If you’re used to via ferrata bridges then this one is tame. The Ladders of Death and other via ferrata are more impressive. I’d compare it to the bridge above Saillon but much bigger.
You can see that the bridge is solidly anchored into the mountain on both ends. It’s a mere 86 meters off the ground and when you walk out and look down you can see the tops of trees like a paraglider would see them. It’s a nice taste of the world as seen from a paraglider.
Most of the hike on the other side is through pine forest with some exposed bits where you can look up and see a glacier and streams flowing as well as waterfalls. At one point you pass above a nice gorge before heading back into the trees. This part of the hike is comfortable compared to the previous day. It undulates less. There is one moment where the trail is covered by reinforced concrete to protect hikers from rock fall. There are two tunnels through which to walk. Between the two tunnels, you can see damage created by large boulders. In one case the reinforced concrete is buckled. at another section the concrete has been pushed down vertically. For a brief moment you go back into the trees and head upwards again. Saplings have had time to grow in this section, implying that rockfalls have not occurred for a few years.
There is a prairie with warnings of active rockfall and at this segment of the hike bunkers have been dug into the side of the mountain. If you hear or see rocks falling you can shelter here until the danger has passed.
I feel that Zermatt should have many more solar panels on roof buildings than it has. After decades of electric cars and horse drawn carriages you’d expect them to seize the opportunity to generate and use their own power.