Tempted to Camp in Gruyère

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Yesterday while I was looking for a Via Ferrata I came across this hike and I am tempted to do it. I will be in the area to do this hike on Saturday and if I camped overnight then I could do the second hike as a solo hike.

The reason not to camp, at this time of year is that the temperature still goes down to 5°c tomorrow, 6°c on Saturday and 8°c on Sunday. It’s not freezing, but you need a better tent and sleeping bag in these conditions.

The more realistic goal is to go up and do the planned hike and if I have enough energy left over, and if we do not finish too late, then I could drive up to the Chartreuse de la Valsainte and catch a quick glimpse.

The hike I will be doing is this one. It’s a 22km hike that would go through a gorge, if not for a detour due to construction and maintenance work.

Train or Car

A year ago I would never have hesitated between taking the train or the car. I would automatically take the car because that’s usually faster and more convenient. In this situation I toyed with the idea of the train. It would take the same amount of time, at least in the morning, and allow me to have a siesta. On the flipside driving back is definitely faster.

It’s the half hour walk, to and from the Nyon train station that cools me to the train as a solution. If I take the train I have to set off half an hour earlier than with the car. One hour by car, two hours by train.

And Finally

With good planning this would have been the perfect opportunity to spend the weekend hiking, with the same drive covering two hikes, rather than just one. I was tempted to do another hike with a group I enjoy but that would have required two hours of driving each way.

I love driving, but if I drive for two hours or more I would like to have two to three hikes, for that drive time, not one.

If I had confirmed Saturday sooner then I could easily have planned a hike in the same area for Sunday, with a group. I enjoy the idea of doing two hikes over two days, with one car journey each way, rather than two.

In future I plan to.