Today I went to Geneva. I considered going by car, and then either going to do the Fort L’écluse via ferrata or dropping by decathlon. In the end I took the train and walked around Geneva. I went to Geneva to pick up the things for the Vernier run on Friday morning.
I chose to go by train, rather than by car, because by car it would have taken the same amount of time but used petrol and I would have paid for parking.
Hiking from Vallorbe to Orbe is possible by following the foot path that goes along the River Orbe. If the river looks a little slow, and stagnant compared to what you would expect there is a simple reason. There is a hydroelectric dam that is slowing the flow of water. When I walked along it I noticed that there were logs and other debris floating. With the recent storms and rains they will need to remove debris from the water.
On Sunday, after Saturday’s via ferrata I went for a walk along the Areuse river. The hike started in Noiraigue and went along the Areuse river and two gorges. In reality it’s one gorge but there are two parts to the gorge seperated by a long flat bit that is more friendly to people who are slightly, or quite afraid of heights.
This experience wa organised via GoSocial rather than Meetup.com or other sites. Initiaully I was sceptical of such an activity because there are over 50 people signed up, and only 25 spots so I expected not to be able to go. Luckily people signed out and a spot cleared for me the evening before the hike.
Yesterday I caught a train from Nyon to Bex without the need to change from one train to another. In the process I had an opportunity to re-acclimate myself to being surrounded by others, indoors, without a mask. Luckily the wagon wasn’t too crowded so I wasn’t overcome with the desire to mask.
When I saw that there was a hike from Bex to Aigle I didn’t expect it to be as nice as it was. I expected it to be a walk along roads from A to B. I was wrong. It was a beautiful walk through the town of Bex, and then through a forest and a huge Erratic rock dropped there by a glacier many centuries ago. The walk through the forest passes by a Parcours Vita but just two or three exercises.
Yesterday I tried an experiment which could have been a silly one. I tried to do the Lavaux hike from Puidoux to Vevey with Trail Glove 7 shoes. They are barefoot minimalist shoes so I could have regretted it. I didn’t but mainly because of the preparation before hand.
I have worn through one pair of Trail Glove 7 shoes before switching to the pair that I am using now. In that time I have walked at least 800 kilometres with one pair and an unknown amount with the second pair. The second pair is starting to show signs of wear. I think the left heel is about to fail.
Today I met with a meetup group to walk through the Lavaux vineyards from Puidoux to Vevey and the experience was good. The logistics of buying a train ticket confused me but other than this the experience was good.
I was able to catch a train from Nyon to Morges, change in Morges for the train to Puidoux before then getting off the train in Puidoux. The advantage of changing in Morges is that I just had to get off one train before getting onto the next.
According to streetlight data walking in the US has declined over the past three or four years. The decline was by up to thirty six percent from 2019-2022. The clearest reason for this is that 2019 and 2020 were walking honeymoon periods. By this I mean that for the duration of lock down and “work from home” people had more time to walk since they spent less time commuting, but also because the natural habit of getting into a car to do something had declined., thanks to the pandemic.
Today is an unusual day. Originally I had planed to walk over one thousand meters up the Jura, before realising that I had too little sleep, so I decided to sleep a little more, do laundry, write a blog post and then eat lunch.
After lunch I didn’t feel like going for a walk, still. That’s highly unusual for me. I don’t know whether it’s because I am tired from a mediocre night of sleep or whether it’s because of the heat that hasn’t left yet. It’s the 9th of September and it’s still 29 to 30°c. I feel slightly under the weather so I’m skipping the walk.
The most striking thing about a winter with little to no snow is that there is no noise. Normally ski lifts clank, people talk and there is a lot of noise
When there has been very little snow the ski lifts are turned off and the mountains are quiet. This is when you realise the impact of winter sports.
In summer you hear cowbells.
Fields
These are not ducks in a row. Tidy crops