Snowshoe hikes for more farm photos, February 2006

Dwight Peck's personal website

Winter 2005-2006

Short breaks from poring over the newspapers as the Bushies implode

You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.

A round-up of new farm pix, 4 and 5 February 2006

We're here (the royal "we") at the Bugnonet-Chaumette winter trailhead (971m) above our hometown of Bassins, and our scheme for today is to update our Farms of the Jura photos with some new ones from the digital camera era. Presently we're bound for Le Bugnonet over there on the right. (We've no idea who those young folks are up ahead -- let's let them get ahead a bit.)

The Bassins "Route de Montagne" has a barrier across it at this point, but we've been very badly served by some "skimobiles" ("motoneiges" in French) that, as you see, have got round it and have effectively trashed the roadway right to the top of the mountain. But we'll be bushwhacking straight up the forest anyway, and getting lost in the Bois au Ministre to get some late afternoon shots of Le Crot.

There's Le Bugnonet (995m). It would sure be nice if the sun would peek out about now.

But no sun today, not here anyway -- the top of the fog is at about 1100m.

Here we are. We've dragged our way straight up through the lovely hard snow and finally found the sun at Le Crot.

This is the farm of Le Crot (1225m) at about 4 p.m., with Mont Sâla (1511m) looming behind. Maybe not looming, maybe just settled comfortably in up there.

We trot around the east side of Le Crot with a nice view on the horizon: (from left) Mont Pelé (1532m), forested and frequently unfindable amongst the trees; an unnamed middle one (1515m), and Mont Sâla (1511m) on the right. They're about 4 kilometres away from us now, up on the Jura ridgeline.

We circumambulate the building (we're standing on a pile of forestry logs for this shot from the north), squeezing off lots of digital shots to choose from later, changing the batteries from time to time.

And the front, facing out over Lake Geneva to the south

Whenever we can, we also catch a picture with the name of the farm in it: in this case, Le Crot.

It's well past 4 p.m. and the temperature is plummeting, so we'll have to trot along.

We're leaving Le Crot to cross the Route de Montagne to pick up the Chemin des Crêtes international hiking trail lower down and find Les Frasses.

And here's the farm of Les Frasses (1151m), along the Chemin des Crêtes.

We're actually racing along here because the sun is just going into the tank and we may not make it to the building in time for any good shots.

Almost out of breath

Just in time -- that's the southeast front of Les Frasses, with the Chemin des Crêtes trail sign on the beam. Now it's nearly 5 p.m., and we haven't a moment to linger.

A trail sign at dusk -- La Dunanche is out on the flat, Les Frasses is back the way we've come. But we're in a hurry now.

There are those skimobile tracks again. People from the city, probably, who typically love their "vroom-vroom". But now we'll bushwhack down through the forest as speedily as may be, as we "feel how swift how secretly / The shadow of the night comes on", mainly really really cold.

"To feel the always coming on
The always rising of the night."
And the waterbottle's frozen up again.

The next day

We're back the next day, 5 February 2006, for more updated farm photos, but it's not a welcoming sort of day. That's Le Bugnonet again.

Out of the fog again. We were heading for Perroude du Vaud, but we spent so long thrashing about in the forest getting up to this point, 1370m at 4 p.m., that we'd better turn a sharp left and follow the Chemin des Crêtes SSW towards Le Planet.

Le Planet sits at 1364m on a kind of promontory overlooking Lake Geneva -- there it is dead centre. There, in the centre . . .

There!

A mere 20 minutes later we're huffing and puffing up to the old barn door.

Le Planet, late afternoon, 5 February 2006

Spelt "Le Planey" here, mind you.

But "Le Planet" here. The yellow trail signs with the red marker are distinctive of the Chemin des Crêtes hiking trail, which winds along through the Swiss Jura mountains from Germany to France.

Down towards the fog again (La Dôle veiled on the right horizon)

Down we come from Le Planet to Le Crot again, pretty much unchanged since yesterday, in a race with the sun at 5 p.m.

Goodbye, Le Crot. "To feel the always coming on / The always rising of the night." And the water flask has frozen up again.

from SwitzerlandMobility (http://map.schweizmobil.ch/?lang=en)

Jura snowshoeing

Snow camping