A walking tour of the forestry débris in the Jura

Dwight Peck's personal website

Summer 2017

A photographic record of whatever leapt out at us

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 walking tour of the forestry débris in the Jura

The circus comes to Ollon, 17 June 2017. We're taking the train to Aigle and thence to Nyon to join Dr Joe for a vigorous walk in forestry débris.

What a surprise. The Swiss rail system, which over the past few years has been late as often as it's been punctual, is not running at all today between Aigle and Vevey. That said, the replacement buses were frequent and the staff were ubiquitous, friendly, and helpful. (Note Hemingway's Horse on top of the Buffet de la Gare.)

What an adventure in prospect! -- today we're starting out from the Marchissy road to the Perroude de Marchissy farm, at 1185m altitude, eager to refresh our memories about unmarked paths up the hill to the north.

A kilometre farther on, at 1237m, our forestry road stops abruptly . . .

. . . which is where aging memories come into play -- plunging through the underbrush for a bit brings us to an unmapped path that will propel us on our way. Wait up, Dr Joe!

Half a kilometre farther on and we're ready to get on with the uphilling.

By connecting to an ancient uphill path or ramp coming from the Les Frasses farm, leading us back southward up over the 1300m barricade all along this section of the Jura.

Topping out on the path at 1310m (which turns back northward along the top of the cliffs), we'll now take our leave of trails and hit the bushes.

Sometimes memory works and sometimes it doesn't -- there was supposed to be a small track leading to a convenient break in a very old stone wall, but it's gone.

We'll have to improvise.

Trees down all over the place

We'll keep improvising.

Here's our break in the old stone wall. All the downed trees had thrown our calculations off.

Still improvising, we're in the process of deciding to follow this vestigial track to wherever it may lead us.

A view of Lake Geneva through the trees (it's not very clear on this hazy day)

We've been wading through the foresters' débris for 20 minutes now and rethinking our decision to come this way.

Anything to get us out of the piles of bug-ridden ankle-breakers

Oh no!

A three hour hike may turn into three days at this rate.

Looks like the foresters are about finished with this section of the woods.

One wonders how the Forest Stewardship Council would feel about this scene.

Dr Joe may be losing faith in our feeble recollections about the best way out of here.

But in the end, this is the path leading from the Petit Pré de Rolle (1381m) to the north over to Les Echadex to our south -- about an hour after we were meant to get here.

Les Echadex farm (1367m) on the Perroude de Marchissy paved farm road

Down the road a ways . . .

. . . to the Tearoom de la Plage ('Tearoom on the Beach'), though after many years that nickname has recently been erased from the walls of the little picnic refuge.

The Tearoom is a picnic spot with a scenic overlook of the length and breadth of Lake Geneva (aka Lac Léman), but today's lighting isn't suitable for pleasing panorama shots.

We're starting down the Sentier du Coq, a fine marked hiking trail from Marchissy at 820m up to the Perroude at 1428m.

The Sentier du Coq

And back to the car . . .

. . . and back, by bus, to the Aigle gare and the Ollon/Champéry train to home.

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