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.
An aimless tramp around in the forest above Marchissy
We're setting out from the trailhead (883m) at the top of the village of Marchissy, overlooking Lake Geneva, 4 March 2018.
It's a coldish day, temperature at 0°C, but the sun's out. Our objective, as usual, is more or less to get lost and make it back to the car anyway.
Leaving the trailhead up Marchissy's thoughtful marked trail, called the Sentier du Coq ('trail of the rooster', for some reason) which leads from the village up to its farm the Perroude du Marchissy (1428m), where in summer there is a buvette alpage open on weekends.
We're not the first enthusiastic hikers on this trail, and we're not going to get lost this way.
We're following the packed down trail for a little ways farther, because we're lazy.
The local equestrian club has got up the money to refinish this mountain road, and they want to keep the horses off it for a year as the surfaces settles down.
The packed trail is becoming tedious, so . . .
. . . we'll leave the Sentier du Coq and see where this thing goes.
Bushwhacking in the Bois de la Gaye, we've got an eye out for any landmarks, and that flat above looks a lot like a road.
It's a grand virage at 1120m in the winding road from Marchissy to the Perroude de Marchissy; it's been rather walked on, so we'll cut across it and go back into the woods.
Our guide, Dr Joe, evinces confidence and determination and . . .
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. . . more energy than we've got today. But we must keep up.
A moment of doubt. A recently forested area usually has piles of snow-covered débris, through which people can plunge up to the waist and thrash about.
We're considering the wisdom of trying to go round it all.
Our guide has come to a decision: we'll go around it all.
A passerby
In the fullness of time, another landmark -- this is the pasture of Les Fornets, again above the road to the Perroude de Marchissy.
There is not a human mark anywhere on the pastures, so we absolutely have to be the first.
On the far side of Les Fornets, at 1240m, we stand at the bifurcation of the road: behind us to our left, it continues to the Perroude de Marchissy, to our right up to the Perroude du Vaud (1380m).
We, however, intend to cross that pasture and seek a scenic and hopefully gentle way back down the hill.
That's the continuation of the road to Perroude de Marchissy; we're going off to the right.
Jump.
It's not the gentle way down we'd been hoping for, but needs must.
Our guide favors the direct way down, but we intend knees-consciously to contour out a ways, and then contour back, a few times, and lower ourselves by degrees.
Here, our memory insists, there is the Marchissy road, but there isn't. What can have gone wrong?
Reunited briefly, by accident, with the Sentier du Coq, we pass the farm of the Pré du Joux (1111m) . . .
. . . overlooking Lake Geneva, now in a fog in some kind of 'inversion' or something.
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All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 15 March 2018. 
