Monday

Monday - We woke up to pouring rain and were very glad today was to be spent in the
valley. The rain slowed a bit by the time we left the auberage with the result
that some of us decided to start the day without our jackets. When one is
hiking the rain jackets get very hot. I have asked everyone on this trip
whether they like their jacket in hopes of getting a good recommendation and
everyone says no. I am using a bike riding jacket my brother talked me into
buying a few years back. It is great as a rain jacket but could double as a
sauna.
The hike started out relatively simple and we joked that since one could not see
the mountains through the fog, it looked a bit like a hike at home, a forest
trail and lots of conifers. We had a couple of steep climbs but nothing too
crazy and about an hour into the hike the rain slowed and then stopped. I took
advantage of a water stop to dart behind a tree and change from my pink rain
pants into my black hiking pants and I spent the rest of the day in my hiking
t-shirt and my light pants. Much of the hike was along territory where you
could see the river was subject to flash floods and some of it was along rocky
trails carved into the side of the hill.
When we finished hiking along the balcony overlooking the river, we came to a
little Swiss town and descended into the town to look at the architecture. Many
of the buildings were older and you could definitely see the older wood, cut by
hand versus the new modern wood. Many of the older barns had the dates they
were built stamped on them and they were all from the 1700's. Some of the wood
had additional symbols carved in them, circles with various decorations and
religious symbols. The builder of the structure and the owner of the structure
both had their initials carved in the wood as well.
Every house had window flowers and many had am immaculate little garden. This
was definitely the Switzerland I remember from my childhood trip. Each house
also had huge piles of wood discreetly tucked away, all immaculately stacked. I
asked about wood bugs and was told they did not have them hear which might
explain the good condition of the old houses and barns.
We left town and walked along a stream and found our picnic lunch which today
consisted of onion tarts, buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes, crepes stuffed with
cheese and herbs and blueberry and strawberry tarts for desert. It was a lovely
picnic by the river.
We could see our evening destination from the lunch spot. It was down the
valley and up the mountain about 1200 feet. Much of the hike was an upward
slope with intermittent spurts of inclines that were like climbing 200 stairs in
a row. About halfway up we came onto a trail that had wooden sculptures all
along it. Most were of native mushrooms, or chipmunks, eagles,etc and all where
carved out of trees which had been chopped down to clear the trail. One even
was painted red with a poison symbol to point out that the red topped mushrooms
in the forest are toxic.
We finished the day in Champex, a lovely town along a large lake. Tomorrow we
hike up to another mountain balcony which overlooks part of the Rhone valley.
Dinner tonight is a huge salad, a smaller portion of pasta and fresh chanterelle
mushrooms and a raspberry tart with the local ice cream. We saw and picked many
raspberries on the trail but I do not think I can ever get enough.