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28th February 2019 Hiking - Walking: Circuit of les Fourgs in France Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny and mild Max Speed: Distance Covered: 5.72 miles (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) Thursday 28th February – Snow shoe ***** Circuit of les Fourgs in France – sunny and mild but clouded over late. 4 hours 45 minutes out, 5.72 miles covered. It’s must be sounding boring now but had a really good night at our quiet spot of Les Lailles high above les Fourgs tiny ski resort and woke to yet another clear blue and very mild morning - 7 degrees first thing. Sadly, it is now becoming very changeable for a week but we have had an amazing 16 absolutely stunning day completely unprecedented for February:) As our short dead-end lane is right next to a marked snow shoe path down to les Fourgs it was a good spot for another snow shoe adventure our 6th of the holiday and are enjoying it much more than skiing the busy resorts, we can’t stand lift queues! So, with picnic packed, gps running, tripod selfie complete we set off but instead of heading down towards the crowds we turned left to look at the hamlet of Les Granges Bailly which was only 0.2 km away. There was a family group putting on snow shoes and heading further up so we tagged along behind them close to a cross country piste where several were whizzing down, they made it look very effortless and were definitely all a much better standard to the dodgy few goes we have had! Again, the scenery is just beautiful, large snow fields backed by pine forests with small copses of bare trees which look amazing set against a deep blue sky and yellow catkins full of pollen just everywhere! We followed the yellow marker poles up and across not sure where we were going but knowing all we had to do was turn left and walk down and we would come to les Fourgs. We made a small detour from the path over to the edge and saw the impressive chateau de Joux at la Cluse-et-Mijoux we passed yesterday. At last we came to a sign actually directing us down to les Fourgs which we started on but Hawkeye Mag spotted a sign to a Belvedere so we retraced our steps and soon found the vantage spot with even better views down to the chateau. We had to share it with another group of snow shoers but one of them did take our pic:) We returned to the original path and soon found a nice dry leafy spot with great views down to our destination - a small chapel on a hill near the ski slopes a mile away – to eat out lunch. Afterwards we ignored the path and headed straight towards the chapel, crossing two tarmac roads before the steep climb to see if it was open? It was a pretty little place and surprisingly quiet considering how busy the little resort below was with the car park full and long queues for the two button lifts! Sadly, the chapel was locked but we sat on a log seat to have our afters, half a banana and half a chocolate bar each with a large Red Kite flying nearby and three snow kiters having fun the other side of les Fourgs as the wind had picked up. I was interested to see if it was worth a days skiing here but when we reached the two button lifts there was only a few runs back down, another lift far to the right you had to walk to and one up the hill behind you had to drive to, so it was definitely not worth the long wait in the lift queue after each short run even if it was only 15 Euros a day! All we had to do was find the yellow poles which led back to the van and of course there were no signs to help, so we headed up by the piste basher station and sort of just headed up and hoped for the best. In the end we found the right path and got back to the van as the weather took a turn for the worse, clouding over with the wind picking up:( Still we certainly made the most of the day being out a knackering 4 hours 45 minutes covering nearly 6 miles! Mag checked on-line about the benefits of snow shoeing, discovering we could have used over 2000 calories(!) so we started with nut bread with butter and jam followed an hour later with apple and custard puffs with two cuppas. A yummy Chinese vegetable stir fry with cashews and egg (foo yung?) for tea. Could be an early night and with rain on the way, not much snow forecast as too mild we will head down to Lac de Neuchatel in Switzerland before deciding what to do about next week???? Photo Gallery Here |
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