hiking: fer-à-cheval & lac de la vogealle (2001m)

Another beautiful Saturday in the Alps. Today we went to Fer-A-Cheval, hiked up to Lac de la Vogealle (2001), looped down, and followed a series of waterfalls back to the start. It's a warm day, and sunny. The colors are magnificent. This is first sign I've seen warning about vertigo...there were narrow, steep, wet sections...but not bad really.

After a good morning's climb, we stopped for long lunch, perched over the narrow valley and only about an hour short of the lake. We're taking two weekends off from hiking, but hopefully will have more chances for late autumn hikes before ski season begins. The snow line is dipping to lower elevation each week. Just as the final melt from last year has disappeared, winter is making it's way back - but it's great to still have bare arms in October.    

The return journey took us past countless waterfalls, and after the descent, a brisk walk winding along the valley floor shaded from the last bit of daylight.

pomme picking

This afternoon, I had great fun apple picking with Maura and her daughters. We took our bags to a farm in Switzerland, and made our way up and down the rows gathering several types of apples and enjoying the view.

By the time we noticed how heavy our bags had grown, we had picked nearly one hundred pounds of apples (they were just too good), so time for everyone to pitch-in to get them washed, ready to be eaten and made into pies, loafs, applesauce, and caramel apples...yum.

hiking: col du colonney (2321m)

Another beautiful Saturday for hiking. Today we started near Plaine Joux close to last weekend's departure, and hiked through vibrant colors and layered rock face to Refuge de Plate (2032m), and then made a loop to Tete des Lindars (2560m) and Col du Colonney (2321m) in the Flaine ski area.

We made our lunch stop just above the refuge. Derek retrieving his dropped sunglasses from a deep crevice. 

A stretch of clouds blew over, but only lasted a short while before the sun broke through again, but as we climbed higher, it was noticeably colder and windy. The higher summits have a new layer of snow from the past week and there was a bit of melt and a few icicles on the trail.

Ibex.

We missed a turn and ended up making an extra climb to a second ski station before turning back and finding the circuit back down. Luckily the daylight lasted just long enough for us to finish the tricky (wet, slick, and steep) part of the descent and we arrived at the car in darkness.