hiking: desert de plate

YAY! Hiking! Rainy days and races have kept us from taking long hikes in the Alps for three consecutive weekends. Finally, we are back on the mountain trails enjoying a warm sunny day and  the start of gorgeous fall colors. We chose our destination along the road - a repeat - one of the hikes we made last October up to Col du Colloney. 

The rainy days in the valley added up to a good amount of snow higher up (starting about 2000m). We reached ~2300 meters before we didn't feel like trudging through any more snow with our soggy feet, and decided to take a leisurely lunch and enjoy the sunshine on the limestone up at Desert de Plate.  

After taking in the view, we chose to cut our route a bit short and began the descent back through the gorge and  down into the trees so we could make it home in time to join some friends for desert and digestif. 

run evasion rhone 2013

This morning Derek and I ran a 22,3 kilometer trail race, starting in Geneva and finishing in the Dardagny vineyards. We hopped on the train in LaPlaine for a quick ride into the city and to the starting line. Looks like we will be lucky with the weather after a rainy week.

Ready to run.

Most of the run is wooded and the trail is pretty narrow. It had a few good hills...more than I expected, and beautiful scenery the entire way. Derek decided to run along side me for the course, so it was fun to have the company. The kilometers passed almost too quickly since we were enjoying everything about the day, running together, sunshine, muddy trail, cows, sunflowers, alphorns and early fall colors. Plus, we were keeping a great pace and feeling strong. We finished in 2 hours and 2 minutes...a new pace category for me even with the challenging footing throughout the course. 

Walking back to the train station to retrieve the car, we stopped to chat with a few of the alphorn players who provided entertainment along the route. I love races with alphorns.

All done for the day, looking back up the vineyard hill, on our way home to relax.