The Juras

Day two of Ali-and-I-adventuring-off-on-our-own brought us to a “5-hour” hike from Motiers to Ste. Croix and our first summit of a Swiss peak. After a delicious meal at the hostel (bread, cheese, jam, ovomaltine spread, yogurt, coffee) and saying goodbye to our roomies, we caught the train with a suspicious number of other people in hiking gear. The train went through Switzerland’s equivalent of the Midwest – flat, crop-covered, sunny, and altogether frightening when you’re hoping to go for a nice hike. Thankfully, we made it to the Juras (Switzerland’s other mountains – older and more like the Appalachians) in pretty short order.

In Motiers, we got off the train with a ton of other hikers. I filled up my water container at the fountain to let most of the hikers get a lead, and then, we systematically picked off all the slower groups (including several older couples and a giant party of incredibly hungover, incredibly young camper-types). The first quarter of the hike followed a stream up through some beautiful, largely deciduous forest – the kind of stuff Ali and I are more used to. There was an especially glorious section of gorge where we were hiking on planks and the side of some mossy cliffs; unfortunately, we had just passed the hangover-hike, and we didn’t want to dally, lest they catch back up. After the gorge, we hit more crowded underbrush/meadow/cow-pasture type terrain (with one annoying patch of stinging nettle). The meadows continued, with occasional pine forest, until we got to the top of Mt. Chasseron. At the top, there were some rocks perfect for lunching. About 20 other people felt this way, too, but there were plenty of rocks.

The way down started pleasantly enough, more pine + meadow footpath. About a mile down the trail to Ste. Croix, we hit what we now know to be a detour. Instead of going directly down the mountain to the city, we ended up going down a trail toward a different set of cities in (I believe) a different valley, and from there, we’d have to take an ill-maintained trail back over a bit of a ridge to meet up with the old trail. The detour added 2 hours to the hike, which meant (a) Ali’s feet would be in full rebellion by the end of the hike and (b) we would end just in time to train straight to Zurich to meet Therese, nixing our plans for dinner in some new city along the way. The detour shunted us on to a gravel road for way, way too long. The hiking shoes I have right now are lovely for a pair of hiking shoes that were bought out of mild desperation. They are made for softer trail, though – not sharp gravel. And while my feet were just getting tender, Ali’s were killing her. Right before we got on some more footpath, Ali had to switch out of her flip-flops (which had done amazingly well) and back into the trail runners that had caused so many blisters (even though she had broken them in before leaving Wisconsin). Back on the dirt footpath, we climbed up a nicely-forested ridge, through a meadow/some underbrush, and back into the woods before we hit the poorly-maintained bit. We were on the side of a sharp slope, with the bottom part of the trail crumbling into nothingness, hiking on gravel in loose dirt. I think there were a solid ten minutes of downhill where I didn’t want my step to be more than half a foot forward because I would lose my balance. At the bottom of that, there was a bridge with steps broken or completely missing. More brush and meadow followed, until we finally made it to the next sign post. There were three arrows, each pointing a different way. Ste. Croix was listed on two of the arrows. Ali looked ready to kill some Swiss civil engineers. (The people who build and maintain the trail system are engineers employed by the Swiss government.) We picked the trail going down through a cow pasture and made it to Ste. Croix one cow-standoff and 20 minutes later.

From Ste. Croix, we took a commuter train down to Yvonne(?)-les-Baines. The ride down was stunning; we started in the cradle of the Juras and wove our way down the ridgeline, with the farm-lands spreading before us and the outlines of the Alps on the horizon. In Y?, we got some tasty salads (American salad = salad greens + fruit + chicken + turmeric/curry dressing) and chocolate-filled croissants for dinner and headed off to Zurich.