It’s good to browse Komoot because sometimes you find nice hikes to enjoy. Today I drove towards Vallorbe and specifically Juraparc. Juraparc is a park with bisons, wolves, alpacas, goats and bears. I saw the goats, the alpacas, the bison and deer. I didn’t look for the bears and wolves.
The hike itself is quite short but it starts with an “alpine” section that almost a scramble. It may feel dangerous to proceed beyond this point but in reality the more challenging part is quite short.
It’s easy to find a group, and to do the same thing, again, and again, and again. Each year you do the same things in the same order, at the same time. It becomes routine. You get used to that routine. You don’t deviate. That’s where Komoot and Meetup come in.
Online Exploration With Komoot you get suggestions of routes to try, whether on foot, by bike or other. You can explore a curated list of things to do at a specific time of year, or in a specific area, or even in a specific town or location.
It is possible to walk from La Sarraz to Romainmotier and back with barely any time spent on roads. You can get there by train b taking a train to Renens, and then switching to a train from Renens to La Sarraz. You can also drive to La Sarraz via the motorway and park at the P&R parking for five francs per day, via the app. It costs 1 CHF per hour but the walk took five and a half hours so I amortised the parking by staying more than five hours.
Now that the hiking season has started again it isn’t rare for me to have to choose between two or three activities on a Sunday. Do I do the mountain hike from Villars Sur Ollon or the historical one to Romainmôtier?
This is what I was thinking about last night. Should I do the hike with 15 people or the one with just two or three people?
Small Groups are Better There are a number of ways to simplify the decision process.
The Cascade Du Flumen are in the Jura, on the French side. They can be accessed either with a 1.6km walk from a large parking nearby that requires going over a few pot holes or down a steep path with loose scree. What makes the waterfalls so spectacular is that they are formed not by water flowing over a cliff and falling to the ground. They are formed by holes in the rock allowing water that has been through underground caves to seep through the rocks.
For a while I have wanted to go on linear walks but I had no groups to do that with. Now I have the opposite issue. I have groups that only do linear walks so I’m missing circular walks.
I like linear walks. I like taking the train to the start of a walk, and then walking for a day or two, and then taking the train home. As you can tell from the context I like linear walks that last more than one day.
For a while now I have been wearing a Casio and an apple watch or a Garmin and an Apple watch, or a Casio and a Garmin watch or a xiaomi smart band and a casio or a xiaomi smart band and… it goes on.
A Break of Routine The reason for which I’m flying between so many devices is two fold. I have too many devices. There was a time when I went climbing, hiking, cycling, diving, swimming, on via ferrata and more and I was happy with just one watch.
Walking is an easy activity. You put your shoes on, and you go for a walk. Sometimes you walk from home. Other times you walk from a car park. Sometimes you walk along rivers that are full, and others you walk along streams that are almost dry.
A few years ago I did the same Via Ferrata by a waterfall two or three times within a few weeks because I liked it so much.
A few days ago I signed up for a group hike but decided not to go for two or three reasons. The two main reasons were the size of the group and the weather. From what I saw fifteen people were going to go on that hike and I am still in pandemic mode. I would be happier with a smaller group of people. fifteen is too large.
The secondary more valid reason is that rain was forecast.
More Wolves In Switzerland they reintroduced wolves and they are thriving, to the point where a collection of 17 packs of wolves became a pack of 35 wolves. As the number of wolves increases so does the probability that humans will fall victim to wolves. They are thinking of reintroducing them to Ireland too.
“Wolves create a landscape of fear that keeps deer moving, it keeps deer away from the roads, it keeps deer up in the highlands where we want them, not down in our fields or in our gardens,” he says.