Steps in the Right Direction: Day 8 LaFouly to Champex

Gathering to leave LaFouly

In the park along the way are several pictures of Tibet, they are trying to heighten awareness of
the people in need after the earthquakes earlier this year.

This snail was crossing the road. It was about the size of an index finger.

Stay out of the river beds as Switzerland uses the water to generate electricity and if they need
to generate some power , They open the gates.

Was it the little pig who build his house of sticks? This house is insulated with split firewood.

Caroline putting the finishing
touches on lunch.

Day 8 - this morning we leave the small village of La Fouly and leisurely walk through the quaint Swiss villages. The walk is mostly a paved trail, road and at times a foot path as we weave through the communities along the way. We stop at one old Swiss building that was built in the 1700's. Still standing firm and tall. These Swiss chalets are built with larch pine. Larch lumber is known for its durability and waterproof qualities. Larch trees are also a local resource in the surrounding mountains, but as with all natural resources in Switzerland the trees are regulated by the government.

All of the houses along our walk have varying degrees of flower and vegetable gardens. We did find one house that had mastered the art of troll gardening. Today we were suppose to pack a diet lunch as a surprise was in store for us. Walking through one of the little villages we duck down in between two old buildings. Behind this old grain mill is a beautiful lunch spread and picnic for us. What a wonderful surprise. Caroline has baked some savory bread, sweet bread, and a meat pie. The table also hosted a wonderful selection of local cheese and sausages.

Our guides have done a marvelous job introducing us to the local cheeses, sausages, coffees, wines, meats and whatever else they can find to showcase the wonderful foods made by the different areas we have walked through.

After lunch and the usual hour rest, we reconvene at the pink coffee bar, use the bathroom for the price of a beverage and meander along our way. Champex is tonight's destination. It is easily visible up on a hanging valley. An offer goes to the group if you want to jump into the shuttle van and join Caroline for a ride up, now was the time. One person chose to take the shuttle, this was a first for our group. The rest of us chose to take the "gradual incline" and hike up the side of the mountain.

The hike was very shaded and in the forest. The trail had periods of up, mixed with short sections of flat. On the trail there were many spots along the way with interesting wooden carvings of mushrooms, Ibex, Chamois and squirrels. There were plenty of things to look at to allow your heart, lungs and full tummy, time to work through the challenge of hiking up an incline after lunch. Hiking after eating is always hard, throw in a "gradual incline" and it becomes a bit more challenging.

Close to the top of our hike we take a side path down to a large outcrop of rocks and boulders. On closer examination we find a door built into the back side of the giant boulder. This is one of the many bunkers built in the rock and mountains of the Swiss Alps. The Swiss can shelter almost 90% of their population in bunkers. They keep a food and water supply to last a year. Remember they are a neutral country, but they will fight to maintain their boarders. Before we get too serious, I will point out that the boulder also doubled as a climbing rock. It had climbing bolts drilled into the rock face to aide in rock climbing.

The lovely alpine town of Champex (4,808'), is a small resort beside a pretty blue lake with several paddle boarders long boarders, and a few small fishing boats out enjoying the beautiful weather. We stop for a chilly swim and Chip, Cole, MaryAnn, Brian, Danielle and Eve all brave the mountain chilled water. The rest of us pull off our boats and socks to soak our feet and watch our chilly friends. The lake has a river rock bottom, that makes it difficult to be walking around on it. After our swim team finishes drying off, we finish walking our way around the lake to our hotel for the evening. The local dinner speciality is suppose to be trout. We are all on our own for dinner tonight, so Kathi and I cruise the one road village and read the posted restaurant menus. The menus are all written in French, so we are really reading for something that looks close to the word "trout". We find the word "truite" to be a good guess and go in for dinner.

Truite is in fact the fish we know as trout. The fish was excellent but the service was non-existent. When we finished and wanted to pay, our waitress was sitting outside at a lakeside table eating, the bartender was outside drinking, and the last waitress was very busy delivering food. We waited about 20 minutes for our bill. We just wanted to pay, very strange that they don't worry about getting the check out to you. This is a foreign concept to us.

We left and wanted some dessert as the trout was kind of small. They should have thrown the two trout back in the lake for another year... We walked back up the road to find a place that had ice cream. We found a place and ordered a cookie and a scoop of ice cream. We received the smallest tiniest scoop of ice cream you can imagine for $5.50 each. Having two cookies would have been cheaper and better. We walked back and played a game of billiards with a broken pool stick with Bill. One can only play pool with a broken pool cue for so long so we sat with Jenny, Bill, Brian, Sue, and MaryAnn for a bit of chatting before heading off to another night of dreamland.

Hiking: 9 miles; Elevation gain: 1,378 ft., Elevation loss: 1,854 ft.