Hike in the Chartreuse-Sept. 9, 2011

On Friday, Otto and I saw that the weather would be beautiful and took the day for a hike. We took the tram to catch the bus that would take us to the beginning of our hike. This was an hour ride up into the Chartreuse mountain range (1 of three mountainous areas around Grenoble). The kids had keys to the apartment, so they got off to school on their own and back as well.

Hiking routes are extremely well marked, as in the picture above--name of ridge, route number, time to do the route and length in km. This information corresponds to hike maps that we take with us too. Our particular hike took up to a ridge and then down through a valley and a herd of cows (lots of stares!), and then back up to another ridge. There we had lunch and then took the same route back to our starting point.

If the trail is not well marked, then a pile of rocks (above) indicates where to turn on the trail.

The highlight of the hike is stopping for lunch to enjoy the view while eating. Lunch is simple--a baguette, some cheese, dry sausage, wine (a small bottle), chocolate and some fruit. The orange handled knife is a typical French knife called an "opinel". The blade flips into the handle when not in use and is great for cutting up food.

This is the first ridge we climbed up to. You can't see them, but there are trails that took us to the second of the two peaks. It is at about 1800 meters (we started at 1000 meters). From the second ridge we saw a very snowy Mont Blanc.

We met about 4 other people on the trail, so not a very busy place. The hike up is always easier than the hike down when leg muscles are tired. I like the steady pace of climbing, stopping every
so often to look at the scenery or to take a drink of water. Sometimes with the altitude, you can get a bit light-headed, which is what Otto had a bit of at the beginning.

We were very happy to have 30 minutes at the end of our hike before the bus came to take us back to Grenoble, and that the café was open so that we could have a "demi"- (draft beer).