Solo in the Jura, with Ice the dog!

 

On this Geneva->Paris train, it's the end of this short voyage in the Jura, which ends, sort of, this year of 2021. 

It's the second time that I travel alone for a while, since the one voyage in North Sweden. This time with Ice. I was a little bit of nervous before, traveling with the dog. But in the end, it was ok. Hotels and trains are super supportive and people seems nicer when you have a dog with you.

Ice by the way, is not used to the snow. Clearly he has a lot of trouble moving in the snow, because his feed completely goes deep in the snow. But eventually he learns to find the place (foot prints etc.) to walk easier. He even hurt his feed somehow. Hope it's nothing serious. I think he is happy to find back his normally routine, although we are traveling to Le Mans this afternoon.

Regarding the itinatery, I was suprised by the railway link between Paris and this area. I think mostly thanks for Swiszland, I guess. It took less than 3 hours from Paris to Bellegarde. And from Bellegarde, there are several hiking route to deeper in the mountains. I chose Champfromier as sort of base station. A very simple but nice hotel basically at the beginning of the hiking routes.

Night at the Champfromier 

Loop from Champfromier, Comunal, until les Avanlances:

It was a little bit of climbing. The climbing itself is not difficult but it can get complicated with Snow. A pair of "Guetres" is very necessary if you want to keep your pants dry. A pair of snow shoes is recommended to talk on soft snows. After some kilomètres of walking and climbing in a very dense fog, just as we are about to rise at the peak, the fog suddenly gets thinner and we begin to see more and more light and sky is becoming kind of blue. And then, it was completely blue and a beautiful sunshine on the top. With snows and while thingy on the trees. It's like in a fairy tale. Ice was so happy with a piste of hard snows he can finally walk and run normally. 

Climbing in fog

The Cloud sea

As we took a small turn, to my biggest amazement, I see the fogs, from above. The whole valley and the villages below is covered with fog. Feels like I am standing at the edge of sea, which we cannot jump into. 

I had a sanswidth for lunch before begin the goes down back in to the fog sea and we get back to the hotel at around 4.

The next day, I took the "chemin de trame" covered with a lot of snow, but there are traces of other people, so completely doable even with a little difficult for Ice the dog.