Trip Report - L'Échappée Jurassienne (GR59): Day 8

Another short but much more proper hiking day than Day 7.

STATS

START: Bellefontaine

END: Les Rousses

KM: 18.85 km

TIME: 3:39:03

 This is the penultimate day for the Échappée Jurassienne trip report! I woke up finally refreshed after about 10 hours of sleep and started to pack. I don't take breakfast in hotels (don't like to eat so early and prefer to hike 1-2 hours first) so I was on the road quickly. After some au revoirs with the owners (very friendly people) I hiked ten minutes on an asphalt road before hitting the forest.


The forest was another of those creepy ones. Super quiet, shady, somehow still giving me the feeling in the back of my head that someone's watching me.

There were no people except for myself... although I did hear voices at some point. I couldn't however see the people (and I should have. The forest isn't that dense.) so I just hurried along as you do when faced with the possibility of chatty ghosts or spirits.

I'd made it about half an hour in when I saw movement to my right. I looked... and saw thigh-high brown animal racing away from me. I first thought: Deer. Then: Fox? Wolf? The animal was quite small for a deer (though it could have been young) and seemed very low to the ground. It didn't run like a fox either (and anyway... a fox would have been long gone by the time I got into its vicinity... if it wasn't already asleep for the day) and I didn't think the Jura region had wolves/enough wolves for me to see one.

The mystery was solved when I got to a sign that informed me there's boars here.

Great.

Well, at least it seemed more scared of me than I of it and didn't rush me.

Anyway. I continued through the forest on wide logging roads. I was a bit hurried at this point because I really don't want a fight with a boar... and the silence was a bit creepy. (What can I say? Imagination overload!) About an hour in Google Maps tried to lead me into a path where there was nothing but a steep upwards slope. Then came a lush meadow:

and I continued some more on forest roads with pretty flowers on the wayside...



These petals grow blue AND purple on the same plant!

 ... until I reached the first waypoint I'd set myself. This was a crossing supposed to get me closer to Fort de Risoux. But when I couldn't find the path to the fort I decided to continue detour instead to my second waypoint. (Note: I'd seen a few forts already and this one didn't look super old on pictures. I was okay with skipping it.)

A cow pasture on the way to Les Rousses!

My second waypoint was close to the end of the trail and about twenty minutes from the town of Les Rousses. I'd decided since the day was so short that I wanted to a) see the Fort de Risoux I'd seen on the Maps and b) to visit the big lake near the town to relax. Hence I went down to the lake after my attempt at seeing the fort failed. (Note: There were tons of little flying things on the road down to the lake! I had to constantly brush them off me.)



 I spent about two hours just sitting at the shore and enjoying the sun (while checking reddit and other things...). There were some kayakers and a few people walking their dogs on the shore too.

Les Rousses and Lac des Rousses are very close to the Swiss border. I suppose this picture, taken from the road to the lake, actually looks at Switzerland.

Lots of dandelions!



In the meantime you can follow me on Instagram: @jimneyhikes

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