Today I Trek on Tractor Tire Tracks

Today I plan a randonnée to the fortified city of Ternand, just beyond Létra.  Inhabitation there dates back to Roman times, and several fortifications were built there around the 12^th century: including a castle, a church, a belltower and a fortified farm.  The randonnée map also indicates an impressive viewpoint.  Even though it is a walkable distance away (about 5-6km), we decide to drive there so that we could explore the area’s attractions more on foot, rather than just do an out-and-back.  Unfortunately, as we walk out the door of the gite, we find that the camionette is not available, so we make a last-minute decision to head back up the hills on the opposite side of the River Azergues.

We select the hill that we failed to access before, mainly because we can clearly see the roads from this angle, and map out a simple loop as we head down Le Cocon towards Le Cret.  We plan for an approximately 6.5km randonnée.  It ends up being an 11km randonnee with approximately 250m elevation drop from the gite into the Azergues River valley, and another 250m up the other side.

 

We take our usual route to Chamelet on the road.  Then we cross the River Azergues at the train station.   On the other side of the railroad tracks, there is a complicated intersection. The rightmost road heads North to Bergeron, the road straight ahead follows the Ruisseau (creek) des Brosses heading West, and two roads heading to the left (South).  We head up Montée de la Grange.  It is the right-hand fork of the two roads heading left.  (Clear as mud, right?)  If we were to take the other road heading left (the left-most fork of the two left roads?), we would quickly end up in the town’s recycling depot.  

We stay on Montée de la Grange as it heads up the hill, then crosses the face of the hill horizontally.  The name changes to La Grange then Vaurion, but we just keep on following it straight up, without taking any further forks.  Looking back towards Chamelet to our North, we are rewarded with a view of our gite!  Zooming in with the camera, I can even see the skylight in the roof and the children’s playhouse in the yard.   Looking to the East, I see the forest where we got lost the other day.  I can even see the path we walked on the other side of the forest.  However, the path through the forest is concealed by the trees.

Further up the road, there is a sign stating “Les Vignes,” but it is positioned between two roads that both look like they head in the correct direction.  However, we notice that the left fork has a sign indicating “dead end,” so we take the right fork, which basically keeps us going straight ahead. I guess the vineyards visible just ahead on the road should have been a clue.

We pass briefly into the forest, then run alongside it to Le Peigneaux, where we encounter an unmarked randonnée signpost at a fork, pointing the way South to Les Brosses… and strangely, also to Chamelet??  I walk to the other side of the signpost to see what lies along the other fork:  La Font Davy!!!  This is the other end of the long-lost path we could not find the other day!  I briefly consider walking it to the other hillface, just to see where it comes out.  A quick calculation of our mileage today makes me decide to leave it, and continue back along our planned route.  Colin needs to be back at the gite for his “meeting time” within the next hour and a half, so there just would not be enough time to go the other way.

We follow the paved road South, around a farm in a tight U.  At the bottom of the U, we pass through a tiny grove of trees, and are surprised by a large buzzard that takes flight from the trees right above our heads.

Just beyond the farm, there is a fork in the road, with a little white electrical hut.  We hear a strange buzzing noise, and at first think it might be the hut, but quickly realize that the field to our left is hosting a bee farm.  I run up on the hill beside it and am rewarded with a stunning view of the countryside.  (As an aside:  Why are the rear of these electrical huts always half-buried??  Does it have something to do with cooling??)  We take the smaller, more decrepit road to the right of the hut, which almost immediately starts to descend the hill.

Soon we can see the Les Brosses randonnée signpost, which directs us off the road and onto a grassy path.  From the markings on the map, I expect a fabulous viewpoint, but here, the view is limited, and the foreground is filled with a giant pile of manure.  Not quite the view I was hoping for.  ;)   In protest, my camera battery promptly dies.

As the path continues to drop steeply, we are suddenly surrounded with dozens of butterflies!  They are hard to see in the photos… perhaps partially because these are taken with a cell phone.  I play with the butterflies but it ends up just looking like we are doing tai chi together.  Lol. 

The path continues to drop steeply, first past a creepy looking artificially planted forest, then past vineyards.  All the trees in the forest are perfectly straight and evenly spaced.  The bottom braches have all been trimmed off and create a blanket of dead brush on the forest floor.  It seems like this forest could be used as a film set for some dark fairy tale.  

After the forest, we pass by vineyards, and can see the modern wasteland that is Bergeron down to our left.  The views toward Chamelet are spectacular, but I have to really watch my footing.  We are both slipping and sliding down the steep rocky path. Colin wonders who uses and maintains this road.  In the ruts of the road, I notice tractor tire tracks, and spend the next ten minutes trying to say that five times fast.

We pass a cell phone tower, then step back onto Vaurion/La Grange/Montée de la Grange, at the intersection with the “Les Vignes” signpost.  As we descend on the road, I am still trying to say “tractor tire tracks,” and I notice a tractor slowly chugging its way towards us up Montée de la Grange.  I amuse myself by starting adding “T” words to my alliteration: “I am trekking on tractor tire tracks…”  By the time the tractor reaches us, we are standing beside a second tractor… “TWO tractors!” I crow with glee, and continue adding “T” words to the phrase: “Today I trekked on two tire tractor tracks!”  To my surprise, instead of rolling his eyes at me, Colin starts trying to say it too.

We pass an elderly man working in his garden, and I have a flashback to my childhood, watching my grandpa in his garden.  I wish I had gotten a photo.  Down near the bottom of the hill, some interesting looking sheep are having a good nosh.

We cross the River Azergues into downtown Chamelet. Heading up Montee des Paves, we pass some kind of cat convention, and pet one nice cat that got separated from the flock… herd?... what is a group of cats called anyway??...  

To the Internets!  Apparently, a group of cats is called a clowder or a glaring.  Those both sound very sinister.  Only one is potentially glaring at us.  The rest seem pretty mellow.  I’ve decided:  I’m going to call it a flock.  Lol.