Thursday 17 August 2017
| Distance (km) | 26 kms | |||
| Distance (time) | 7.5 hrs | |||
| Climb / Descent | 800m / 500m | |||
| Hard / Soft surface | 50% / 50% | |||
| Landscape |
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| Weather |
 25° 3 Bft
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Originally we had planned to walk from La Rasse to Morteau, but since due to my knee problems we needed a test walk we already walked the part between Les Fins and Morteau on Wednesday 9 August. Result is that today we can do less kilometers. It will be a long day anyway because though we have the 7:30 train from Morteau to La-Chaux-de-Fonds we have to wait 2 hours in the latter city for our bus to La Rasse. So we step out of the bus at 10:45 aiming to catch the 19:51 bus from Les Fins to Morteau. We might make it to the 18:40 bus, but we're not counting on it. Todays route is worth a discussion. The GR5 used to follow the French side of the river to the Chatelot dam continuing to Saut du Doubs, but since a few years the route climbs all the way out of the valley before the Chatelot dam and descends back into the valley at the dam itself. But nobody seems to know why that is....Danger of rock fall? Danger of floodings? Just because it's more beautiful? But we for sure don't feel like climbing out of the valley and get back in and at Saut du Doubs get back out again. But since we don't know what is the state of the old route we decide to follow the track along the Swiss side of the river until Saut du Doubs and there cross the river back into France. And so from the bus stop Biaufond/La Rasse we don't cross the bridge to the La Rasse hotel, but follow the tarmac road a bit up in the direction the bus came from. In between the two small tunnels we turn right passing a fence and descend to the hotel Maison Monsieur. We pass the hotel and follow a wide track along the river. And the path remains wide and rather flat. This is a great and relaxed walk. It is only at the electricity plant Le Chatelot (not to be confused with the former village of the same name a few kilometers up the river or the dam even a bit more up the river) where we have to climb to pass the plant higher up the slope. After that the track descends again to the river while rolling up and down passing impressive rocks. Somewhat surprising we're suddenly at Le Chatelot, the former village. Nowadays it is not much more a small restaurant, but once upon a time it was an industrious little village along the Doubs. We decide to stop for a drink ans while sipping our iced tea the caretaker tells us why the GR5 no longer follows the river. Apparently a small rockslide occured occured a few years earlier in which a member of a family having a picknick along the river died being hit by a rock. The FFRP that maintains the GR routes decided then that the route through the gorge was too dangerous and therefore rerouted the GR5 around the narrowest part of the gorge. However, the old track does still exist. We have to move on and so we climb to the Chatelot dam. Through a couple of tunnels we pass dam (literally pedestrian tunnels, but of a different kind than we're used to) to enter a service road following the shore of Lake Moron. This service road is climbing though and after a few 100 m we have to turn right to return to the shore. The lake is considerably bigger than it looks like from the dam but finally we do arrive at Saut du Doubs. Whereas at the French side there are a lot of people, the Swiss side is quiet which we really appreciate. We take some pictures of the waterfall and continue to the bridge that we cross to enter France again. And at the French side we immediately spot GR5 signs. Getting away from the waterfall requires some serious climbing, and unfortunately over a tarmac road. The first 100m are brutal after which it becomes more gentle. At the crossing of Les Vions just before the car park a GR5 Variant splits off the main route. The main route goes straight ahead to Villers-le-Lac but the variant veers right crossing the car park to Les Fins. We had already decided to follow the variant because it's easier to plan stages with respect to public transport. So we cross the car park, still gently climbing. And it remains mostly tarmac. De road keeps climbing until the hamlet Montot after which the track undulates at around 1030m altitude. Only when we arrive at the D215 main road we start descending all the way to Les Fins, in fact it's a rather long descent that is somewhat hard on the already tired feet. But at almost 19:00 we arrive at the bus stop in Les Fins. Since the bus won't leave until 19:51 we decided to have a drink in the adjacent Celtic Café and at 19:40 we position ourselves at the bus stop. The bus, coming out of a side road near the bus stop, is nicely on time and so we raise our hands to indicate we want to step in. And the bus just passes the bus stop without stopping. The last bus of the day just left us behind at the bus stop! So after a couple of ugly words in different languages we realise this implies either walking or hitch-hiking. So we step back into the café and ask the owner if there is such a thing as a taxi service in the village because the bus just abandonned us. A couple of clients look up and mumble something like that it's scandaleous the bus didn't stop and continue with their conversations. But luckily one man tells us he can bring us back to Morteau, no problem. Great! He does have to call his wife because he already drank a couple of pastis and he'd rather not drive, and indeed within 10 minutes his wife arrives. He introduces us as his "friends from Holland" and during the ride we learn that he's actually from Istanbul and his wife is from Izmir. And that he has family in Amersfoort, The Netherlands. It's such a small world... We're dropped in front of the entrance of the camping site and after some extensive thanking we arrive, with some delay, back at our tent. |
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