Since our Wednesday off was a rainy day again, and Friday had a super forecast, we took the Friday off instead and did another two-day trip, once again in Canton Valais. For Saturday we already had a firm plan, we were going to hike near the Aletsch Glacier again (largest glacier in the Alps) because Urs' daughter wanted to do a hike with us, and she had never been. So what to do on Friday? On this wonderful day we could have gone up high again for some nice views, but right now all the landscapes up high are pretty brown, so I decided on something totally different: An easy 5-hour hike which would take us to three different irrigation channels in the area between Sierre and Sion, trails which are easy to walk along and so soothing with the babbling water....
The day started badly with a surprisingly overfilled train, then a connecting train which had to be abandoned because of problems securing the doors, which caused us to miss the bus in Sierre and meant an hour waiting around... only to find out once we finally started on the hike, that the water in the first channel (Grand Bisse de Lens) had already been "turned off"! Which meant a one-hour walk through the woods next to empty channels, without the sound of water to mask the noise of the freeway in the Rhone Valley below!
High hopes for the second irrigation channel (Bisse de Sillonin)... to reach it at the village of Flanthey we had to descend quite a bit first (another 30 minutes) and to our great dismay, found that not only was the water not flowing, but half of its 3-km length where it passed through the vineyards was covered!
We were looking forward to the third channel, called Bisse de Clavau, which was on the other side of the steep ravine, but we never even got to find out if the water was running there, because after a rather hair-raising vertiginous passage, we were confronted with a simple laminated sign informing us the Channel was closed, which could mean anything, but we didn't want to descend to the bridge to find out. So we cut our losses, headed to the next bus stop, and made our way to our lodgings in Baltschieder, where we recently had such a nice experience... And the sheep were still there, with lots of babies, and that made my day!
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| Our hike started up high above the Rhone Valley at the Grand Bisse de Lens. Most of the first hour was on a forest trail, with only the odd glimpse of the valley |
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| Once we descended to the second irrigation channel, we had some much nicer views of the vineyards on the slopes between Sierre and Sion. This is looking back East toward Sierre |
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| Arriving in Flanthey to look for the second irrigation channel: "Bisse de Sillonin" |
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| To get to the second irrigation channel (on the left above the roof), we had to walk straight up through someone's vineyard |
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| It was lovely to walk through the vineyards, even though the channel was covered. |
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| Soaking in the fall sunshine |
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| Heading westward. I realized later that we have walked this part of the trail once before |
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| The beautiful vineyard landscape of Canton Valais |
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| Arriving above St. Leonard, before the trail heads into the gorge. |
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| In the distance, the city of Sion with its prominent landmark: The two hills with its two castles (one is ruins) |
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| This one made me chuckle: A bench mounted directly over the irrigation channel |
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| Oh-oh, a warning that the trail is getting exciting |
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| This is the view that greeted us around the corner! |
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| And sure enough, the trail was "vertiginous" |
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| I admit, I had a bit of a hard time with these steps... I went up very slowly |
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| View back at the trail we crossed |
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| Definitely a bit hair-raising |
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| Across the gorge we could see the third irrigation channel that we wanted to walk along, back to St.Leonard. This is the Bisse de Clavau, which we have walked before but further West. |
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| Way below are the vineyards near St.Leonard. |
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| Across the gorge some nice geological formations, and above that the village of Luc, where we spent 5 days vacationing a year ago. |
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| And then a simple laminated sign: "Bisse de Clavau Closed". We assumed it meant if we descended to the river, we'd run into some sort of rock slide and have to turn back. Such a shame. |
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| Heading to the bus in Icogne, we came across this field with a sign: "Here we grow herbs for Ricola"!! |
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| On the bus on the way from Icogne to Sion we can see the vineyards we'd walked through, and the steep part of the gorge. |
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| As it turns out, it was a 12-km and 3.5-hour hike we did, so not too bad. Plus we started late, so perhaps the rest of the trail (another 2 hours) would have been too much anyway. |
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| This day we walked the purple trail. The light blue is what we wanted to walk to complete the first part of the "Bisse de Clavau". A few years ago we walked through the vineyards lower down, from St. Leonard to Sierre, having crossed near Flanthey at that time already. |
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| And back in Baltschieder, heading to our accommodation, our little friends the Valais Black-Nosed sheep. |
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