La Sage, Valais, Switzerland
Day 8 on the Haute Route is an easy one, mostly downhill
from Arolla to Les Hauderes and then a relatively short climb to a small
village named La Sage, only about 10 kilometers/six miles in total, but with
the ascents and descents distances seem much longer than they did last year on
the relatively level Camino in Spain. I guess I also unintentionally cheated a
bit. The recommended route stays rather high on the ridge out of Arolla to supposedly
picturesque Lac Bleu. I guess I went right when I should have gone left at some
point early on because my trail descended rather rapidly to the valley where I
followed the road for about a mile before I regained it for the descent into
Les Hauderes.
The notable thing about today’s valley walk was not the
mountains, although I did of course see peaks towering overhead or desolate
wilderness but traditional rural architecture. Most of the buildings in the Val
d’Arolla and Val d’Herens are prefect wooden Swiss chalets, almost all of which
are decorated with flower boxes full of bright geraniums, petunias, and other
flowers.
Other European countries do flower boxes too, but I think Switzerland
is the floweriest of them all. Many other wooden structures look like they are
on built on small stone stilts, actually grain and hay storehouses raised to keep
mice out. It’s funny how mice can’t climb up a foot or so to get to goodies in
a raised chamber.
With my day so pleasantly leisurely I stopped for a long
outdoor pizza lunch in Les Hauderes, a town where even the newer buildings all
seem to be built in the weathered wood chalet style. From there I apparently
made another small mistake and found myself walking on the narrow but fairly
busy road to La Sage instead of the trail through the woods I could see below
but couldn’t get to. La Sage may be an even more idyllic village, also mostly
wooden chalets but on the sunny mountain slope about 250 meters (800 feet)
above the valley and Evolene, the main town in the Val d’Herens. My dortoir accommodation above the Café Restaurant
L’Eccureuil were rustic, but with an Austrian couple as the only other guests I
had a room to myself.
Something happened within the last two to three days. Up
until about September 12th it definitely felt like summer on the
trail with not signs of fall. Then all of a sudden fall seemed to hit, a
mixture of the lower angle of the sun, the clarity of sky, and the first colors
on the leaves of deciduous trees.
Canton Valais is a place of traditional rural culture as
well as architecture. Being in the mountains and on foot, though, I haven’t had
an opportunity to get to any festivals, such as the dance in the distinctive traditional
valley costumes I noticed from signs was taking place just down valley in Evolene
on my day in the Val d’Herens. Another Valais
tradition is cow fights. Not bull fights like in Spain, but cows pitted against
each other. I think I saw a few practicing in the fields over the last few
days.
2025-05-23