Day 10 Hike in Canton Fribourg

It is hard to believe that tomorrow is the final day of this adventure. I have certainly found a lot of ups and downs along the way. I have noticed that the body adapts to being pushed rather quickly. My legs felt dead before I started hiking yesterday, but 15 minutes in I was fine.  Today, I didn't have any problems whatsoever, other than being uncomfortable when I had to walk on pavement.

Rain

I know I have gone on about how much it rains in Switzerland, but I do not think anyone who lives here, or has spent a good amount of time here, will disagree.

When I woke this morning, it was pouring out. I checked Fribourg, and it was pouring there too. If ever there was a day that I wanted to not go hiking, it was today. But, I knew I had to push through, which I did.

It was a long drive, about 1 hour and 40 minutes to get to the destination, and it rained steady the entire time. But, just as I got to the parking lot, something happened. The rain let up and stopped. It was like the rain gods did a dance, just for me. It remained this way until about 5 minutes before I got back to the car, which was only just starting to rain again. I would say 10 minutes into the car ride, it poured all the way until I got to Basel.

Part I: On to hiking

As you are learning, I have been choosing places to hike that are decreasingly common for the purpose of finding something new. I have used wandermap for a starting point for all of my trips, as it would give me ideas, and in many cases, routes to take. I highly recommend using that site. It is free, and, if you own a Garmin and use it for tracking your hikes, you can install a plugin that allows you to directly upload into their website your map of the day....

Segue..... today, I didn't use my Garmin, and I didn't manually map out the route for you. I do have a copy of the area I hiked in just below, but, today, I wanted to be less worried about the details of how far, high, long, etc. but just focus on the nature

I hiked in the Plaffeien district in the section called Schwarzsee.

The hike had amazing views of the mountain lake and the mountains. It had rolling hills which could be hiked in any direction and all headed up to the top. There were also chair lifts in various spots for rides to the middle sections. I, of course, chose my two feet for transportation only.

Before I show some pictures, I had found another hike in the region I was going to do. It was much more challenging, and at a much higher altitude, but because of all the rain, I decided to stay away from that to minimize any risks.

Just starting out headed past the lake, here are a couple of photos from the area. I think that you will find this beautiful, despite the incoming clouds for another spout of rain.

An amazing thing happened on the hike, I ran into my brother by another mother, Adam. I love that guy and it was so nice to see him. I was a bit surprised that he didn't bother to tell me he was coming to Switzerland, and to find him in the spot where I was hiking.. the odds I believe are a bit slim, especially since he lives in California.  But, there he was.....

Then I realized I was being an arse.. there is no way Adam is that good looking...

But, there was another goat there. He reminded me so much of Chu Chu I got emotional because I miss Chu so much. He came right over to me so I reached in and rubbed his nose. This made him very happy. I then reached down to feed him and the grass was stinging my fingers, like it was biting me or something. Seven hours later and I still feel it a bit.

So, I moved and got some other grass and fed him a little bit. He was so sweet and kind, and had the same underbite as Chu... They must be brothers by other mothers like Adam and I.

I said goodbye and continued on my hike. As usual, I came across the trail signs. Because this area was with an entrance in by car only one way, it was really interesting to look at these pointers because you could easily tell they would take someone up and over the mountain tops in any direction they wanted.

Here is a panoramic I did of the mountains from left to right. It is hard to tell that the mountains surrounded me in this picture I understand, but, it should give a nice idea of the beautiful surroundings.

I came upon this sculpture just off the side of the lake. I didn't look at the sign for it so I am not sure what it is called, or what it was about. But, it was, in my opinion, oddly placed in the middle of nature like this.

I did notice some other familiar faces off in the distance. I don't think there could be a hike that I would enjoy if I didn't see them at least once.

And while I was hiking I passed a stream and got a bit inspired by one of my favorite photographers, Moose Peterson. He is an amazing world renowned photographer that I would consider in any top ten list for photography.

and I had one last look at nature before heading back to my car...

or did I? Since you have been following this blog, you know I am also growing fond of snails. Well, sure enough I saw more than a couple of them today, and one, with a nice shell, so I took a moment, said hello, and grabbed a quick photograph.

Part II: About Canton Fribourg

As I mentioned, the area I hiked in was Schwarzsee. This is in the Canton of Fribourg. I mention this because I was a bit confused as I googled this town earlier, and saw some pictures of the Mattahorn. I then saw the name Schwarzsee associated with this area as well. I would have kicked myself hard if I had been close to the Mattahorn and not gone for a visit.

So, it turns out, this Schwarzsee is in Fribourg, and this Schwarzee is in Canton Valais. I suppose because the name seemed uncommon to me, it didn't make sense, but it turns out, the names were fine, I was the confused one.

Fribourg is a large canton with a population of 278,493. As you can see from the legend below, it sits down and to the left in Switzerland. I hope you are all paying attention to this, because there will be a test at the end.

Fribourg is also an official French and German speaking canton. Today, I used my 6 words of French with interacting with the other folks I passed. Funny enough, they would all respond in German. So, I finally gave up and said hello to a couple in English. He said "hello" and she said "bonjour"... that is when I called it a day !!!

There are seven districts in Fribourg: Broye, Glâne, Gruyère, Sarine, See, Sense, and Veveyse. I was surprised to see the city of Fribourg not a district mainly because most of the capitals of the cantons have also been districts. The city capital Fribourg is part of Sarine. The other thing I liked is that Gruyère cheese obviously comes from Gruyère.

Plaffeien is the city where I called my landing point for today's journey. It is a small town of almost 2000 residents. It is also a more modern town, and in the center of it, you feel like you are in a small town in middle american. Not to imply it is that new, but, it has the feeling of a one-light town.

I thought the Church of Plaffeien was beautiful so I was sure to stop and get a couple of pictures of it. I hope you like them.

In conclusion of the day

The hike you can make into anything you like. If you want a stroll around the lake, you can do this and it is almost flat. If you want to do some climbing up into the mountains, you can go for 400-500 feet or up to another 2500 + feet. It is how your legs feel and the weather holds up.

I really believe if you take the time and go to the places you do not normally find for tourists, you will enjoy yourself immensely and find out things about Switzerland, and more that you otherwise would have never known.