Gallopaz

Some friends of ours in Chambéry organized another "husband-hike" on a local trail here in the Alps. The destination: Point de Gallopaz alt. 1681m (which is almost exactly one mile up). Our verticle ascent was only 800m (2400 ft.). There were four of us this time and all of us are involved with Bible translation work in some form or another. We had a great time talking to each other on the way up (when we weren't out of breath) The day was foggy so the view wasn't perfect but of course the journey is more than half the fun. JD, Kory, Paul and I had a blast getting to know each other better.

A home-made wooden water chute at the trail head.

You don't need French to understand this sign. This was at the trailhead so we thought that our day was over, but there was a map that took us around the logging area (even though they don't work on Saturdays).

Heading up into the final part of the trail which opens up into a big cow pasture. We lovingly named it, "Cow Pie-radise hill"

Nearing the "pointy" summit....

The cross at the summit, it was very cloudy so we really didn't have much of a view except for a couple of times when the fog cleared, but it is nice to have lunch on top of an Alpine mountain with nothing else but wilderness all around you.

Our friend Paul with clouds behind him, we actually were above the clouds at the summit.

On the way back down we had some views that we didn't see on the way up.

Beautiful pine forests on the descent.

The tiny little village/town. That is the whole town if you can believe it. They have a mayor's office and a little school: so if you grow up here you will be able to at least read, write, pay taxes and get married. The cable that is going down the front of the picture is the cable that they send the cut trees down the mountain (at least that was our theory)


Our four walking sticks that we left for the next hikers.

Our friend Kory tries his hand at Alpine yodeling. Not bad....

I had a wonderful time and am thankful that Ruth (and all the other wives) let us go on this little hike and see this wonderful part of the world while we are still here.