We have not done much hiking this Spring since we were training for last weekend’s half-marathon race, which only Tomi ran. So, the good weather streak still continuing, we were looking forward to some easy Easter weekend  hikes, the first  to a waterfall on Plateau-des-Petites-Roches in Sain-Hilaire-du-Touvet on Sunday (6.30K in 2h 40mins, D+/D- 385m), and the second to the torrent of Manival on Monday (11.85K in 4h, D+/D- 750m), only decided after the first hike.

They say that March/April is the best time to visit waterfalls on the Chartreuse range because of the abundance of water. It is also the worst time since the falls are usually located  deep in the forest with very little sunshine seeping in, and the narrow and steep trails following the river banks up to them are most likely wet and muddy, and slippery. The snow is still melting and the waterfalls are full of water, but it hasn’t rained much for a long time, so for our surprise, the trails leading to and from Cascade des Dioux in St.Hilaire du Touvet were not wet at all.

The original plan was to go bicycling on Monday, but we got apprehensive because of Sunday’s strongish gusty wind and even stronger wind forecast for Monday. So we decided to climb to Le Château Nardent nearby — there is no castle, it is just a mountain top such named. It is rather long and tedious climb; first about 500 meters to Cabane Forestière du Manival, and then about 400 more to the top. We decided not to go all the way up, but turned back little after the cabane, since we were feeling our legs from the previous day’s hike, and the zig-zag trail, albeit having a quite comfortable grade,  traveled on a very steep slope and was almost non-existent at places, meaning that we just had to balance on the slope. Plus we were in the forest with not much scenery to admire.

We found a small scenic trail back that traveled among newly planted cedar trees. Other than that, there was not much to take photos of — therefore all the photos below are from our way back down.