Le Tour de l'Omois

 

"Omois" is an old name for this region where I live. This area has been continuously occupied by humans for a very long time, with some archaeological sites dating back to neolithic and mesolithic periods. Today, this southern tip of the Aisne département is mostly delimited by the autoroute to the north and the departmental/regional border to the south. Geographically compact, but agriculturally and culturally rich, I am excited to dig into this guidebook.

 

In my research around the cow and frog at the lavoir, I came across this guidebook, pictured above, done in the style of the ubiquitous french trail guides : the Topoguides(c). Published in 1992, it details the slightly more than 200km trail around most of the edges of the Omois region, where my village is. Surprisingly enough, even though it has been out of print for 30 years, I was able to locate a copy of the book for sale, and I got one.

To walk this entire trail, I know I will likely have to deviate from the trail described in this guidebook, after all, it has been 30 years since it was first laid out; towns have grown. That said, in my research I have also found that local walking and hiking clubs have been maintaining parts of the trail, and found some municipalities including parts of the trail into their local walking trails. I found someone who had put a description, GPS data, and elevation profile of the trail up (before I found a copy of the book) : GR Infos website. This was very useful in my planning. My cycling around the region has also been quite informative, since I passed through several of the villages on this trail already, I know what to expect there.

So now begins the training to re-accustom myself to carrying a backpack and walking for hours,  planning how far I need to go each day, and checking what resources would be available along the trail (as well as I can). More to come on this as I work out the stages, decide whether to do it all in one go or break it into four short (2-3 day) hikes. I am unlikely to go before the winter hunting season tails off in February, but I will be training until then. Wish me luck!