Every week, in Whatsapp groups, I see the same questions. “Who is driving from A?” “Who is driving from B?” “Where can I park?” and more questions. The same questions are asked every time. A decade or two ago I might have understood, but not in 2025. For some hikes this makes complete sense. For hikes that are impossible to access by train, bus or other it makes sense to ask.

I find that GoSocial and Meetup are great social networks. It’s an easy way of finding people to do things with, every single weekend. It means that rather than sitting in bars, listening to people talk, hoping for a fun activity, that is not drinking, to be mentioned, you can find a group to do things with. The flipside to this is that you meet 12-25 people per activity. Sometimes you will meet the same people again, more than once, but more often than not you meet a new group each time.

Yesterday I went out in track suit trousers, a t-shirt and minimal other stuff. The plan was to run just three to four kilometres. I planned not to cross any busy roads. I had this plan because I felt that I needed a day of rest after yesterday’s bike ride. Garmin wanted me to run for an hour, and Suunto wanted me to have a half hour run. I don’t remember what Apple apps wanted.

I considered going for yet another hike yesterday. I didn’t, for two reasons. The first reason is that I had to commit on Wednesday night and I wasn’t ready to commit on Wednesday for Saturday. The second reason is that the group has a black list for people that don’t turn up with a valid reason. I much prefer the “If you’re late we won’t wait” school of punctuality. I decided instead to join a Bike club Switzerland ride.

A few days ago someone wrote something about chocolate croissants. I then wrote something about Chocolate easter bunnies. A third person then said “please don’t have conversations, there are hundreds of people reading this exchange”. This is on WhatsApp. WhatsApp is, or at least was, an IM client. For those of a certain age an IM client is a conversation app. It’s the type of app that includes AIM, ICQ, Messenger, Skype and many, many more apps.

This weekend seems to be quiet, hiking wise. So far I see just one event, organised. Sunday would have been an option, except that it could be stormy in the afternoon. If light rain falls, then that’s fine, but if it is hail then it is better to avoid. I think that’s why we have gone from five hikes in a single weekend, to just one. Yesterday I studied the logistics for this hike, and I got everything ready.

This morning I was studying the logistics for Stage 8 and 9 of the Jura Crest Trail before thinking, “This is too complicated, to be interesting”. Specifically, I noticed that if we finish at Vue des Alpes we have to go via La-Chaux-De-Fonds rather than via Neuchatel. This means that if we go by car, and park in one valley, we need to take multiple trains to get back to the other valley.

Yesterday I went for a walk and during this walk I kept looking at the Jura. Above the Jura I could see a cumolonimbus cloud mushroom and grow upwards, before spreading out. This morning I read about a huge hail storm. I photographed that storm cell as it was growing. Yesterday I could see a few storm systems growing and I thought “maybe we’ll have storms this evening.” We didn’t, but some of them did.

This weekend I didn’t blog because I went on two hikes. The first hike was with the History hiking meetup group, and the second was with a GoSocial group. Both hikes were around 10km in different landscapes. The first one went from Bière to Allaman and the second one went from Haut-De-Caux to the Dent De Jaman and back. From Bière to the Arboretum The first hike was with a larger group than usual for this meetup group.

Yesterday it happened again on Whatsapp. Someone said ‘avoid having too much chatter on this group, there are hundreds of people. When I see such messages it frustrates me because at its core Whatsapp is designed for people to have conversations. The idea that we would join Whatsapp chats, to speak very little, to me is absurd. Whatsapp is designed for instant messaging. This is not a cloister where we have taken a vow of silence.