The next day was a rest day and we needed it after Tuesday’s epic. Today would be my first day of not riding in 12 days. We decided to take a train up to the Mer de Glace and play tourists. Glaciers are really fascinating – we don’t have many in the US but the Chamonix area is rich with them. The Mer de Glace (sea of ice) is the second largest glacier in the Alps. The train takes you up, and then we took a Gondola down a ways, and then hiked down into the glacier.









Some lady admiring one of the rooms







Later we rode the Alpine slides. Last time we were in Germany we had fun on them, these ones were a bit more risky. They had signs that said “Brake here” and they should not be ignored. A couple of us tested the limits of those little sleds and dangit, you can totally go off track with them.

Another self operated ride at the little park.





This place had a couple pretty good beers. Coming from Oregon - home of soooo many microbrews, we were disappointed overall with the beer in Switzerland and France. The wine was good to make up for it though.

Tuesday was really a very difficult day. I don’t know that I’ve ridden anything that demanding in quite awhile. I have no idea how far it was, only that it was an all day ride with a large portion of the time spent climbing. Once again we couldn’t see any of the surrounding mountains through the fog really – just glimpses here and there. We rode up out of town towards Montroc on a series of fun singletrack sections, then took a fun little trail around and down into the next valley to the base of the climb. Here we started a climb to the climb. Haha The real climb was an all out, serious incline. It switchbacked up and up and up, then more up, steep sections, more switchbacks and then finally to a lift.



This was only the halfway point but we stopped to regroup. At this point it started drizzling and the wind kicked up a notch. Perfect. We climbed some more and some more, some really steep pitches and of course more switchbacks. We arrived at another lift where I ducked under the building to eat a sandwich and wait for others. At this point a few people decided they were too cold and didn’t want to go any higher or climb any more and turned back. The rest of us pushed on…for more climbing. I kid you not, this is the most climbing I think I have done in several years and I have done a lot. It was a brutal grind to the top where I thought we would start a decent, but we climbed on some singletrack even further around to the other side of the mountain. HAHAh – we had to descend soon. Sure enough, we did. It was completely fogged in and raining so I got no pictures, but the singeltrack was really cool. It was a rocky little ribbon with switchbacks slashing down the mountain. We were above the treeline but soon descended into it and continued the fun descent. We ended up popping out on the road up the valley from Chamonix and rode furiously for the cake and coffee/tea that awaited us every evening upon our return. It was really the hardest day of riding I have done in quite a while and I would love to do it again and take some pictures. We all hit one of the local bars pretty hard for some cocktails and beer that night.

Coming back to reality after such a great vacation is tough. I mean, my reality is pretty darn good itself, but you can't beat travel. Today something little excited me...they swept the bike lanes around town. Now if they would just do the bike lane on the parkway that would be sweet.

BIG NEWS! Bend is getting a public transit system. That's right, it starts Wed the 27th supposedly. I don't fully understand where it's stopping or anything, but I hope people take it instead of driving. Somehow I doubt people in Bend will. People don't have to sit in bad enough traffic to make them want to do something like take a bus. I hear it does have room to hold three bikes on front so maybe I'll test it out this winter if it snows too badly and I can't ride all the way to work.

Just thought I'd mutter about nothingness this afternoon.

Monday was a big ride up to Lac Vert and then we continued up to where Derek and I added on the extra credit loop up to some tiny little village that I can’t remember the name of. This is at the base of that climb which was very very steep. Granny gear climbing for 30 minutes at least.

The descent after that was downright dangerous in spots and then opened up into a rip roaring section that was truly a blast. It was overcast again and dark in the forested sections so I didn’t’ take many riding pictures.









I know this one is a bit blurry, but it at least shows what most of the descent looked like. Obviously it is steeper in real life



We named the new section of trail we took that afternoon McSketch. It was a steep twisty leafy descent with plenty of rooty fun that everyone loved. As we neared the valley floor it broke out in a downpour. That was the only day we shutteled back to the Chalet.

Chamonix Part 1

Our next adventure was to stay in a chalet in Chamonix and ride with guides daily. 1050 was the tour company and at first I was ambivalent of the whole tour thing because I always fear they won’t go as fast as I want, or as far as I’d like. This operation rocks and I totally recommend them. The chalet is great, they serve you breakfast, fix you a giant sub sandwich for lunch, cake and tea upon return from your rides each day, and dinner with wine each night. The guides are very good riders, in fact, several of them race the Grand Raid Cristalp each year and finish VERY high. They were always faster than me on the descents, and most of them climbed my pace or faster so I was stoked.















Sunday we did a nice break-in loop that had a bit of everything. I didn’t take many pictures because it was overcast and drizzly.





I would describe the riding as pretty technical with root and rocky sections everywhere. Lots of the climbs were fireroads with steep switchbacks, or singeltracks with challenging roots and obstacles. 1050 doesn’t allow beginners and it was a good thing. This was some of the most technical riding I have ever done. We started at around 10:30 each day and didn’t get back to the chalet until 4 or 5 usually, so these were full day adventures.

Snow in Sept?

Yep. I knew it had snowed a few inches up at Bachelor, but a group of us decided to ride from Swampy SnoPark up to Dutchman Flats, then up to Flagline and down it back to our car. It was gorgeous weather out, chilly, but sunny with reallllly blue sky. From town you could see that Bachelor was dusted with snow and it has been awhile since seeing that. We started seeing spots of snow after a few miles on the trail, but nothing big. When we hit Dutchman Flats, which is across the street from Mt. Bachelor, it got thicker. There were a couple inches and it was melting fast so we were riding in a river of water with big puddle sections. No biggie. Then we started to climb further up and the snow got thicker. It was granny gear stuff so that you could keep cadence up high and not slip out. It was really very pretty up there. Here are a few pics from our adventure.










Any time you stepped off your bike you'd get snow clog. Thank god for Crankbrother pedals!



The tree branches carried sooo much snow that was melting so periodically you'd be riding along and get pelted in the top of the head with snow.

RAIN!!!!!!!!!!!

TGIF!

It is finally raining here. FINALLY! We need it badly; the trails are dusty and dry. I'm still commuting by bike, I'll switch to my cyclocross bike today since the tires are a bit bigger and grippier than the little tires on my road bike. Out come the fenders too. Supposedly an inch of snow is forecast for Bachelor and the Cascades. EDIT: check this out!



Sounds like perfect conditions for a ride tomorrow! That should pack down the trails and make for some awesome riding. My brother in law is going to be in town doing some fly fishing this weekend so hopefully he'll stop by and get a beer or two with us - haven't seen him in more than two years.

For a change, I wasn't going to post even a picture today. Oh, who's kidding who.

From Chamonix, France:



Have a good weekend - I'm going to get my Chamonix pics and write-up in order this weekend so check back.

Our breakfast the next morning was included with our room and was huge! Some of the other guests were asking us about our bikes in the kitchen and where we had been/where we were going. There were a lot of roadies staying in the hotel and it must be a very good region to tour. We were very happy as we set out for Martigny.







The ride was pretty flat for a change and followed the river on a little path. We passed through some great little towns. Check out this art display in some tiny little town we passed through! It an’t no joke yo! So you can take a pen, and write yourself a little note so you don't forget again.



We rolled into Martigny pretty tired nevertheless.





This officially marked the second part of our journey. We picked up our extra duffel bag and took the Mt. Blanc Express to Chamonix, France. The train ride is awesome in itself!!!

The next morning we decided to do a chill ride and took the waterfront path all day.








Freddy Mercury!



We stopped and took several pictures, looked through the little sidewalk market in Montreaux, and wandered upon the Castel de Chillion. This is a bit touristy, but we paid our 5 francs to go inside and look around. It’s really amazing inside. The rock on which Chillion stands was oocupied by men of the Bronze age and later by the Romans. Bonivard’s Prison is still intact. Bonivard , prior of St. Victor’s Geneva remained chained for 4 years because he was in favor of the independence of Geneva. He was freed by the Swiss in 1536 and immortalized by the poet Byron.

















Back on our bikes, we continued down the coast where I could see tons of Red Bull banners and lots of people congregated. As we got closer I saw the banners for Vertigo. It was an acrobatic hangliding competition. I’d never seen anything like it so we bought our daily loaf of bread, hunk of cheese, and chocolate bar and sat down to watch. It was a spectacular show, even though I didn’t understand much of what the announcer was saying. We watched for about an hour and then headed on our way.






It was a great ride along some back dirt roads and a series of bike paths before we got to Aigle. We originally had planned to ride up to Leysin so I called for reservations at the hostel before we climbed up the mountain. The guy was delighted that my name was Heidi! “Heidi like from the Alps?” he asked me.



After reconsulting the map though, Derek decided he didn’t want to ride all the way up to Leysin for the night, so we found a hotel that let us stash our bikes in the kitchen! We walked up to a castle and winery, took some pictures, wandered the streets, and ended up at a very good little Italian restaurant for dinner and plenty of sangria with local wine.











Another good day, only one more to go in Switzerland..