This year my big summer vacation consisted of 9 days in Switzerland, and 8 days in France. The plan was to tour parts of Switzerland by bike, carrying only what we could fit in out backpack and in a small bag on our bike racks. We could only bring one bike for the whole trip, so I chose my YETI 575 because it would be ideal for the Chamonix, France riding. With the 29 pounds my Yeti weighs, the 25 pounds in my rack bag, and the 30-35 pounds in my backpack, it made for quite some strenuous riding. I wouldnt change anything if I could do it again though it was a true adventure.
We arrived in Geneva, but our bikes didnt. So, we walked downtown and stayed in a hostel. The next morning we took out some free bikes and road around Old Town Geneva checking out the sites.
St. Peters Cathedral
Cause Im a cowgirl baby.
Here I am with my free bike!
One of the many great things about Switzerland were all these water fountains with clean drnking water running out. It was VERY convenient to be able to refill your camelback whenever.
I soo need one of these cool motos.
I had prearranged to store our bike cases at Echos sisters house just outside Geneva and was happy when I called to check, and the airline had delivered our bikes to her place. So we headed off by train to her place. For this 2 week plan to work, we had to also stash a bag of stuff we would need for the second week. So, after picking our bikes up and assembling them, we took the train to Martigny to store our bag in a locker. The trains in Switzerland are handy, but not cheap so we utilized them as little as possible to cut down on expenses. We headed to Sion, which our book said was a sleepy little town. It was the opposite, busy with young people everywhere. I felt like I was in downtown San Diego! We had dinner and a few beers, and then headed for the hostel we had picked to stay in. To our dismay, it was full and so was every other hotel we could find in town. It started pouring and as the night grew later, we decided to just find a dry safe place. We rode down to the fifth floor of an empty brand new parking garage and slept in the stairwell. It was dry and warm at least.
Up early, we headed for Kandersteg. It was overcast and drizzly outside unfortunately, so I didnt take many pictures along the way.
Kandersteg ended up being one of my favorite places, for its peaceful, sheer beauty. We did a grueling ride up to Oshensie Lake. The gradient was easily 30+% and it was a granny gear grind that was near impossible. The hardwork and efforts paid off though.
Once in Kandersteg we did our first INSANELY steep ride. We rode up to Oeschinen Lake which sits at 5191'. Its 60m deep, snowmelt, and provides water for the Kandersteg valley. The trail is really probably a better hike because it is so steep. It is easily 30% grade in a lot of spots. It made for very slow going, but hey, all we had was time.
That is the village of Kandersteg way down in the valley. At this point we were only halfway up the trail.
Giant snowmelt waterfalls and rivers ran down into the valley.
We are headed up there!
That's Hotel Oeschinensee across the lake.
Here I am enjoying the singeltrack around the lake.
We stayed the night in a hostel that served a great breakfast. We loaded up on Muesli, yogurt, bread, cheese, and coffee and hit the trails. The next day we took a series of insane singletrack, dirt roads, grassy slopes, paved paths, and roads to Interlaken. It was a long day of riding, but again, the views were remarkable. We were lost quite a bit of the time there are TOO MANY trails in that region and we got sidetracked and followed some wrong trails. Thats cool though, we were up for an adventure.
We arrived in Geneva, but our bikes didnt. So, we walked downtown and stayed in a hostel. The next morning we took out some free bikes and road around Old Town Geneva checking out the sites.
St. Peters Cathedral
Cause Im a cowgirl baby.
Here I am with my free bike!
One of the many great things about Switzerland were all these water fountains with clean drnking water running out. It was VERY convenient to be able to refill your camelback whenever.
I soo need one of these cool motos.
I had prearranged to store our bike cases at Echos sisters house just outside Geneva and was happy when I called to check, and the airline had delivered our bikes to her place. So we headed off by train to her place. For this 2 week plan to work, we had to also stash a bag of stuff we would need for the second week. So, after picking our bikes up and assembling them, we took the train to Martigny to store our bag in a locker. The trains in Switzerland are handy, but not cheap so we utilized them as little as possible to cut down on expenses. We headed to Sion, which our book said was a sleepy little town. It was the opposite, busy with young people everywhere. I felt like I was in downtown San Diego! We had dinner and a few beers, and then headed for the hostel we had picked to stay in. To our dismay, it was full and so was every other hotel we could find in town. It started pouring and as the night grew later, we decided to just find a dry safe place. We rode down to the fifth floor of an empty brand new parking garage and slept in the stairwell. It was dry and warm at least.
Up early, we headed for Kandersteg. It was overcast and drizzly outside unfortunately, so I didnt take many pictures along the way.
Kandersteg ended up being one of my favorite places, for its peaceful, sheer beauty. We did a grueling ride up to Oshensie Lake. The gradient was easily 30+% and it was a granny gear grind that was near impossible. The hardwork and efforts paid off though.
Once in Kandersteg we did our first INSANELY steep ride. We rode up to Oeschinen Lake which sits at 5191'. Its 60m deep, snowmelt, and provides water for the Kandersteg valley. The trail is really probably a better hike because it is so steep. It is easily 30% grade in a lot of spots. It made for very slow going, but hey, all we had was time.
That is the village of Kandersteg way down in the valley. At this point we were only halfway up the trail.
Giant snowmelt waterfalls and rivers ran down into the valley.
We are headed up there!
That's Hotel Oeschinensee across the lake.
Here I am enjoying the singeltrack around the lake.
We stayed the night in a hostel that served a great breakfast. We loaded up on Muesli, yogurt, bread, cheese, and coffee and hit the trails. The next day we took a series of insane singletrack, dirt roads, grassy slopes, paved paths, and roads to Interlaken. It was a long day of riding, but again, the views were remarkable. We were lost quite a bit of the time there are TOO MANY trails in that region and we got sidetracked and followed some wrong trails. Thats cool though, we were up for an adventure.
, the views made it all worth it. 
hrug: When my wife and I were in Norway, we missed the last flight to Amsterdam out of Stavanger and the airport closed, so we were forced to either sleep in the parking structure and risk getting kicked out, or find a field to sleep in. We picked the field.
