Wind Power
Yesterday I explored the Gruyere area by mountain bike with buddy Greg, hoping to find some fun single track and some nice hiking trails for when Becky, Jacque and Haylee arrive. We started in a little village called Grandvillard... The outing began ith a grueling climb. It didn't take long for Greg to holler, "Dave, are you trying to kill me?". The incline got better, but the trails did not...It turned into mostly fire road, pavement, and only a bit of nice single track. Oh, and we had one passage thru a cow pasture. Nasty stuff..muddy with many cow leg holes just waiting to suck up my front tire.
Had the dogs with me and though they clearly enjoyed the outing, both are now limping pretty badly. Each one has an injured paw..too much rocky fire roads.
All in all, though the area was beautiful, I'd probably vote to skip it as a family outing. Too far and not as nice for hiking in my opinion as near Montreux or into the Valais area.
On that note, I set off on a solo 120km one way ride today to Sion in the Valais Canton. I lucked out and ran into a +30Km/hour tail wind. Never experienced such easy riding. I was moving between 40km and 50km/hour over most of the stretch! I was almost afraid to stop and sight-see along the way for fear of seeing the wind change directions. But I did stop and the wind stayed faithful!
I found three good areas, St-Maurice, Martigny, and Sion.
St-Maurice has tons of history dating back to the Roman empire times. It has a shrine to Saint Maurice and an Abbey worth seeing. Not too sure about hiking..
A bit further down, near Martigny I came across the Pissevache waterfall. I almost stuck my head under it, but only got close enough though to enjoy the spray...wasn't quite up to the full dunk!
By the way Pissevache literally means the pissing cow! It was pretty impressive and there appeared to be nice hiking trails leading up to it.
Sion, is quite beautiful. I rode up Rue des Châteaux to a groove between the twin castles of Sion. From here, there were two paths one to Tourbillon, and one to Valère.
Had the dogs with me and though they clearly enjoyed the outing, both are now limping pretty badly. Each one has an injured paw..too much rocky fire roads.
All in all, though the area was beautiful, I'd probably vote to skip it as a family outing. Too far and not as nice for hiking in my opinion as near Montreux or into the Valais area.
On that note, I set off on a solo 120km one way ride today to Sion in the Valais Canton. I lucked out and ran into a +30Km/hour tail wind. Never experienced such easy riding. I was moving between 40km and 50km/hour over most of the stretch! I was almost afraid to stop and sight-see along the way for fear of seeing the wind change directions. But I did stop and the wind stayed faithful!
I found three good areas, St-Maurice, Martigny, and Sion.
St-Maurice has tons of history dating back to the Roman empire times. It has a shrine to Saint Maurice and an Abbey worth seeing. Not too sure about hiking..
A bit further down, near Martigny I came across the Pissevache waterfall. I almost stuck my head under it, but only got close enough though to enjoy the spray...wasn't quite up to the full dunk!
By the way Pissevache literally means the pissing cow! It was pretty impressive and there appeared to be nice hiking trails leading up to it.
Sion, is quite beautiful. I rode up Rue des Châteaux to a groove between the twin castles of Sion. From here, there were two paths one to Tourbillon, and one to Valère.
I hiked/rode up to Valere and went in the Chapelle de Tous-les-Saints which dates back to 1310 and features massive Roman foundation walls. Certainly a nice area to get panoramic pictures and a bit of culture
!
posted by DFisch at 12:32 PM
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