Practice ride to Chexbres (and back)

This update is mainly for Don and Andrea's benefit who will be joining us soon for a bike tour across Switzerland!

The gpx files from John work great. I used the program gpx2crs to convert the files to courses and added all the waypoints and courses. The full load used 80% of the memory but fit!

Using the course, we headed out and joined the trail. It pretty much follows a ride I normally take..nice views of lake but a bit of traffic. Most of the route on the major roads has a bike lane. We took pictures at the two points marked 1Relax and 2Relax. 2Relax was a bit crowded (see picture) but is a good spot to stretch and load up with goo and water as the next section begins the climb.

The climb runs about 7 km and most of it is a 7% grade. Towards the end there's a couple hundred meters of climbing at a 17% grade with a blip at 29%. See attached summary. Dedi was swearing at the top of the climb. But there's water nearby and a turn off for the hotel shortly after and this last bit is a nice shaded climb.

The ride home was fast and fun. Let's hope the weather is this nice in August!

;-) Dave

Back home

Back from another week in California....Got in late yesterday and was met by a household of happy campers! School is out and summer vacation is here.

It's hot and sunny. The girls are swimming in the lake. The dogs are moving slowly.

I had some good rides last weekend with Don and Andrea. On Saturday we rode to Berkeley and on Sunday we all rode with a large group up Palomino climb. It was a nice ride followed by a free BBQ, including cold beer. Nice.

Today, as soon as it cools down a bit, Dedi and I will trace out the 2nd half of the Geneva Chexbres ride. This is the first ride on our upcoming Bike Switzerland 8-9 day cross-country ride.

Father's day hike: Col de Jaman

Had a nice father's day hike around Col de Jaman. The weather promised rained but we lucked out and stayed dry. Still quite cold for a June afternoon.

Susu, got the cow pictures just for you!

Telly and the feather

Brenna has been at the oil painting work again and this is her latest work of art. Dedi and I are pretty impressed! The photographer (me) leaves a bit to be desired but hopefully you can get a feel for her work!

Farmers Markets, Museums and Aletsch Glacier

Despite daily forecasts of rain and showers we've been lucky to find time to enjoy pockets of sunshine. On Saturday we all headed out to Morges where we strolled up and down the pedestrian walkway. We bought some good freshly made pizza which fortunately the boys didn't like too much, giving more for Eric and me too enjoy! We then hit the Military museum in Morges, a converted castle that houses a great selection of military weapons, munitions, and miniature historical battle recreations. It was nice and the boys loved it. Aubrey was inspired by the uniforms and got many design ideas....

On Sunday, the forecast was for more clouds than rain so we headed to Riederalp to find the Aletsch glacier. Brenna and Aubrey stayed home to work on finals and SAT test preparation .

Unfortunately the upper cable cars were closed due to weather and the quick view turned into a major hike. In the end Eric, Dedi, and I did the hike and Susu stayed back with Trevor who was suffering from what was likely an altitude generated migrane. This was followed by a nauseous cable car ride back if you know what I mean.

Wesely hung back with Trevor and Susu but after a bit decided to hike up and meet us as we headed down. Susie was pretty worried that he would get lost and finally Trevor uttered some words of wisdom..."Enough with the 'what if's'...he'll be fine!".

The view of the glacier was awesome. This was our second time to see it and it was just as impressive as the first time. Made us seem sooooo small!