Photos 21-25
Here we are, the final 5 photos of Eriks’ and my trek across Switzerland. This first photo picks back up on Day 8 of the tour, in the Alps south of Interlaken. This photo is (I believe) from the same area as the final photo in the last series, a wonderfully remote-feeling, yet close in series of mountains, valleys, and high pasture lands. This day took us from the lakes to back into the high mountains just above a town called Lenk. The forecasted heat wave really landed on us this day, I can vividly remember finally making it to the ski-town of Adelboden and lying down in the shade outside of the local Co-Op, pounding Coca-Cola, and trying to feed all the salt and sugar possible back into my body. We kept climbing out of Adelboden, to the Hahnenmoos pass. There was an open ski chalet, so we had a beer, and then descended briefly to our Bed and Breakfast for the evening.
I cannot remember how I found Bed and Breakfast am Bühlberg, but it was certainly a trip highlight. The owners have taken a traditional Swiss mountain home, and integrated contemporary, beautiful living spaces and comforts while maintaining the gorgeous original exterior. We ate a divine meal of salmon and avocado salad, fresh baked bread, and roast pork. And we were delighted to spend an evening chatting outside in alpine splendor with the other guests, a hip couple from Germany and the brother and wife of the owners. They were gracious enough to speak English to us for most of the time, and I think I slept the best that night of the entire trip in an outrageously comfortable bed.
After waking up and having a lovely breakfast, we had to say our goodbyes and set off. This part of the journey was lifted almost entirely from Hope 1000 race, and we were no longer near the Alpine MTB Route 1. Originally, we were to have two and a half full days from the beginning of this one, heading far out north and then looping back south to spend some extra time up in the alpine high. But the heatwave was absolutely sending on this day, and it was time to rethink our plans. The photo above of Erik, and then next two photos, were from a terrific section of trail between Lenk and Gstaad, and this moonscape that Erik is posing in above, is known specifically as the Höhenrundweg Gryden.
We ultimately decided, while on the trail this day, to bypass any plans to head north, and to instead beeline directly to the eastern shore of Lake Geneva. I loved this singletrack section of the journey, with alpine flowers, many day hikers out, and as always the booming white peaks surrounding us in all directions.
The last photo from the trip is of Erik, on a particularly skinny ribbon of singletrack. From here, we would top out and have a tremendously fun technical singletrack descent onto Gstaad. From there, we enjoyed many mellow empty highway miles, trying to stay cool as we headed to the whistlestop nowheresville of Montbovon. It was again a Sunday, so everything was closed, but we found a creepy old hotel and I was able to find a vending machine and grab a couple cokes before the agonizing, final, monster backroad climb to a lookout point high above Lake Geneva. Then a long, outrageous road descent to cleaning our filthy bikes in a streetside fountain like street urchins, and then to parading through the absolutely jam-packed city of Montreux.
We would ride the next day too, from Vevey to Geneva, blasting out the highway miles, and clearing 49 miles in just over 3 hours, pretty sharp for two boys on fully loaded mountain bikes at the end of a ride across an entire country. I don’t want to make any grand final statements of this trip, except to say, I cannot imagine a country more hospitable to this type of adventure than Switzerland. The people, the scenery, the attitude, the food, it is all above reproach, and I would be more than happy to answer any questions that anyone might have about any facet of our trip. Thanks for reading along. Cheers, and tailwinds.