Planning Hikes with Public Transport in Mind

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Yesterday I was surprised that someone had planned an activity without public transport in mind. A few years ago I would not have noticed. For a long time I never considered that people would want to take buses and trains to the start of a hike. Now I do.

For me, at this moment in time, I believe that every hike should start somewhere where public transport is available, both at the start and the end if it’s a linear hike, and at the start if it’s a loop. Without public transport being factored in everyone is condemned to car sharing. In and of itself the idea of car-sharing is not a bad one.

It’s about including others. If you plan a hike, and it has public transport, then you include those that either do not have access to a car, or those that prefer to travel by train and buses rather than by car.

A Linear Run

Yesterday I was looking at the route for the bear hole hike and I saw that there is a bus stop, but that no buses go to it. If you want to use public transport there is a stop that is 45 minutes away, on foot. If I was to plan that hike I would have it start at the bus stop, rather than the parking. In so doing I provide people with the choice of either taking the car, or taking public transport.

Yesterday evening, as I was walking home I thought about catching a bus from La Rippe, and running back to Nyon. I toyed with the idea of doing that, first thing in the morning. I think that I will run this experiment this afternoon instead.

The reason for running from La Rippe is simple. If I start from the furthest point, when buses are once per hour, I don’t end up waiting for the bus for 58 minutes once I get up to La Rippe. The other reason is that the run from La Rippe to Nyon is downhill. It’s an opportunity to get distance, without making too much effort.

The Pleasure of Linear Hikes

Until last year I didn’t consider linear hikes, and I almost saw them as a nuisance as it meant that I had to plan where the most convenient location to park was. When we did two or three day hikes with WeGaw a few years ago I really enjoyed starting in one place, walking for the entire day, and then stopping for the night, and then walking for another day and catching the train home.

It’s worth noting that if you take the train for a linear hike this doesn’t exclude using the car. The car can still be useful. When I was look at the Jaun to Gruyères hike I found that if I parked in Gruyères and took the bus of the hike then I would spend 3.90 CHF on the train, rather than 28 CHF one way, and about 18 CHF in the other direction. This calculation excludes parking cost and fuel.

A Different Focus

With trains, buses, and boats, we get to have new experiences. Instead of hiking and cycling along the same routes every time, we experience new places, and our start and end points can be more versatile. Last summer I cycled from Nyon to Yvoire. I went via Bellevue and Geneva, before heading to Yvoire. In Yvoire we caught the boat back to Nyon. It allowed us to do a loop, where the boat bridged the gap.