The Pleasure of Looking for New Routes

Reading Time: 3 minutesFor several years I explored every route that was walkable from my village. In the process I found loops that took up to four hours to complete. When there was no traffic they were all pleasant, whether it was wet, dry, hot, cold or windy. As cars and driving re-emerged plenty of the plaths I enjoyed walking became unsafe so I stopped walking them.

Over the last two or three weeks I have been looking at Komoot and Alltrails to find new hiking ideas and I tried two and they were both a success, in my own opinion. The first was to Oujou, and the second is the one I did two days ago.

As a result of the two walks I have just done being so pleasant I am tempted to explore more of them. You can usually search by sport, and by location. You can search according to towns but also points of interest.

## Surface Type

With Komoot you get a estimation of how much is on roads, how much is on trails, and how much is on other surfaces. This means that you can avoid a path that is either too muddy when hiking or too tarmaced. It also means that you can search for gravel trails, road cycling and mountain biking, depending on which type of bike you have.

## Useful Information

With most apps you can search by difficulty as well as by duration. The hikes warn if a route might be challenging. With Alltrails it also warns whether a route could be slippery due to rain and other factors. It also includes weather information.

## An Increasing Number of Routes

When I was looking a few years ago the choice was limited. Now, after a few years of use, the choice has grown to the point of having more options than time, so choices need to be made. This information is crowd sourced and people are able to leave comments, and tips for future adventures.

## Localised

We can look for local walks to where we live, but we can also look for hikes or bike rides that are local to an area. If you want to see the Chateau de Vufflens but you feel that driving an hour to spend a few minutes there and move on is too far, then you can look for hikes that are centered around the castle. In this way you amortise the time it took to drive, with the time you spend walking.

Usually if I drive I want to spend twice as long doing something, as driving. If I drive half an hour and walk for an hour or two then the drive is amortised. If I drive for two hours and walk for half an hour, then it isn’t. That’s one of my frustrations with VFs sometimes.

## The Alternative

The alternative to using these sights to find sites of interest is to buy books, but the issue with books is that they cost 27 CHF each. If they cost 10 CHF a piece I would buy many more. The other issue is that books are bought but rarely consulted. I have a few books in my collection that are just taking shelf space. It’s thanks to self-discipline that I am not buying new hiking guide books every few weeks.

## A Focus on Routes Rather Than Training

Strava and Garmin focus more on fitness than on journeys and experiences, which is great when you want to focus on growing fitter and stronger, but less interesting when you’re looking for new walking experiences.

I enjoy looking for new places to hike, new landscapes to enjoy, and new places to cycle, ideally within a short distance from home. In so doing I reduce my carbon footprint but I also avoid going to the crowded places.

## And Finally

The more time I spend looking, the more loops I find I want to experience. The challenge is to choose which ones to do and in which order, and to find people with whom to do these loops.