Cycling From Haute-Morges To Nyon Along the Top

Cycling From Haute-Morges To Nyon Along the Top

Byrichard

Yesterday I cycled from Haute-Morges to Nyon along the top. I did this because I was curious to see what route the GPS would recommend. The natural thing to do would be to cycle downhill towards Rolle and the lake. 


Trees and a meadow in a road bend
Trees and a meadow in a road bend


The Route


Instead I cycled upwards towards Montricher. From there I cycled west vila Mollens to Bière, and from there, down and across towards  Saurraz, Marchissy, Le Vaud before Bassins, Le Muid and then finally down from Genolier towards Trelex and from Trelex down through Grens before heading down towards Nyon. 



My expectation was to cycle uphill for a little bit, and then to cycle downhill for the rest of the journey home. In reality that wasn’t the case. In reality I did a lot of climbing. I had to climb over 450 metres. 


Although it felt flat when I was cycling from Nyon, towards these places, when you’re cycling the other way you get to encounter all the climbs. Despite wanting to go down the hill, if you follow the Jura, you end up on a roller coaster. If I had been knackered I could have just followed the road signs that would take me to the lake road, but I didn’t. 


Avoiding Rush Hour


I was cycling from 1500 onwards so I was cycling when parents, and people who work short days were commuting. If I had gone down to the valley of the Lac Léman I would have been pestered with cars and annoyed drivers. By staying at the top I burned a lot of energy, and it depleted my “battery” as Garmin calls it, but I had a pleasant ride. 


Armour and Books



During this ride I was amused to see the armours in the windows of one shop. I always stop to look at them. I find it interesting to look at them. I also passed by several book lending libraries. One was sheltered with a fountain, the second was in an old phone box. The third was the library of Le Vaud but I didn’t enter. It’s nice that on such a ride we can look for books, should we desire to do so, 


Some of the books I saw
Some of the books I saw


Books in an old phone booth
Books in an old phone booth


And Finally


The route is nice but I am not sure that I would ride it again. If I had gone up and around the Vallée de Joux I would have had a harder climb initially but then it would have been quite flat until St Cergue and then it would have been an easy downhill. If I had headed down, from Haute Morges, rather than up I would have had an easy ride to the lake, and then it would have undulated a little, but nothing like the Alpine route. I made it, within two hours, as expected, but it was more energetic than planned. 

A Walk at the Snow Line

A Walk at the Snow Line

Byrichard

The most striking thing about a winter with little to no snow is that there is no noise. Normally ski lifts clank, people talk and there is a lot of noise



When there has been very little snow the ski lifts are turned off and the mountains are quiet. This is when you realise the impact of winter sports.


In summer you hear cowbells.

Walking Down The Jura

Walking Down The Jura

Byrichard

View of La Dole and the limestone rock.


Today I woke up and instead of cycling up to see this view and have a meal I decided to do the opposite. I would walk down. Two or three summers ago I walked up and they took four or five hours. Walking down is much easier.


One or two bits are steep and my shoes lost traction. It wasn’t serious or life threatening. The ground is soft and the gradient is simply steep.


I went from around 20 degrees and cool at the top, with the feeling that I should wear an extra layer to warm up. As I descended i walked from a cold season to warm.


I miss walking in the mountains. I haven’t done such a walk in at least a year. It’s nice to be away from cars and other machines. It’s nice to be in the countryside/mountainside, in nature. I didn’t spot or hear any wildlife this time but it might be because I’m louder when I’m walking than when I’m cycling. I did see two or three people cycling up. I saw one person heading up with an electric bike. It’s amusing to see, because they’re going much faster than you would expect on a bike to go. It looks out of place to see a bike going up those roads so quickly.


During this walk I realised how good it would feel to walk for several days or weeks in a row. I don’t think that it would be wise to do so during a pandemic but I do think that it would be pleasant to do in the near future. In Europe you can walk either with, or without a tent, depending on the route. You could walk far without having to carry a few days of food with you. We’ll see.

Relaxing Cows – The Right Crowd To Be With During A Pandemic

Relaxing Cows – The Right Crowd To Be With During A Pandemic

Byrichard

During a pandemic it makes sense to go to the mountains and it makes sense to walk where you have space to the left and right to keep social distancing. Today I saw the cows near St Cergue and they were all sitting and relaxing, chewing the cud, waiting for the tourist day to open.



I haven’t been to the mountains much over the last four years because of the pandemic, a broken arm and for one summer no car. I say this but I did go up, on a bike. I have been up at least three or four times this year. I’ve been up to St Cergue via the safe road, la Barillette via the normal road, once, and up the steep La Rippe climb twice. It’s not that I don’t go to the mountains, it is that I do go up and going up is the workout, not what I do once at the top.


I avoid the mountains during the pandemic because I can’t avoid people on narrow paths that go up a mountain. I’d rather walk where the paths are wide and where I can observe adequate social distancing. As we see the pandemic is far from over and we must actively avoid being disease vectors, and falling sick. I’m fully vaccinated but News shows that we should not be lulled into a false and flawed sense of security.


I miss going to the mountains to do group activities every weekend but for that to be possible we need to get the delta variant to be dealt with, and we need for people to vaccinate. Society has opened up, before people were vaccinated, and before 14 days of zero new infections had elapsed.


The situation is bad enough for Anne Levy to say, “I’m worried”, but whether she will act on it, or just play lip service is not certain. In the eyes of many people the Swiss government should act now, rather than wait.


The sooner the pandemic ends, the sooner I can revert to writing adventure blog posts.

From Arnex to the Signal De Bougy and Back
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From Arnex to the Signal De Bougy and Back

Byrichard

Cycling from Arnex to the Signal de Bougy and back is a nice ride that takes you along the lake through the lower part of Nyon, Gland towards Rolle, and from Rolle up towards Perroy, Aubonne, Pizy, The Signal de bougy and back down on the other side.


View when you are almost at the Signal De Bougy
View when you are almost at the Signal De Bougy


This route can be ridden both ways. The direction I suggest is easier because the climbing, although physical from Rolle to Perroy levels off, The next challenge is up from Aubonne to the Signal De Bougy. This climb is physical, and you are exposed to cars.


When you’re at the top you pass by two large car parks, and you could stop and go into the Signal but I have never tried, after a bike ride, so I do not know where you could leave your bikes. I instead continue along the park, pass the golf course and then when I get to the end of the road I usually turn left and enjoy the downhill through the forest for one bit, and then the vineyards for the other.


The advantage of this route direction is that it’s downhill from the Signal De Bougy, almost all the way back to Nyon, or wherever you start this journey.


View towards Geneva
View towards Geneva


If you try the reverse route you will be climbing from Nyon to the Signal de Bougy on a road that can be quite busy and you will feel more fatigued. The part from Tartegnin up to the Signal De Bougy is physical so you need to have endurance.


If you try this route and you find that you have spare energy left over you can then continue towards Bière and either go up the Col De Marchairuz or the other col, cycle around the Vallée de Joux, and then come back down via St Cergue. That’s a 90 kilometre loop.





From Nyon to Vesancy
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From Nyon to Vesancy

Byrichard

In 2015, I was exploring on a mountain bike when I found a road above La Rippe that was closed to traffic, so I decided to explore it. I managed to cycle a certain distance before I met a rockfall blocking the road, so I had to turn back. I then tried again in 2018 and I got quite close to the top but decided to give up and turn around. Within the last three weeks or so I have attempted the ride again, and this time I have made it up not once, but twice.


The first time I attempted it this year, it was exploration. I used Komoot to set the destination point, and then I started cycling up. This ride is a challenge because it starts steep, and it stays steep almost the whole way up. I read a comment that once you get to 1200 meters it gets easier. That’s almost at the top of the climb.





It is easier to do this type of climb if you look at distance remaining, rather than altitude. It is the type of ride that you do one kilometre at a time. Every kilometre is earned. One nice aspect of this ride is that you have more wildlife. You hear rustling in the leaves, and you hear things scuttling around. I saw at least one Chamois, one snake and quite a few hikers. Hikers do not count as wildlife. You see some people walking upwards, and others walking downwards.


I like to find routes that either have very few cars, or no cars. Cars often drive too close and too far. The further we are from cars, the safer we are. It gives us the time to focus our attention on the effort and the challenge, rather than on safety. I wear normal shoes, rather than cycling shoes, for this climb. In a previous attempt I found that I wanted to stop but couldn’t, so I was stuck with continuing to climb until the gradient was gentler. That was not fun.


View of the Alps through the trees
View of the Alps through the trees


On this ride you have a good few of the Lac Léman as well as of the Alps and the Mont Blanc on the right day. When you get to what I consider the top there is nothing to do. I could go further and explore on the french side, but during a pandemic I prefer not to cross borders, especially on foot, with a bike on my back. I could go up on foot, and explore from the other side, and eventually link the two. In theory I can go up from La Rippe, over the top, across to the West of La Dole, rejoin La Cure, cycle to St Cergue and come down the fun road. We’ll see next summer.

Day 35 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – A Hike To La Barillette.

Day 35 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – A Hike To La Barillette.

Byrichard

Today I went for a Hike from La Barillette to La Barillette. It’s a shame that the restaurant wasn’t open to the public. It is currently marked as private, and scheduled to open on the first of May. Today I didn’t expect to do a long and physical hike. I expected to complete my usual daily tasks and then to go for the usual walks around where I live. In the end I did do such a hike, but it involved a slightly different geographic location.





The road to the top is currently closed to cars but sneaky motorbikes and cyclists can still head up the mountain. Plenty of cars were parked along the road by the first barrier. Instinctively I expected that we would see plenty of people walking up and down the road to La Dole but that wasn’t the case. The road was busy with cyclists.


Groups of up to five cyclists at a time headed up to the mountain. Some looked comfortable heading up, others looked okay, and some looked to be making an effort. I was surprised to see one person riding up that hill on a tandem and to see someone else ride up the hill on an electric bike pulling a child’s trailer. I couldn’t see a child in either the child seat or the trailer but that’s still quite a bit of extra weight to get up a mountain. Although that’s a nice distraction it isn’t the reason for this blog post.


Self-isolation means that we have to keep distant from other people but walking along paths with high traffic makes that complicated. For those with a little more energy and a lot of time the solution is to walk from the base of the Jura to the top. Initially the plan was to go up via the road but my curiousity got the better of me so I checked on Komoot to see whether I could take a side road up to the top and when I saw that this was possible I took advantage.





You follow the yellow and the Red and blue markers. We took one wrong turn so we had to scramble through some underbrush and climb up an even steeper incline. At least two or three trees have fallen across the path but they can all be avoided by going either side of them.


Hiking To La Dole


The trail is not used as frequently as others so navigation can sometimes be more challenging. It’s good to have some previous experience of navigating in this type of landscape. There are no sign posts and the red and blue and yellow markings are irregular. Without Komoot I would have explored more. I know that the aim is to reach the top, so from that aspect the goal is simple, but you could spend time wandering around without getting where you want to be.


Hiking To La Dole


During the walk you go from paths that are wide enough for cars to drive along where orienteering is easy to narrower paths where navigation is hard.


Hiking To La Dole


In Summer, when the restaurant is open this would be a good variant. I would have enjoyed having a fondue or Entrecôte at the top. As it so happens that’s my dinner, but prepared by myself rather than someone else.


Hiking To La Dole


Hiking To La Dole


For people who love flowers now is the ideal time to go up. You see plenty of these flowers growing in patches all over the top of the mountain. You need to go just as the snow finishes melting to see them at their best.


Less worried about the Virus.


By meeting up with someone to do an activity I went against my self-isolation rules. Two weeks ago when I was asked if I wanted to go for a bike ride I flatly said no. Now that the virus appears to be on the decline and that the number of cases is dropping I am being less aggressive about my self-isolation. I still give as much distance between myself and others. We also met using two scooters, rather than catching the same car. When I was asked if I wanted to stop for a coffee I had to say no.


People were having a big song and dance about how we shouldn’t call it social distancing because social distancing has negative connotations. Today I wanted to say yes, and I wanted to get back to normal but I couldn’t because the rules are still in place and we’re not in the clear yet. Let me point out that this is day 35 of not having a conversation within normal conversation distance, or of a handshake or a hug. It would be nice to be able to say yes to all of these things.


People, in big families, will never understand what living through a pandemic, is like for people living alone.When we get the green light to meet people again we should celebrate, not by going to a bar but by going on a hike.


That’s it for today.

A walk Above the Woods
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A walk Above the Woods

Byrichard

Sometimes a walk above the woods is easy. I don’t mean walking while flying hanging from a parapente. I mean walking at an altitude where there are fewer trees.


The walk from the transmission mast of La Bariellette to La Dôle is an easy walk that I have done many times. Sometimes I have done it at dusk. Sometimes I have done it with snow and sometimes I have done it when I was walking through clouds. Usually people do it when the weather is nice



There are two routes. One Route is safe for children, dogs and people who are not used to exposed paths. It is on the Jura side. The other option is more dangerous because the path is not maintained. If you slip you could fall to your death. There are no ropes, cables or chains to hold onto. When the dangerous option is wet it is slippery.


Today the weather was nice but the visibility was crap compared to what I have experienced on other walks. We couldn’t see the Alps, for example.


It’s amusing because on this walk I heard a lot of English spoken. Usually you hear a lot of French as French speakers enjoy the walk. The only wildlife I saw on this walk were groups of birds going after insects. They were feasting. With good weather the wildlife like to hide from human attention.


This was day five of week three of the Escape plan. I have easily managed to reach the goal as I do fifteen minutes or more of exercise every single day.



The walk to La Dôle is a good way of getting exercise because of how much walking you have to do uphill one way and how much walking you have to do going the other way. If you feel ambitious you can walk from Nyon to La Dôle and from La Dôle down to St Cergue. In St Cergue you can catch the train back down. I have only done the long variant once.


Walking from La Barillette to La Dôle is a seasonal walk. It can only be done when the road to the top is open. As soon as the snow comes the road closes to ordinary traffic and it is cut off from the world. In Winter you would need to do it with snowshoes and the walk would be considerably longer.


This is a nice walk to do during a day off or during the weekend. Some people even use the routes to practice trail running. It’s a 8km circuit and will definitely give you a workout. For walkers it is a nice walk to a nice viewpoint to see the bassin Lemanic.

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On thermal inversions

Byrichard

Thermal inversions are a great part of life in valleys. Whilst you’re living down in the glacial trough you’re waking up every morning to the knowledge that you won’t see the sun for the next few days… until the wind shifts.

If you’ve got the time during daylight hours though you have the option of going up to the mountains. It’s at this point that you can enjoy the sun. As you walk in the Jura at the moment you’ll find that there are long plaques of ice and they’re slippy whilst in direct sunlight. In the shade traction from normal shoes is possible and walking is not that complicated.

There are different types of ice, that which is transparent, where you see the leaves and other objects, that which is white, from too much oxygen and then the mixture where it’s a little of both.

Many families were walking today, some were struggling and others treated the landscape like a giant playground. Some people spoke French, others, German, Italian, Spannish and more. It was international.

Sometimes when I walk there are hardly any sounds and it’s good, a break from London and student life.