Val Susauna - Val Funtauna - Val da Ravais-ch - Val Tuors

A many-valley mountain bike tour -- crossing from the Engadin to Graubünden linking together four splendid valleys. Amazing scenery, difficult trails, flat tires, broken shocks, it was all there. Started in the beautiful village of Susauna with a home made pie and coffee -- finished in Bergün with pizza and beer like every good tour should.

Starting out up Val Susauna along the gorgeous Vallember

Val Funtauna

Molly cranking up Val Funtauna -- the trails were trickier than they look... 

Friends

Rising above Val Funtauna with Piz Kesch in the background

some carrying of bikes was required

Looking back down Val Funtauna

at Sela da Ravais-ch

Molly dropping down the twisty singletrack along Lai da Ravais-ch

Molly crushing the trails despite the broken rear shock... 

exiting Val da Ravais-ch

Aspen to Snowmass and back on mountain bikes

I've been thinking about this ride for over a year now. During my last year's visit to Aspen I had grand aspirations of epic mountain bike rides, but in the end I ended up bouldering every chance I got. Our plans this year have been partially foiled by incredibly foul weather, but this past saturday we finally managed to rent some sweet bikes and head out of town. The ride took us out of Aspen up the aptly named Radar Road above the airport, to an amazing little ridge trail on Skyline ridge. The perfectly smooth singletrack was made a little spicier with some steep climbs, but the descent down the awesome switchbacks on the Viewline trail was amazing: dusty, twisty, fast, singletrack bliss!

We had grand ambitions of squeezing in another trail, the Rim trail, before heading to the main event -- the unfortunately-named Government trail that connects Snowmass to Aspen. As soon as we started dropping down toward Snowmass however, the skies darkened and we could see numerous thunderstorms in the distance. The Rim trail would have had us riding on a ridge for 8 miles, so we decided against it... instead we hoped to evade a downpour in Snowmass village proper and dropped down to the road. A lunch, a rainshower, and some navigational issues later, we were heading up the Wood road on the edge of the Snowmass ski area, through some ridiculous holiday home neighborhoods and finally, up to the beginning of the famed Government trail.

The first sections were a little rocky, but we found them just hard enough to be fun. The trail really deserves its classic status, taking you through lush aspen groves, creeks, fields of wildflowers and beautiful forests on perfect singletrack almost the entire way. The final descent through the Buttermilk is incredible! Fast, steep, windy and rooty it keeps you behind your saddle surrounded by tall grass and trees that sometimes come very close to the handlebars... An awesome day in the hills!

As an aside: I've gotta say that the new MTBProject site (an offshoot of mountainproject.com) is awesome! Best of all, you can download the free maps to your phone and use them offline... very very cool. Go check it out.

Molly wished that one of the many private jets at Aspen airport would whisk her off to the top of the hill... 

Finally tasting the famous Colorado singletrack!

beautiful ridge and endless trail in front of us

all smiles... :) (if you look close you can see the rain showers in the background)

Descending the Viewline trail through wild sage brush

the start of the Government Trail!

awesome curvy singletrack through aspen groves... (rare shot of me -- thanks Molly!)

more aspen groves...

pretty wildflowers

battle wounds

dreamy trail

tough legs and fragile flowers

Molly coming out of one of the fun sections on the Buttermilk side

beautiful wild grasses everywhere... and Molly ripping it up!

On top of the Jura (Chasseral ride)

Chasseral is the highest peak of the Jura mountains in Switzerland, towering above lake Biel... well it's really a long, rather beautiful ridge and less of a tower. But there is a tower on top and it's rather ugly. The roundtrip ride from Biel is a bit painful at over 50 km and somewhere between 1600-1800m of total ascent. The other unfortunate thing is that a large part of the ascent is on paved road with a fair number of cars because as it turns out the giant tower on top of Chasseral is something of a tourist attraction.

the road to Chasseral winds through a beautiful forest

But what makes the 30km of "approach" worth it is the more than 15 km of trail that takes you all the way to the end of the ridge. The beginning is rough and rocky with some fun and fast open sections, but all the while you pass through serene meadows full of wildflowers.

Descending from Chasseral -- yes, it was cold. Yes it was also late July. 

Passing through meadows below the top of Chasseral

Molly making friends

Molly after almost 40km of mountain biking

Molly insisted on taking some shots of me... 

Attitude

There are lots of ups and downs until Le cabane du Jura hut -- but after that the trail weaves down a gentle gradient through the forest toward Frinvillier, turning into really tight singletrack in high grass at times. A really amazing treat after a day of hard work! We were running a bit late so we skipped the really steep last section down to Frinvillier proper and instead bailed down a road to Orvin and from there back to Biel. In Biel we found a lovely restaurant that served deliciously fresh food in the old part of town to finish off the day. A really memorable ride, highly recommended!

Molly lost in the wildflowers

Molly the wildflower

beautiful forest trail toward Frinvillier

ps: I took my 10-22 mm wide angle and a 50 mm prime with me on this trip -- first time I went into the mountains without my regular mid-range zoom. Even though the 50mm prime is the low-cost version (though it's amazing because it weighs nothing) I think the picture quality is far superior to my zoom. When shooting moving subjects the zoom tends to get in the way and I can't focus on composition as much so the prime was a nice relief. I think it'll definitely find its way to my pack again (thanks Axel for letting me borrow it!)

Jackson, Wyoming (on mountain bikes)

Molly and I visited Jackson for a little while and while there one of my main wishes was to go mountain biking... this is where I tasted real mountain biking for the first time a few years ago and I was hooked immediately. The trails are incredible, and many of them start straight from town. 

Ditch-Creek to Horsetail Creek trail

We rented some sweet 29ers from Fitzgerald's who have now actually moved to Victor, ID -- we're loyal customers I guess. Our first ride started right from Keith and Meagan's in Kelly and across some flatlands onto the Ditch Creek road on the east side of Shadow mountain. We thought the ride would be relatively easy, if fairly long, because of not much elevation gain... but once the singletrack started we were faced with meadow after meadow full of snowmelt mud and mosquitoes. The going was tough... the temps were pretty high but luckily Keith remembered to bring a water filter (and bug repellent!) so we could refill the bladders. The Ditch Creek trail transitions into Horsetail Creek trail where the fun starts -- amazing downhill section of perfect, smooth singletrack with some steep bits to grab your attention. It weaves through beautiful forest and you quickly forget the mosquito-infested mud holes of just 1 hour or so before... jacked up on adrenaline, the beer, which magically appeared from underneath Keith's truck, tasted better than ever. Here's the track:

riding out from Kelly with the Tetons in the background

Beautiful wilderness...

fun little trail to connect to Ditch Creek 

We were pretty sure that fun was just around the corner... oh how wrong we were

Pleasant little trail through the meadows

amazing view of the valley -- we were pretty sure fun was just around the corner

finally, the downhill singletrack we were promised!

Sink-or-Swim to Hagen to Putt-putt trail

We had a 2-day rental so the next day I devised an "easy" loop for me and Molly, stringing together three different trails right out of the town of Jackson. We basically traversed the entire north side of Snowking, starting with the Sink-or-Swim trail, linking into the Hagen trail and ending up on the Cache Creek road to get to the start of Putt-putt trail to return to town. After the previous day's 20-miles we wanted to do something easy so I put together a long-ish route that had multiple bail-out options if we got tired. These trails are amazing given how close to town they are and how much they get used -- really fun singletrack essentially the entire way! The trails meander through sage brush, pine forest, and the putt-putt trail even goes through an occasional aspen grove or two. Halfway through I had the unfortunate experience of having my rear wheel pop off (!?) -- I didn't even think that was possible. Next time, I'll definitely double-check the quick-release when using a rental bike... luckily nothing really happened (i.e. I didn't break my face) except that I mangled the chain pretty badly so the gears kept skipping for the rest of the ride (Fitzgerald's also didn't charge me for anything... not that it was my fault, but still a lesser shop could have been stupid about it). Still, the flowy single-track on Putt-putt was as awesome as I remembered (it was one of the first mountain bike trails I had ridden) except this time I was going much faster (full-suspension) and didn't fear for my life (I've gained some skill since the first time I guess).

Molly on the way up to Sink-or-Swim

Molly cranking through the beautiful forest on the sink-or-swim trail

coming down Hagen

One of the taxing uphill sections on Putt-putt

great trail with great views