Day 10: Up and over the pass

Today started with Matt running to the bike shop to get a new back brake cable installed after we learned it's difficult to shove a cable back down the tubing.

Thankfully the bike mechanic was a nice Scottish man (so he spoke English!) and was able to repair the cable in 30 mins. Though it didn't solve the problem with the back brake, he suggested that just applying some grease would make it go away. We'll report back on that tomorrow.

With just an hour delay we were on the road at 9:45 heading to Chur. The first excitement happened just 10 km out, with Mark skillfully bobbing and weaving through a heard of cows (some of which were excited to see one another...).

Chur is in the Rhine Valley and requires biking through a pass. It was a 625 meter climb that seemed to be quite popular with the local bikers and didn't have much traffic. It was a grinding climb, but we all got great pics at the top so worth it.

The downhill was a blast. We reached speeds of 60 km/hr (but we were safe Dad!). Besides one more small climb the rest of the ride was mostly downhill. We went about 100 km today but probably 75 km were riding downhill.

The scariest part of the trip wasn't the hills but the two 1km long tunnels the route put us through on a 60 km/hr road without a shoulder. We pumped hard to make it through that!

The descent offered some great views but we were going to fast to take pictures so we just have a couple.

We're in the tent down, about to snooze. Tomorrow we're up for another climb (these alps seem to be pretty hilly). It's a beautiful campsite though so it makes it all worth it.