Day 15: It's All Downhill From Here (Not!)

Pre-pre-Post note: We're enjoying the comments on the blog! Thanks all

Pre-Post Note: Sorry for the lack of photos, Matt's phone died.

Today could be described as epic. Nate seems to enjoy planning 100km+ days with just under a mile of vertical gain. To be fair, we are camping around 1000 meters lower than we did last night, so you'd think we'd have an easier day, but the Swiss seem to enjoy bringing their bike routes up to tiny little mountain towns. A little teaser to entice you to read the rest, the day included a beautiful mountain pass, some older Americans who were traveling by bike the right way, a graceful fall over the handlebars by Mark, a washed out road and interesting detour, cursing Switzerland for it's insane bike paths and finally a water park.

The day started with a nice wake up at 8am. The grocery store was closed all Sunday, so Mark biked to the store to pickup strudel, bananas, and bread for breakfast. Forgetting that the grocery stores here require you to weigh your own produce, a nice line built up at the cash register while the cashier walked through the store to weigh the bananas.

By 9am we were on the road, and heading to Furka Pass. It took us around three hours of grueling climbing to go up the 1000 meters to the pass, Matt doing a beautiful job of setting a pace all the way up. The views at the top, however, were stupendous. And, bragging rights, we didn't see any other cyclist with touring bikes going up and over the pass.

At the top we ran into a group of three Americans from Boston. They, unlike us, were just riding light road bikes, and called the climb was just did a "moderate" climb. Okay, whatever. They were just doing circles from towns they were staying in, and took the train from town to town. Not a bad idea, we'll keep that in the books for next time. They all liked the bikes though, and were impressed that we were going over Furka Pass fully loaded.

After the top came out reward, the ride down. We absolutely flew down the hill (we're all pretty happy with our choice of disc brakes after today.) At this point, we were all pretty sure that it was all downhill into Visp, but we couldn't of been more wrong.

On the way down we made a quick stop at a glacier. They charged 7 francs to get in so Mark refused due to religious reasons but big spenders Matt and Nate paid to get in. We're pretty sure this is was the set for Hoth from Star Wars since due to the tunnels the Swiss have carved through the ice.

The next town we hit after Furka pass was Oberwald, and from there we started up again. The route took us up and down along the river. We'd climb up to a small mountain town, then fly back down into the valley, and then up again to the next mountain town. We were thoroughly annoyed.

Finally we reached a town with a a sign pointing to Briggs, the big town next to where we were staying. Nate launched down the road but Matt dutifully stopped him as a pointed to the bike sign the pointed up another road. We all wish he hadn't said anything. Right below the sign, there was a warning sign, but it was all in German so we just ignored it and continued down the road, which turned into a single lane road, which turned into a dirt road, which turned into a two track. Pretty soon we were on a mountain biking trail, and flying down a steep ravine. Someone needs to talk to the Swiss about what constitutes a touring trail.

At the bottom of the steep hill, there was a bridge to cross the stream and start up the other side. That was all fine and dandy, but at the bridge, and on either side were a group of young adults (were pretty sure they were Italian) just hanging out resting in the shade. Nate and Matt both craftfully executed a full stop, hopped of the bike and walked their bikes across the bridge. Mark, however, opted for a more complicated approach, choosing to crash his front pannier into a rock on the side of the trail, and with his bike flipping over the handle bars, unclippped his feet from the pedals, jumped off the bike clearing the handle bars and landed on his feet. Ten points all around. (Well, except for the Russian judge, but the lowest score is dropped.)

After that fiasco, bikes were pushed up the trail on the far side of the bridge, got on the bikes when the trail flattened out a little, and proceeded to our next obstacle. About ten minutes later down the trail, we ran into a full construction barrier blocking the road. At this point we decided it was worth our time to translate the German warning signs. This one was pretty simple, "hikers take bypass trail, bikers not passable". That's what they think. After some exploration (turns out a mudslide has taken out a good portion of the road, Nate and Mark seem to be running into that a lot recently) it was decided that we'd hike our bikes along the bypass trail, because there was no way we were going back over the bridge to the last town. Nate went first opting to just go for it and push his entire bike up the trail. Matt and Mark opted to carry panniers up first, and then come backs for the bikes.

After pushing/carrying/falling with our bikes up the trail, we all made it back to the real bike routes, and with great relief, rode the trail all the back down to the valley and began to see signs for Visp!

From this point forward we were sure that it was all downhill to Visp, and would be cruising down to the campsite. This time, we were right about the downhill, but the wind picked up and the final hour was brutal as the wind seemed to buffet us back a half meter for every meter we made. At this point, the sun was brutal, and the temperatures were in the mid 80s. We were all ready to be done.

After a little bit of searching in Visp, we found the campsite around 5pm, and much to Nate's and Matt's delight it was right next to a water park. Even better, camping here is much cheaper than most of Switzerland (28 CHF a night for all of us) and the water park entrance was included in the price! We think the camp host felt bad for us and gave us a discount.

We ran (okay, walked very slowly) to the local Coop (a Swiss/European grocery chain) to pickup dinner. Turns out the place we found on Google maps was actually the Coop corporate headquarters and not a grocery store. Luckily, there was a Migros (think Walmart/IKEA) right next store, so we went there and picked up dinner, breakfast, and cookies. We're now following the rule, whatever you think we're going to eat, double it, because we never feel like we're eating enough.

After our errand run, Nate and Matt went swimming and Mark began to investigate where to get new biking shoes. The sole on one of his shoes has almost fallen completely off. With in 15 minutes, Matt and Nate were back because the water was so cold, and Mark figured out that the bike store he wanted to go to was closed on Monday. So we cooked dinner (burritos, yum) ate our cookies, and then moved to hangout next to the outlet to use the wifi and charge our phones.

We will all sleep well tonight, and tomorrow we will take the train up to Zermatt where we will spend 3 days without touring (sounds like heaven right now.)

To close, we will leave you with a song composed by Nate with help from Matt. This song is a tribute to the last 6 days of our trip, and sung to the tune of the 12 days of Christmas:

On the 5th day of our trip the Swiss gave to us,
5 nights of camping,
4 days of biking,
3 mountain passes,
2 sore legs,
And beer (or a few) waiting for me