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

Today started out with a climb out of the campsite. Then a climb out of Disentis. Then a climb up to Oberalp Pass. In total, we climbed about 800 meters. The 500 meter descent into Andermatt was a well earned blast.

On the climb we met a great guy from Switzerland (but his dad is from England so his English was really good). He told us that he hiked the other way over the pass from Andermatt to see his girl friend in Disentis and then is biking back today. That's dedication! (To the girlfriends out there reading the blog, it's up in the air if we would do the same. Hopefully Uber is a thing <3).

We arrived at the campsite around noon and grabbed some lunch and beers. The campsite is located right outside of Andermatt which is a beautiful little town.

Mark and Matt decided to go to a mass tonight. They weren't really sure when it was but the bells give you a 5 minute warning so we used them as our trigger. Turns out they have a 6:30pm mass.

For those of you wondering, if you've ever been to church and afterwards couldn't tell anyone what the homily was about or what the readings were, you've experienced a mass in German.

On an exploration of the city, Mark ran into the local school. They have an awesome playground with a slack line and a climbing wall.

The tents all set up and the sun is setting, so we're off to bed. There is a rain storm over the next ridge that is slowly making its way over so we can expect some rain tonight but it's beautiful now.

In order to stay cool last night, we decided no fly would've necessary on the tent. This was a great idea until 5:30am when the sun rose and beat down on our tent. No one was able to sleep past 8:30, Matt got up just to put sunscreen on.

After a lazy European breakfast of bread, cheese, and meat, Matt set out to find another bike shop to figure out what was going on with his back brake. The grease and new cable did not do the trick.

There is one bike shop and town and the mechanic barely spoke English. After he replaced the brake cable once again (after a failed attempt to explain it had already been done) he noticed the housing for the brake lever was bent a little and the brake lever was catching on that. Problem solved!!

On his way back Matt ran into the rest of the gang and they headed into town for the day. The only highlight of the town is a Benedictine abbey. It's a huge abbey (one of the largest in Europe) and has a beautiful church inside. True to Benedictine culture, there were no priests in sight.

After a quick lap through the abbey, we tried to find some lunch. Nate wanted more Donner Kabab (big surprise there) but Matt was getting pretty sick of Donner and wanted something different. So we began a search...

... and ended up at a Donner place. Thankfully there were other items on the menu for Matt.

We met a couple nice guides/carpenters (guide by winter, carpenter by summer) who gave us a couple great places to checkout on our route. It seems like half the people in this town work in construction, and construction on the roads is worse than Ann Arbor.

The rest of the day was filled with beers by the river and cooking dinner.

It turns out that this river is a popular place for panning for gold and there were many people here looking. We met a nice man from Holland who is using part of his holiday to fulfill a childhood dream of finding gold. He was going to leave today but claims he might have found something so best of luck to him!

Tomorrow is a long and grueling climb over another pass and then down to Andermatt!

This morning we woke to the peaceful sound artillery fire (our campsite was right next to a Swiss military facility.)

Nate and Mark rode into Chur to pick up some more vitamin I for Nate (has he talked about how old he is lately) and a spoon and some glue for Mark (shoe is coming apart.) Matt held his post at the campground charging phones in the bathroom. By 10:00, we were already to leave, and we started our ride up the Rhein Valley (not sure if I spelled that right.)

After a full day of downhill yesterday, starting back uphill was grueling. Luckily, the first part of the ride was on a slight grade, and fairly easy.

However, as the valley narrowed, we began some serious climbs. The Swiss seem to like bringing the bike route up to every little mountain town. At times it felt that they used the valley as a giant half pipe, biking down one side and the up the other as we continued up the valley.

Are original destination today was Ilanz, but we made it there by noon and so found a local place to have lunch, and continued to Desentis. We made it here by 4, grabbed dinner at the local grocery store, and then biked down to campsite, setup, and cooked dinner. It's not even 9 yet, and we're all ready for bed.

Tomorrow we have a rest day. We'll go up to into town, and figure out something to do. No plans yet. We're all getting ready for our ride up and over to Andermatt in two days. Should be an intense ride.

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.