Mountain Biking Adventure

Today is our last full day at the Crans-Montana resort. There was a bit of a snafu with our bike tour (something about an exploded tire on their van) so it was pushed back from 10 to noon. We used the extra time to spend a little time at the gym, and then just hung around on our balcony reading or staring out at the mountains.

Our guide did indeed arrive around noon, and had the bikes all set up and ready to go. We got a quick demo on how to operate the electric-assist, change gears, and raise/lower the seat on the fly. A moment later we were off. We made our way back towards the area we had hiked yesterday and began to climb.

We demonstrated ourselves competent hikers yesterday, and we were determined to match that performance on our bikes. Unfortunately, fate had other plans. I started us off by getting stuck on our very first steep rocky hill, at a pitch where remounting the bike was nearly impossible without flipping backwards. I managed to pull it together after relearning how to manage the gear+assist-level combo, and then immediately managed to tumble over while attempting to hop my front wheel into a bridge a staggering 3" off the ground.

Laura took over the struggle from there, as the loose rock caused nerve-wracking slippage and the narrow turns left us stopping and starting with some regularity.

Still, we made through our 3 hour journey in one piece and largely in good spirits, if somewhat wounded (pride or scraped). We also got up close to waterfalls and a herd of cows. Laura drove through a cow pie, but I one upped her by planting my foot firmly in one while attempting to photo a cute calf. Worth it!

We stopped in town to grab some cold beers and snacks as a reward for the day's exertion, which we slammed down before spending the pre-dinner hours at the pool once again. We were pretty well exhausted, but also looking forward to the main attraction of our stay at the resort -- a chef's table dinner at the michelin starred restaurant. Look forward to Laura's write up of our dinner.Read more