Our first bikepacking trip

The route

We wanted to figure out a route that would fulfill a few different criteria:

• It had to be not too long, but not too short either -- 30-40k per day is plenty.
• It had to end up at a wild-camping spot -- it's just part of the fun
• It couldn't be up or down anything too steep -- pushing a loaded bike can't be fun.
• It had to start and finish at home -- no point driving anywhere when you live where we do.
• It had to be a loop -- out and back seems a bit boring.
• It had to be mostly off-road.

With all these considerations, we plotted a route similar to something I'd done on a big day out earlier in the month (sans baggage that time). This ride differed as it had an added loop to find a camp spot.

Day 1

We started off as easy as possible round here: down hill on the family friendly river trail to St Jean d'Aulps. From there we climbed up and over the Col du Corbier: a steady 400m tarmac climb. Then, after the first few hairpins, we pieced together an off-road descent into the valley below. We quickly learned that fully laden bikes and our (lazy?) reliance on dropper posts (that neither of our hardtails had) meant that just the slight increase of gradient and technicality made for an eye opening ride.

From the valley floor we had an 800m climb, again mostly tarmac'd to our camp spot for the night. We arrived in plenty of time to scope out our pitch, and learn that we really should have packed some salty post ride snacks!

The camp spot was great, we had the alpage to ourselves, and sun until 8pm or so.

Day 2

After "breakfast", we packed up and had our first taste of a bit of portage, bikepacking style. There was a short but steep path over a nearby col (only 100m or so vertical) that would allow us to keep to the plan and avoid any out & back routes. On the map at least, the trail after the col looked ridable and took us down to actual breakfast (a café/boulangerie in La Chapelle d'Abondance). It was a gamble that didn't pay off - the trail the other side was pretty eroded, and whilst it might have been a pretty challenging bit of singletrack on the proper bikes with no bags, it wasn't one for bikepacking down. However, it was under 1km long, so no big deal.

From there on down we were on 4x4 tracks to the aforementiond breakfast stop. After that a ride round past Chatel and up into the still closed chatel bike park and to Col Bassachaux. Down to lindarettes via one of the best singletracks in the Portes du Soleil. We were back on home turf by now, down to Lac Montriond, round to Morzine and home. Complete with a new found love for all things bike packing.