Autumn bike ride up to my favorite mountain lake, Lac de Taney

Today was a foggy, moist, cold Sunday by the lake (I mean Lac Leman) but very sunny just off it throughout the valley of the Rhone river. So I put my bike on the train and went for a very intense ride up. Climbing around 1000 m to reach my favorite mountain lake around here: Lac de Taney, at 1400 m.a.s.l. in the neighbor canton of Valais. Come follow my ride in these photos!

Here I have just arrived in Vouvry, where the ride began. The river you see here is the Rhone, which brings water from the Swiss Alps through Swiss lands and then French lands to finally die in the Mediterranean. You see it’s very sunny here, while in the back a layer of fog covers Lac Leman.

Right off every train station here, there are signs that tell bikers what way to go. Here for example, routes 1 and 120 cross by. But I didn’t take any of them. In fact, the purpose of this picture is to show you where I’m headed. That’s the mountain pass in the center of the photo.

Another photo to show you where I’m going. You see in this shot two main passes: a broad one on the left, and a sharper one on the right. I’m going to cross the second, which hides a gem of a lake behind.

Soon the last remains of fog evaporate and the sky gets super blue, a color that contrasts with the deep green grass and the hues of autumn.

I started my ride up through a very steep slope that then became milder. I got stunning views throughout the whole ride…

The last part of the trail is a route open only to 4x4 vehicles (plus hikers and a few bikers like me) as it is made of pebble and climbs the mountain steeply through the forest (an asphalted route leads to the beginning of the 4x4-only route, where hikers can park their non-4x4 cars and hike just from there or call a 4x4 taxi!):

This is the kind of views I had on the side of my route when the forest was less dense or had some open spaces:

Around 1 hour and half into the ride, I needed a break. I stopped for some hot tea with homemade cookies. Delicious and rewarding!

A further 30–40 minutes riding up (well actually just walking and pushing the bike…!) I crossed the pass and reached the plateau where the lake sits:

It was a bit windy and kind of cold, so I kept moving. I biked slowly but continuously around the lake taking shots from different locations that give you a good idea of what the area looks like:

The tour around the lake is beautiful. In summer, full of flowers and nice views of the lake, as it gets more sun. In a day of autumn, like today, it looks very different but lovely too.

Ending the tour around the lake, I went towards the small town of Taney, which consists of just maybe 20–30 houses including a couple of refuges where you can rest, dine, and even sleep. I’ve stayed to sleep in these places several times, all in summer. It’s amazing because you are fully disconnected from civilization, as there is barely some mobile phone signal and almost no internet connectivity.

Now a view towards the lake, from Taney:

This is the tiny town of Taney. Just some chalets (it snows a lot here in winter) in the middle of a small valley around the stream that feeds the lake. Around the town, it’s all steep mountains and forest.

As attested by the yellow signs, several interesting hiking trails depart from Taney. I will cover my favorites in future stories. Some will probably need to wait until next summer; while for others I already have material.

I last went to one of the two local refuges/restaurants to get some calories. Some local, hot soup was mandatory because the mountains started to block the sun as it shifted west, making the temperature drop suddenly.

After this supper and warm-up, I began the ride back down towards the valley of the Rhone river, and from there back home. Again, stunning views all along:

Down there in the Rhone valley, the Dents du Midi (snowed peaks in the back) greet me. The return of the fog marks that the afternoon is close to its end.

I start riding toward the train station, still some 15 km away. The trees down here have already lost their leaves, now only decorated by the nests of the many birds that inhabit the area (Update thanks to Inge E. Knudsen: No! Although it is true that there are many birds in the area, just very few of these things you see in the picture are nests… In fact, most of them are mistletoe plants! Actually the European mistletoe, Viscum album.)

I’m extenuated. I biked around 1 km up in two hours, with food and extra clothes because I knew it was going to be cold up there if the sun vanished. I then biked down, which wasn’t physically demanding but the air felt very cold. And I last rode 15 km in a flat surface. Good that I’m now at home.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this photo story and felt like you were riding all along with me.

I let you read a story of special relevance here because you get to see some of the same mountains I presented here, but from a different angle:

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