Today I’m treating my readership with the GPS track of my favorite Chasseral loop. Although there are still a few remaining patches of snow covering the highest peak of the Canton of Berne, I felt it was little enough, to be able to ride the rocky trail leaving the peak along the eastern ridge. Saturday began with a bright blue sky. WeatherDock on my MacBook Pro reported 8 degrees at 7.00 AM. Plenty warm enough to leave the house without arm and knee warmers. A quick breakfast later, I was on my way hitting the first climb above a sparkling lake Biel. In all the years riding the secret trail above the lake, another rider pulled up to me when I had to climb across a fallen tree. The first biker I’ve ever seen on this trail and I told him so. “Yeah, you’re the first bike rider I met on here as well”, he replied. On the following ascent to Magglingen I eased my normal singlespeed tempo and chatted with the other rider for a while. He was on a more trail oriented Lapierre fully and was riding an easy pace of the trail known locally as the “Psycho”. He had a short ride planned. Magglingen was as far as he was going today. Our ways went separate directions, when I left the “Psycho” in favor of a more difficult single-trail. Later, when I rode along the Kurhausweg we waved at each other when crossed path one more time. My Twannberg, Lamboing, Nods to Les Prés-d’Orvin route was business as usual with the exception that it has begun to look a whole lot greener everywhere around. On the wide open pastures in the valley connecting Nods and Prés-d’Orvin, thousands of daffodils add yellow to the mix. I got a chuckle out of an older hiking couple, when I jumped of my bike landing on my belly, camera planted in front of my face to photograph those flowers. At the Métairie de Prêles I followed the hiking trail up the the mountain ridge. This trail passes by a herd of buffalos, but this time of the year, they were grazing somewhere else. As it reaches the crest, the trail becomes difficult to ride at times due to its steepness combined with lots of large, loose rocks. A quick downhill from there I pointed my front wheel in direction of the Métairie du Milieu de Bienne riding across grass that had been sleeping under snow not so long ago. Holy cow, the rolling resistance was easily double the normal amount. I had a long way of grass riding to go to reach the Chasseral, so I made sure not to waste too much of energy. From La Neuve the remaining few miles to the peak are on pavement. On the short flat stretch I prepared myself for the last steep climb to the antenna. I went into the climb slowly, climbed more slowly than usual, but then put the hammer down the last quarter of the way. The Chasseral was almost empty - a hiker and a couple with a Zurich dialect on identical Rocky Mountains that had come up the road - no one else. I left the Chasseral heading east along the crest, enjoying this fantastic piece of trail for the first time this year. This trail has some rocky sections at times and I come to realize that I love this type of challenge a lot these days. This also means though, that the bike and especially the parts lowest to the ground - the cranks - will be suffering from the occasional contact with the local limestone, which fortunately is a soft type of stone. Once close to Prés-d’Orvin, I bombed down the hiking trail bringing me to another local favorite - the Spaghetti Trail. I hit this one as usual, but had to put my foot down once over a rocky plate that had just too many leafs for my tires to grip. As I tilted my handlebar to the left sliding down the limestone rock, my WTB Prowler slipped. My left foot on the ground was the only thing stopping it from slipping further. The Jorat, a last effort up to Evilard and I was back home in Biel. So for anyone interested in a good loop to the Chasseral and back, here’s the track on GPSies.com.
| Distance: | 55km (34 miles) |
| Total Climb: | 1730m (5680 feet) |
| GPS Track: | GPSies.com |
