Changing times

Being show around Valais trails for a change

People I've been riding with recently have been talking about the Emosson to Martigny trail and how good it is. Me and Tom had been up there in June to ride the first half of the trail and loved it. blogged here. So I was keen to get back.

I wasn't keen to get up after a late night in Amnesia, but knew that the road climb from Finahut would sort me and Jarno out. 1 1/2 hours spinning wasn't too bad. Luckily the trail is great form the beginning, even if it undulates and you often have to get off your bike for a quick push up. It still kind of flows, in a 'flow-tech' kind of way.

The views looking down towards Martigny and Sion were still great. The trail really gets going after about 3 kilometres. Basically from the Emosson the trail traverses North-Eastwards constantly hugging the mountainside to your left, and always with a big drop down to your right. It's another one of those trails with everything in, slow and technical to dream like pine needle loam that you can hit flat out.

The section into Tretien reminded me of Stella Artur over by Albertville. Loamy, fast and huge grin inducing!

We crossed the train line and could hear a train in the distance. What shall we do, it was already getting late. It's autumn now and you can really notice the day light is running out sooner. I was told we'd ridden the best bits so why not get a cheaper train journey back to Finhaut. So we jumped on the train, which was a great as ever, also hugging the mountain side. And even better we didn't have to pay to go the one stop up the train line.

So not quite all the way to Martigny, that'll have to wait another year. A kind of best of Emosson-Martigny.

Note to self: Must explore more Valais trails next year...

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