Two People, Two Dogs, Ten Bikes: MT bike Riding in France.

I left my hotel this morning about 12 minutes before my train to Montrejeau was to depart. I walked outside to find that it was lightly drizzling, which gave me a second excuse to run to the station.

I was able to make it in time, and actually ended up on the correct train, and didn't get thrown off when the billet guy came around.

As we got closer to the mountains, I got so excited, I couldn't help but take pictures of them out of the train window although they were hardly distinquishable amonst the clouds. However, as the train progressed, it started raining heavier and heavier. Somehow, it wasn't raining when I arrived in Montrejeau. Chris of pyractif picked me up from the train station and took me to the beautiful house that they run as a hotel/ bike rental place. I was super stoked on the place...especially since Chris had been so helpful to set me up last minute.

Their house was awesome, and both Chris and his wife Helen were super nice and helpful-- I hope to someday go back and visit them for more than a day (and of course, do plenty of cycling while I'm there).

Chris described the local mountain bike routes and the local Col climbs as well. The call of being able to ride some of the climbs that are featured in the Tour de France as well as the spectacular views that accompany them were tempting, but I stuck my original plan to ride the trails, so Chris hooked me up with a steed for the day, a helmet, spare tubes, a pump, a couple energy bars, a detailed map of the area, a rain jacket and a back pack to carry everything in....and even some spare cash hidden inside the backpack.

I hadn't brough my shoes and pedals, so I rode in my tennis shoes and some toe clips. It was quite interesting: every time I stopped and got off the bike, I found myself "clipping out" (twisting my foot out of the pedal which you need to do to release from 'clipless' pedals...which are, strangely, the ones you actually clip into).

The ride was quite a bit of road riding, actually, or connecting dirt roads with paved roads, pretty much. After only about 5-10 minutes of riding, I was to climb to Mont de Galie, a 3 km climb at about a 9% grade.

I was super-stoked at the u switch backs that you see so often in European tours, and even more stoked to see some of thedown-hill looking single track that crossed the road frequently. I rode part way up the hill, and came down some of the single track to check it out. It burned having to go back up the climb again, though.

At Mont de Galie, I was greeted with nice views of the mountains and villages. The top of a col was peaking out of a cloud just enough to distinguish it from a shadow.

I made my way through several other towns to find the first trail head. After a bit of confusion (thank goodness for the map) I figured it out. It turns out the area has a nice off-road trail system, with well marked trails.

The first bit of off road stretch was quite nice, but quickly turned into the Paris Roubaix of mountain biking. I guess that's what mtn biking should be all about...but this was a seriously cobbled steep climb...and it had been raining. The rocks were quite slippery, and I only made it about 1/4 of the way up the cobbled section before I slipped out.

It was next to impossible (for me anyway) to get back on the bike on the cobbles, so I had to hike up the hill. I grumbled to myself about choosing mtn biking over road biking. I was fearful the descents would be much the same-- which was terrifying to me to think of riding down such steep terrain on such slippery, wet rocks (the picture doesn't quite do justice to the grade)...but I pressed on, anyway

After a gradual climb on both fire road and tarmac, I got to the top of the hill and followed the mapped route. I had a nice long fire road descent to another town, where the trail finally turned to singletrack!! (the rocks behind the flowers are the single track on what part of the trail...actually the trails are quite rocky and rooty, and quite slippery when wet!)

After several more miles/ kilometers/ hours/ minutes? of stop and go action that involved: riding a bit, stopping to check the map and take a photo or two, and changing between single track, double track and paved road, I got to the town of Barry, where there was a short little climb that I could do to the top of a hill with a tower on top. Here's a picture of the beginning of the climb, and the sign for the climb

The bit at the top was quite rewarding, though, there was a church and a tower, and a picnic table where I got to stop and eat some more food and enjoy the view. And take a few fun action shots of myself. White girl can jump.......... a lot higher when she's got regular shoes instead of cycling shoes!

One of the bike signs was seriously hidden right behind this tower, and there was a trail that went directly down the hillside into the next town that I wanted to go to. The trail was a bit hidden because you had to ride across the grass to get there. I felt like such a derelict riding across the grass--especially so close to a church. I couldn't believe that that was the trail!

It started raining a little bit more during the rest of the ride, and then started coming down quite hard during the last 15 minutes or so of the ride, which was on the road. I was quite wet by the time I returned to the house in Bertren. Chris kindly let me take a shower there, and as I was just finishing up, it started dumping buckets. Seriously, buckets! I think you could've stuck a pint glass outside and it would've filled up in less than 5 seconds. I was happy with my timing for finishing the ride.

I was super stoked on the rental place-- and Chris even cut me a deal since I returned his 20 Euro that were in his backpack to him. I now can't wait to come back to France, although I'm likely to spend all of it in Bertren riding the trails and the cols.

Here are a couple more photos that I took during the day.

Bark people falling off a wall. Apparently the didn't need any help since they didn't answer when I asked.