Tomorrow there are at least three hikes and three bike rides that I know of. The hikes are via GoSocial and the bike rides are via Meetup. On Sunday I know of at least two to three GoSocial hikes and one Meetup hike. I have plenty of choice for what to do on weekends. In fact the choice is broader than that. Over a week ago I signed up for a hike but over the last two weeks I have seen people say “I want to participate” without ever being told “sorry, we’re full”.

Yesterday I went for a bike ride. The watch said to go for a one hour ride at 100 watts of power. I set off with the intention of following this recommendation and then got distracted. My original plan was to ride above the road that goes from Luins to avoid traffic, and then to go down and ride along the cycling route near the motorway. Instead of doing that small, easier ride I did this one- With this ride I went from Eysins to Signy, and from Signy I went towards Asse, before heading for Coinsins, and from Coinsins up to Genolier before heading down towards Luins.

Yesterday I was surprised that someone had planned an activity without public transport in mind. A few years ago I would not have noticed. For a long time I never considered that people would want to take buses and trains to the start of a hike. Now I do. For me, at this moment in time, I believe that every hike should start somewhere where public transport is available, both at the start and the end if it’s a linear hike, and at the start if it’s a loop.

On Sunday I took the car rather than the train. This allowed me to wake up slightly later, and to drive up to the meeting point within an hour. By train I would have had a half hour walk, followed by a two hour train ride. On the way back it was meant to take an hour and ten minutes but didn’t, because of a crash on the A1. I didn’t see any news about it so I don’t think it was a bad crash.

This weekend I went on two hikes. The first was from Jaun to Gruyères across fields filled with flowers. The second was a loop around the Aiguilles de Baumes. Both hikes were interesting although I prefered the size and pace of the second group. This weekend I was reminded of the “Hike Your Own” phrase that American thru-hikers like to remind themselves of. I had to remind myself of this phrase on Saturday, but also on previous group hikes with GoSocial.

I am still really tempted to take the train to Jaun Dorf rather than the car. There are two reasons for this. The first is that the route is easy by train. It’s two trains, and a bus. The second reason is that I don’t save any time on the way up, by taking the car. I do burn petrol, and have to pay for parking while not driving the car.

Yesterday while I was looking for a Via Ferrata I came across this hike and I am tempted to do it. I will be in the area to do this hike on Saturday and if I camped overnight then I could do the second hike as a solo hike. The reason not to camp, at this time of year is that the temperature still goes down to 5°c tomorrow, 6°c on Saturday and 8°c on Sunday.

Every week, in Whatsapp groups, I see the same questions. “Who is driving from A?” “Who is driving from B?” “Where can I park?” and more questions. The same questions are asked every time. A decade or two ago I might have understood, but not in 2025. For some hikes this makes complete sense. For hikes that are impossible to access by train, bus or other it makes sense to ask.

I find that GoSocial and Meetup are great social networks. It’s an easy way of finding people to do things with, every single weekend. It means that rather than sitting in bars, listening to people talk, hoping for a fun activity, that is not drinking, to be mentioned, you can find a group to do things with. The flipside to this is that you meet 12-25 people per activity. Sometimes you will meet the same people again, more than once, but more often than not you meet a new group each time.

Yesterday I went out in track suit trousers, a t-shirt and minimal other stuff. The plan was to run just three to four kilometres. I planned not to cross any busy roads. I had this plan because I felt that I needed a day of rest after yesterday’s bike ride. Garmin wanted me to run for an hour, and Suunto wanted me to have a half hour run. I don’t remember what Apple apps wanted.