On Saturday I went for a ride with Bike Club Switzerland from Geneva. The ride itself was planned on an 80km loop that went from Geneva via Vich up to Begnings and then towards one or two more places before heading back towards la Rippe, across the top, and eventually down to Grilly and Geneva.

The Planned hike was meant to be moderate, at around 22km/h and 82km in distance. To get to the meeting point I had to cycle 22km just to start the group ride, and then 82km with the ride, and then 22km or more to get home.

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”. My concern is that this will be another large hiking group with people who are out for a chat, and just happen to be walking at the same time. For some that’s fine, after all it is a GoSocial hike, not a GoHike event.

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. It is at this point that I went into the agricultural network of paths and followed them to avoid the main narrow road, where people drive without due care and attention. It’s when I got to Gilly that I headed towards Tartegnin, Bugnaux, Mont Dessus and finally to the Signal de Bougy. When you head down from the Signal de Bougy towards Sous-Bougy you have a beautiful view of the lake. When I got to Aubonne I went to see the view before heading down. There is a pedestrian crossing and that is where I turned towards Fechy along narrow riverains roads towards Féchy. I came across this route, or at least this opportunity when hiking from Bière to Aubonne. The advantage of this road is that it’s parallel to the Route du Lac but with far less traffic. It’s convivial for cyclists to use this route.

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. Without public transport being factored in everyone is condemned to car sharing. In and of itself the idea of car-sharing is not a bad one.

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. It did however block the motorway. A drive that should have taken an hour then took two hours.

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. The concept is great. A group of people follow a chat on Whatsapp and when they see an activity they want to join they join a sub-chat. In this sub chat discussions take place about logistics, photo sharing and more.

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. It’s not freezing, but you need a better tent and sleeping bag in these conditions.

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. For those that are on main train lines it’s easy, especially today to check the departure and arrival times from the start point, if that is given, or the destination point if that is given instead.

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.