Meetup and Strava are two sites filling specific niches. Meetup is a dinosaur of the web. It dates back to 2005 when the web was still looking for a way to be sustainable, and thus, more fun. Meetup was good for people in big US cities, London and other metropolitain cities. If you lived in Bumbleduck nowhere it was not. (Intentional spelling)
Strava in contrast is a young company. It was created in 2009 and became popular among the cycling community for a while, before eventually including running, hiking and then climbing and many other sports.
Walking and hiking are integral to my identity. I walk from four and a half to five and a half million steps per year. I walk in heat waves, rare snow and normal conditions. I hike with groups and I walk alone. Recently my desire to hike is much lower.
This isn’t so unusual. I often get tired of going for daily walks so I have to work towards motivating myself to walk on weekdays.
Recently I joined a cycling group and they require us to provide In Case of Emergency Information so that if we have an accident our phone provides people with names and numbers to call. At first I thought “Why would I want this, I have no In Case of Emergency person” due to being single and living alone.
Now I believe that this is a useful idea. Nothing bad has happened that affected my point of view.
Two days ago I was cycling with a group and someone commented that the relaxed rides are no longer relaxed and that got me to thinking about organising a real relaxed ride, where the aim is to cycle at 20 on the flat. If I had had this option then I could have tried group rides much sooner. In fact the group rides that I tried last year would have been more comfortable.
The most beautiful sight I saw on today’s ride was a murder of crows sitting at a water fountain. They were there because it offered water. When I cycled by it forced them to take off and scatter. With them were a few birds of prey. If you have watched The Birds by Hitchcock then the experience would have been bad. For me it was the highlight of my solo ride.
When you drive around Geneva or walk in the centre it is easy to see Geneva as an urban place with little to offer in terms of nature. If you get on a bike, and ride around you will find vineyards, fields, viticultural villages and more.
Yesterday I led a meetup group as we did the reverse Rive Droite walk. My rational was that if it does start to rain it makes sense to be close to Geneva, rather than La Plaine.
I am in the process of forming a new habit and that habit is to cycle on Saturday mornings. In cycling on Saturday mornings I keep Saturday afternoon free for other things. I can take care of washing clothes and more. It also gives me time to rest and recover before Sunday.
By accident I signed up for a hike and now I am torn between going for the hike, which requires trains, and potentially meeting two or three people, or sticking to my usual plan of going for a bike ride.
This weekend I went for two Meetup.com events. The first was a one hundred and twenty kilometre bike ride and the second was a one thousand four hundred metre climb from Montreux to the Dent De Jaman.
The Ride to Vuache With the bike rides there was a choice of two rides. The first was to Hermance. The second was around the Vuache mountain. I chose the Vuache mountain because this ride was new to me.
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.
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.