James rides out of the UK. He sent me this account of a recent trip in France…

“We just did another bikepacking trip, this time riding between Geneva and Nice in the French Alps in 12 days. We bivied out almost every night and went a bit off-route following some amazing trails. Some of the pictures are on flickr.

The ride was based on the GR5 long-distance hiking trail but we went off-route regularly. Sometimes due to the long climbs that became long carries, sometimes due to having only a couple of options for trails to cross a national park. We also became more confident about taking trails that just looked like the most fun and following them, knowing we were heading in roughly the right direction down a valley. This became real ‘free-riding’ to me, a skid and a shout halted the rest of us and a side-trail was explored, just passing through. Finding really great trails this way was the highlight of the trip.

There were a few sections that I’d looked at pictures of so many times and riding into those almost familiar landscapes was exciting, but the feeling of discovering a great trail was even better. We had maps, sleeping gear and food so we could take our own route, sleep anywhere suitable and ended up with a feeling of freedom that’s hard to beat.

Mixing Alpine footpaths and VTT trails gave us stunning scenery and some fantastic trails, but also meant there were some tough times as well as some long road climbs to link the areas we wanted to ride. They were some of the most memorable trails I’ve ridden, no two days were on quite the same terrain. There were exposed ridge lines ridden with as much speed as we dared, rocky line-picker descents that made my arms burn and flowing singletrack on deep, drifty dust. It took its toll on all of us though and I was as happy as any of us to ride more gravel roads in the baking heat of the south, feeling tired but elated. We wound down the riding level in the last two days as we got closer to the coast with time to spare.

Finishing off with rolling sea-view gravel roads, letting loose and crashing on the last rocky descent and a couple of beers too many on the beach with a lone Austrian tourer we met were suitable ends to an amazing ride. The weather had been on our side, we’d been handed beers by friendly locals more than once and we’d bivied and ridden in some of the most beautiful surroundings I’ve experienced. Good times.

The only change I made to the steel Jones from the last trip was a 17-34T rear gear plus some BB7 brakes and old XTR levers. They’re great, just as good the hydraulics and better for this kind of riding. The terrain was much more technical in places than Spain and the bike felt even more suited to it, with no mechanicals at all. The more I ride these bikes the more I like them. Coming back to a light Ti spaceframe singlespeed was funny, I kept almost looping out when I pulled up on the bars and feeling a bit nervous on the descents without all that weight pinning the bike down!”