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Backroads Family Trip to Switzerland, Ya, Trotti Bike

Grindelwald is one of the gateway towns to the heart of the Swiss Alps. Grab breakfast at your hotel, wander over to the gondola, take it to the third stop, First Peak, and suddenly you’re at 7100 feet staring at a massive rock wall of 13,000-foot high peaks wearing a crown of fresh snow. Or you can’t see anything, which was the case the moment our Backroads group arrived at First Peak, completely socked in with clouds. We strolled around the Cliff Walk, a metal bridge created by Tissot that hugs the precipitous cliffs as you look down and are thankful for Swiss engineering. Nearing the end of this little walk, the clouds lifted and we were witness to this magical disrobing, like a curtain opening at the start of a Broadway play. To the east was mighty Wetterhorn wearing a toupee of whipped clouds, while straight across from me was the mighty north face of Eiger. Stunning. Absolutely stunning. 
 
We hiked a little over 6 miles that day on the Bachalpsee Route, often on a muddy narrow path though an emerald valley. Lunch was on picnic tables with glorious vistas at Waldspitz before the steep downhill to the Bort gondola. Legs tired from the hike, we then had to jump on scooter bikes called Trottis. Remarkably, I fit both feet and hiking boots on the contraption (there is no seat), pointed the bike downhill on a Trotti paved path, and cruised. I was nervous at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’s like skiing downhill, carving your own line. Once again, you’re peering up at mighty Eiger spewing expletives of joy the whole way. Ya, Trotti, a ride I won’t soon forget. 
 

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Run the Alps All of August

With a fantastic network of trail and huts, and a long history and appreciation of running, Switzerland is a trail runner’s dream. Mountain runners have been weaving their way along alp paths for decades, and are practically exalted here. Few people know these trails better than Doug Mayer, founder of Run the Alps. Mayer wrote me last week, claiming he has designed his most epic trip yet, a month-long adventure in the Alps. The includes a guided run along Switzerland’s remarkable Hardergrat, a trail run along the route of the Tour du Mont-Blanc, and through the Swiss Berner Oberland. You’ll also go behind the scenes at two of the greatest trail races in the world, Sierre-Zinal and the UTMB, and, of course, spend necessary R&R time at classic mountain spas. No wonder Mayer is calling this the greatest trail running vacation ever. 

 
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Adventures in Las Cruces Week—A Must-Stop at White Sands National Monument

White Sands National Monument opens daily at 7 am and it’s best to get there early before the blinding white sand radiates under the hot midday desert sun. Smack dab in the middle of the Tularosa Basin, these wave-like dunes of gypsum sand span some 275 square miles and are truly a wonder to behold. Once here, you’ll understand why it became one of America’s first National Monuments, created in 1933. Even the 45 mile drive from Las Cruces on I-70 is a joy, with the sun rising over the mountains and vistas of the wide open horizon as far as the eye can see. 
 
I paid the $5 entry fee and then cruised along Dunes Drive. What I love about White Sands is that you can park at any number of lots along the road and simply walk atop the hard-packed grooved sand creating your own set of footprints. At first, you’ll pass a limited amount of growth like yucca plants and their distinctive, almost prehistoric-looking flower. As you drive further in, you leave the scrub behind and all you see is an otherworldly terrain of rolling dunes. Locals like to bring their sleds to slide down the sand. Others will happily walk into this blanket of serenity for as long as necessary. 
 
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A Necessary Stop at the Corning Museum of Glass on a College Road Trip

On our drive last week from the campuses of Penn State to Syracuse, we stopped about an hour south of Ithaca in the small town of Corning, New York. Here you’ll find one of my favorite museums in western New York, the Corning Museum of Glass. Founded in 1851, Corning Glass Works was instrumental in helping Thomas Edison create the light bulb on a mass scale, designed the first television screens, invente the first assembly-line bottling plant, and now the company is thriving with the proliferation of fiber optics. You can learn about the inventors and innovation of glass at the museum. Corning also features an exceptional collection of glass art from Egyptian times to the present that will only get bigger with the new $64 million Contemporary Art and Design Wing set to make its debut on March 20th. The 26,000-square-foot art gallery will be the largest space anywhere dedicated to the presentation of contemporary art in glass. It will also house one of the world’s largest facilities for glassblowing demonstrations and live glass design sessions, with 500 seats. Another highlight of the museum is the chance to create your own art, via glassblowing or sandblasting. My wife made a wind chime while my daughter created a glass pendant. 

 
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Go Dutch

I just received this promo from the Netherlands Board of Tourism. Starting a week from today, February 4th, you can click on www.holland.com and enter to win such prizes as a monthly delivery of fresh tulips for a year, a Dutch bicycle, an iconic piece of Dutch furniture, even a diamond made in Amsterdam. The biggest prize is two round trip, KLM business class tickets to Amsterdam, given to the person who sends in the most creative photograph under the heading “Just be. In Holland.” While there, take that Dutch bicycle on the country’s increasingly popular biking and barge trips. The beauty of these bike trips is that unlike a typical inn-to-inn biking trip, you don’t have to pack your bags every morning to check in at the new night’s lodging. The barge follows you along the route, so you’ll be staying in the same berth the entire trip.
 

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Julius Jermanok Enjoyed The Ride

I was out of the office all last week, dealing with the unexpected death of my 83 year-old father. Jules Jermanok was a brilliant man, graduating at the top of his college class at the United States Merchant Marine Academy (Kings Point), before having an esteemed career at General Electric. He was my most trusted advisor, teaching me life lessons like “Enjoy the Ride.” Like him at one point of his working life, I was jumping from plateau to plateau, never satisfied with my current success. Highly ambitious, I was missing out on life, taking precious friendships and relationships for granted. So he taught me to chill out and enjoy the ride, to live life in the present. 

He was always open to new experiences, new adventures. Last winter, I had to write a story on the Everglades. My brother came down with me and we sea kayaked through mangroves, biked on abandoned dirt roads, and then partook in an unusual experience called a swamp walk. My father insisted on going, so we bought him Tevas and met our guide, thinking that we’d be wading in ankle-deep water. Wrong! We walked into murky water up to our waist trying to stand on the unsteady ground. The guide told us about all the exquisite orchids that bloomed in the swamp in June. Unfortunately, it was December. The only thing I was looking at was the water behind me, making sure there weren’t any alligators or pythons lurking. At one point, my father turns to me and says, “Is this worth it?”
 
My dad is already sorely missed, leaving a huge void in my life, but I’m thankful to have memories like this one to hold onto. 
 
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My Favorite Day Hike in Nova Scotia

“Probably not going to see a moose today,” said a park ranger at the beginning of the Skyline Trail. “It’s a hot day and they’re lying low in the brush,” he added. Not that it matters. The Skyline is one of the most glorious hikes in the Maritimes, a great overview of the breathtaking terrain displayed at Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Listening to bullfrogs and a woodpecker hammering away, we took a serene stroll through a boreal forest lined with buttercups. Every now and then we would get a glimpse of the sea in front of us and look back at the mountains and the carpet of forest. Then you reach the piece de resistance, a series of steps and platforms that reward you with magnificent vistas of the water and the circuitous road rising through the velvet green hillside that’s one of the best coastal drives in North America, the Cabot Trail. After our fill of the scenery, we made our way back down and said goodbye to the park ranger. Less than a 5-minute walk from our car, we heard loud ruffling to our left and spotted a mother moose and her two young calves chowing down on the foliage. Some days, you can get your icing on the cake. 

That afternoon, we signed up for a zodiac tour with Captain’s Mark’s Whale and Seal Cruise in nearby Pleasant Bay and were treated to the bounty of sealife. Within 5 minutes from the dock, we spotted the graceful arch and fin of a minke whale, one of 40 minkes we probably found over a 2-hour span. Adding to the pleasure was a colony of gray seals popping their heads out of the water like periscopes, harbor porpoises, a bald eagle perched on a tree high atop a bluff, and the frightening tentacles of a lion’s mane jellyfish. Then we drove another hour on the Cabot Trail to the Keltic Lodge, where we downed pints of Big Spruce Regatta Red Ale while staring at the massive bluff they call Cape Smoky jutting out into the Atlantic. Not a bad day. 

(Photos by Michael Berger)





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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