[Closed] Trails near to Annecy in France. La Clusaz maybe? Any info welcomed

Wasn't there a WC DH track near Annecy or did I dream it?

I was there at the start of July this year.

The trail down from the top of Le Semnoz starts at the side of the restaurant at the the top. It does involve quite a bit of fire road and even tarmac on the way back down to Annecy though.

La Clusaz if fine for a day or two and worth the drive. Just don't head out on any of the Cross Country routes as it will end up in Le Semnoz type boredom.

The Red Downhill from the top of the Beauregard Lift was fine on a hardtail but would be better on a FS, The Blue D/Hill from the Cret du Merle/ Cret du Loup was fun.

Selkirkbear --- I have tried the net to find out some more info on Le Semnoz after last years fiasco but can only find lots of "yes you can ride there" and loads of roadie "it's a great ride up" info.
Last year the wife dropped me and the lads at the top and we set of from behind the restaurant, expecting there to be trail signs all the way down!! we got hopelessly lost as we didn't have a trail map and didn't see a single sign. I was expecting it to be like the uk trail centres where you just follow the colours, but by the time I could get a 3G signal to find out where we actully were, we were in the next valley closer to Aix le Bain than Annecy and we had a 25km ride home on a main road !! Not fun and the wife was less than impressed when we turned up 3 hours late.
So to save a repeat of last years fiasco do know where I can get a trail map, or even if there is such a thing?

There is a service bus put on especially to take you and your bike up the 16km to the top so I'm guessing there must be some kind of official trail network but I couldn't find anything last year and have drawn a blank on the net so far thus year.

How did you manage to find the right way down, i think the key is to stay on the right hand side of the road as you head down ?

Cheers

Head to Aix les Bains and do the descente du col du chat. It's sign posted as a GR, red and white line, and you can't go wrong as you are back at the lac du Bourget. Kids can have a swing while you are trashing that singletrack. There is a YouTube video of me doing it somewhere.

Bottom of the lake is only an hour's drive from Bourg Saint Maurice - get yourself to Les Arcs!

It's not that far to the bigger resorts. I'd be tempted to just bite the bullet and drive a bit. Morzine is ace. Miles of easy to find trails that are just great fun to ride.

qwertyuiop7

We roughly followed this route down

[url= http://www.vttour.fr/sentiers/descente-du-semnoz,1486.html ]Semnoz to Annecy[/url]

If you click on "Afficher sur IGN" it will open it up full size. Clicking on "VTTrack" will link to a map with other routes in the area on it.

Also if you get the bus up there will be other riders to follow down.

There are trails off Semnoz and on the other side of the lake. The tourist information office sold me a VTT guide with a few routes in the last time I was there (2011).

You're an hour from Merribel - was there last weekend and it was brilliant. Loads of trails for all abilities and access via the uplifts is cheap and fun.

The path from the viewing point at summit of Col de la Forclaz down to the Lake looked interesting. Although I've only seen the top and bottom bit.

What a great site selkirkbear (book marks)

http://www.vttour.fr/sentiers/col-de-la-forclaz-verthier-par-le-gr96,759.html

I rode Semnoz twice last year. The first time I followed my nose, took the trail behind the restaurant which crosses the road back to Annecy over a cattle grid style thingy, then every time I saw a sign that said No VTT I followed it!
The trails I took were rocky and technical but generally followed a similar direction to the official VTT.

I found myself on a wide grassy descent which seemed wrong and I was just moaning to myself about lazy French trailbuilders when a bloke in a full facer shot across my path. I pushed up the trail he came out of then followed it to it's end in a lovely garden of big farmhouse. I then took the singletrack roads to the shores of the lake. This trail is a marked footpath and is perfection if you like tight, testing trails.

The second time I got on the bus with Jerome Clementz (not really but it looked like him!) and his 4 mates. I asked them in my best pigeon French if they minded me tagging along and so began the ride if my life. We started on the trails I'd found the day before then hit all the locals only stuff till it spat us out near town. We only crossed the road again once and soon returned. I had no choice but to ride way beyond my limits to keep up and will probably never ride like that again.

Sorry that I can't provide a proper route but I can say that that hill is full of lovely, natural, rocky goodness with some insanely steep Handbuilt trals near the bottom. I think they finish near a skate park.

Buy a footpath map and look for a trail that comes out further down the lake and if all else fails, try hanging onto the tails of the first Mavic jersey you see!

OP in addition to the above it's an hours drive to Samoens or Les Houches (Mr Chamonix). There was a Les Arcs thread recently in which Welshfarmer had a link to a very good French "single track" website, have a search

There are some fun DH style runs with uplift in Les Carroz, about an hour away.

I stayed for a couple of days and rode near Col du la Forclaz quite a bit, from right by the side of the lake in Angon/Talloire. I just bought an IGN map (their OS map) and rode walking trails. I found some brilliant trails fairly easily, including one of the most technical trails I've ever ridden.

Have a look at my rides on Strava to get an idea. You will have to request to follow first though, as it won't show you much otherwise.

http://www.strava.com/activities/345950595
http://www.strava.com/activities/346600470

If you need a map, the iPhone app iphigenie is excellent. You get a week for free, then subscription costs either £11 for the year or £4.50 for a month. Obviously not a replacement for a paper map but helps enormously if you're exploring.

there is a bus that goes from the Annecy train station. 5.80 Euro a day and it will uplift you as many times as you want. basically there are some tracks that run down the northern spine of the mtn back to Annecy and as someone else said, follow your nose.

OH, I did the same thing and asked some other guys on the bus and they said follow me. Nice people like

Off to the lake tomorrow after a week in morzine so this has given me something to go on. Cheers

Good mix of riding at la cluzas. Cheaper and quieter than the usual stuff.

Just to follow this up, I rode down the official 14 mile VTT tourist trail off Semnoz. It happens to the best of us, but I'm surprised the OP got lost. Trail starts 10m above and behind the restaurant (not the summit one) and is pretty well sign posted all the way down and easy to orientate yourself with the mountains in the back ground and road. Almost lost the will to live on the top half with fire road and tarmac and saw plenty of "no VTT" on exists and entrances of some tasty looking walking tracks evidently used by bikes, but was on my own and with only an hour or so riding time so stuck to the route. When it crosses the road half way down things get more fun with reasonably rocky double track with a bit of tech if you take the red route. The previous day in the car noticed a few trails in the top half closer to the road and also official VTT marked trail where the road splits a third of the way down which I'm guessing eventually hooks up with the tourist trail where it crosses the road half way down.

I too found the Semnoz to Annecy somewhat easy to follow, only a small bit of backtracking to find a pylon IIRC. Was a wee bit fire road but otherwise a good descent.
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Rando Gaz de France - from the top of Mt Revard http://www.savoiegrandrevard.com/fr/il4-revard_p109-la-rando-gaz-de-france.aspx#