Hi Ewa,

If I want to have some softer surface than asphalt I use to run along the Rhone. You can run on both sides. On the right side you could start at pont sous-terre and then go all the way till Lignon, where you can cross the Rhone at passerelle du lignon. Partly this is really like a trail with jumping over trees and only very small paths.

On the left side of the Rhone you could start at pont de saint-georges and go a very long way along the Rhone, e.g. till Aire-la-Villa there is a path always more or less along the river. I think there is also a trail running group doing this route, maybe you can also join them once.

If you are not sure about the exact path I can also send you my gps tracks where you can easily see the route, just only have them at my computer at home.

Keep running!

Andreas

You can try the various "parcours vita" (sponsored by a famous insurance company). They are free and usually in the woods. I know for sure there is one in Versoix and apparently there are some others in Onex and Carouge.

Here is the website whare you can check the locations: https://www.zurichparcoursvita.ch/trouver-un-parcoursvita/ou-recherchez-vous-un-zurich-parcoursvita/parcours/onex/

Thanks Adreas - I checked out the right side of the Rhone and see what you mean with the obstacle trees- I will check out the left side next time, looks like there'd be a longer trail on that side.

Thanks Yoyo for the tip - I had heard of these parcours vita and then forgotten about them. I guess they can be fun to incorporate into a longer run, just to mix things up a bit.

Nice trails between the passerelle (footbridge) de Chèvres and passerelle du Lignon

Stade du bout du monde, trails along the Arve to the Rafting Loisirs base

If you're looking for elevation gain, you run to the top of the Salève come back by cable car

Hi Eva,

A bit slow with the reply, but here is the route I like -- http://www.attackpoint.org/sessiondata.jsp?sessionid=4301471

As Andreas says, the far (left bank) side of the Rhone, the trails continue. The trail goes further on the right side too, but it is cement for a while and beside a big chemical factory thing that smells of detergent, so a bit sickly.

On the left bank (if you want to avoid the right side trails (the path isn't bad, if you had to hop more than four trees you may have gone astray), at the southernmost point on the route linked above, there are plenty more trails in the woods at Les Evaux.

Another option is to go out orienteering at weekends, some possibilities listed here - http://club-orienteer.web.cern.ch/club-orienteer/

a+, neil

Andreas,

After all this time, I had still kept doing the right side of the Rhone (human, a creature of habit I suppose). Today I tried the left one per your suggestion and I LOVED IT!!!! Especially, from time to time when little trails branch off, just made me want to keep exploring.

Thanks for the suggestion!!

Ewa

There are 340 km of signposted (yellow signs) of footpaths on Geneva but on 40% are on soft surface and most of them are runnable.  Go to map.wanderland.ch and they are all shown ( you need to click on hiking or veloland if you are looking for bike trails) there might be an English version.  Unfortunately you cannot tell from this what is asphalt and what is not but aim for where there are woods and you will be OK.  I have a map showing what is asphalt and what is soft but I do not think it available to the public (if it is it will be on the Etat de Geneve website).  The new path which follows the Aire river is more or less open and that is soft surface.  But there are loads of places but they are away from the heavily built up areas.  Tjhe paths there are on asphalt because there is no soft surface left.  It is a question of exploring   

I found this threat very useful - thanks to all who have given advice! 

After a year of running on hard surfaces, running along the rhone was wonderful. Like Ewa, I tried the right side first - pont sous terre to pont butin towards passarelle de lignon, but soon got into trouble after pont butin if I wanted to stick to soft ground close to the river - the trail was much narrower, lots of trees to jump over (maybe I took a wrong trail, but the river was always close by so i knew i wasnt lost!).On the left side the loop up bois batie from  pont de saint george up the hill through bois de batie and then across the viaduct de la jonction gives a nice view of the two rivers meeting. On the map, I can see that the left side will allow running for much longer, and look forward to trying that out as soon as possible!

Hi I do a trail in Saléve nearly every Tuesday and shortly I'll start doing Thursdays le Môle, if not there is a group in Geneva called trail lèman check out the website . http://www.traileman.com/  . they are cool and for all level .