Yesterday was a âhikeâ in the mountains. Really, though, it was playing âbows and arrowsâ in a forest just over an hour away, traversing the BrĂźnig pass that I should do before I leave here. The 3D archery tournament had some great views when we werenât in the forest.
Not having touched my bow in about 4 weeks, and then only about 3-4 times in the several months prior, I shot well at 22 or so of the 27 targets, but I whiffed three and almost whiffed two others, which made for a poor placement. But there was chäsbrätel (melted local cheese on thick bread⌠donât call it an open-faced grilled cheese equivalent).
Today was to be a 65-mile-ish road ride. I thought I could beat the weather at the target mountain, but I wasnât so sure. For a local ride, itâs not bad. The planned route today would have 7400â, but I cheated and took out a local descent and thus ascent by staying on local roads instead of dropping to the lake.
The views werenât bad, but the clouds were dark over the destination area.
Some highway time to get there, which is fine.
By this time, Iâve detoured off my intended route because the sky isnât looking good. Below, setting aside looking like a model train set, an alternate route with a good climb also doesnât look good. The climbing in the rain is fine, itâs the steep, narrow descent with two-way traffic and not a lot of space for a bike. In dry weather, no problem, in wet with wind (there was also a thunderstorm warning), yeah, passâŚ
So I continued⌠pausing to see the jump.
And a little gravel time for more cow bell. There was a lot of cow bell and a fair amount of goat bell today. Again, the pics donât convey how ominous the clouds were. While this wasnât my route, the other side of the peaks is where my options A and B would take me.
A minute after the pic, I turned left to get back to the road and turned left again, at which time it started to rain large drops. Since I was minutes away, I went up the cobbles in the rain for a pic at the
Benedictine Einsiedeln Abbey, established in the 10th century. It doesnât really look wet, but I was slow on the descent back down the road on the cobbles.
Should be fast down this, actually, I shouldnât be going this way as it was how I came up (the model trainset pic, taken on the ascent, was taken a short distance further from here), but I decided my route here was the flattest option to get out of the rain.
Returning via the highway on freshly wet roads wasnât the plan, but it was the only way to avoid steep downhills.
Getting back to my general region and it is warm, sunny, and not a drop of water proving that if you donât like the weather here, go to the next valley or canton and maybe itâll be different.
There are opportunities to go fast on this local road, which, back when I was getting out for more road rides at lunch, was part of one of my 60-75 min quickies (not the same as the hill quickie route). But it is two-way traffic and sometimes thereâs a village tucked in close to the road to make squeeze points.
In the end, it was only 38 miles with a veritably flat 3100â. It was probably for the best because I really am not ready for what I intended to do today.
Where was I and where did I intend to go? Option A was to the right (looking at the map, or east of) of Einsiedeln and over the far mountains seen from the gravel pics, with option B to the left (looking at the map, or west of) the valley I was in. Oh well, another day.
Sure enough when I got to the meet, the rain had put everyone off. So I went on a wee recovery ride. It almost didnât happen though. Went round the corner and a flint pâtured the front and the road was so wet the sealant was just getting washed out. It eventually sealed and I pumped it up hard. Setting off was enough to reopen it. At least this time it sealed fast before losing too much pressure. I set off and it opened again and sealed again. So I decided to head home at which point it stopped raining and the roads started to dry up quickly and I turned round and decided to go further and use a dynaplug if it was needed, it wasnât. By the time I was leaving the cafe the sun was out finally.
