Weißenbach to Admont

August 25, 2018

And the weather was....

The first 3 days of my trip along the Tauern Radweg were as perfect as I could have asked for. Full sun, warm but not overwhelmingly so, barely a cloud in the sky, got to do all the things I wanted minus visiting the Gollinger Wasserfall. It reminded me of why I love cycle touring in Austria.

Yesterday started out ok, though there was a lot of cloud cover and I'm sure there are some lovely views there in the Ennstal that I missed out on because of cloud cover. When we left off last night I was attempting to dry myself, my rain clothes, and everything I was wearing yesterday out. As I was eating breakfast this morning in the lovely Dorf Cafe in Weißenbach (highly recommended by the way), it was still raining. I took my time packing everything up and sort of stalling. The moment I left the Dorf Cafe it stopped raining. I prayed fervently last night and this morning for a reprieve from the rain and it must have worked.

The skies were definitely overcast and looked threatening all day. I'm sure there are impressive mountians around here but all I could see were the lower ones at the very edge of the valley. The path wound back and forth and up and down through the valley doing its best to hit every single little village and farm along the way. Remember in Austria nealry all villages are on hills so that meant I got to ride up and down a lot. With my bags soaked and me covered in rain gear it was slow going (please note since this set of panniers isn't rain-proof I packed everything in dry bags which means the stuff in the bags is all very very dry.)

The bikeline guide to the Ennstal Radweg claims this section is essentially flat. They lied. It's not. I did about 2,000ft of climbing on the "flat" trail. Several longer portions were also packed gravel or dirt which is always fun when wet. My favorite was the short little 17% grade that I tried to ride up until I realized there was deep loose gravel from the heavy rain last night. There were also a lot of wooden bridges which are incredibly slick when wet. I learned last year on a wet boardwalk to go very slow and not do anything but ride straight ahead on those.

The short 17% grade, all washed out gravel

With the mountains obscured by clouds it was a pretty mundane ride today. There was a lot of me wondering why I'm doing this on damp chilly weather along with an internal debate about whether I want to actually ride tomorrow through the Gesäuse Nationalpark or just bail on the train and spend more time in the Salzkammergut. That option will continue to be on the table pending what happens with traffic tomorrow. There are 2 longer sections on the Bundesstraße that are unavoidable given that they are literally the only road in that area. A busy road in the rain is not fun nor is it particularly safe in my opinion. The weather report seems to think things will let up early afternoon. I could also try to stall here for a bit, though outside of the monastery which may not be open for tourists on a Sunday morning, there isn't much to do in Admont.

Ok, this is fine, but I bet it really looks good in sunlight

Some guest house in some small village, naturally up a hill

Back to my story from today though. I kept expecting to pass a bakery in a village, but these villages are so small I didn't pass a single one. The only grocery store I passed was closed for the day as well. I was getting tired and grumpy which means I probably should eat something besides chocolate and gummy bears.

Then the hideously ugly town of Liezen CAME to my rescue. Now, there may be an attractive portion to Liezen that I never reached because I only went as far as the Billa grocery store near the train station. Billa had Laugenbrot, Apfeltaschen, lots of chocolate, snack cucumbers, and aisles full of things I'd love to load my bags up with and take back home with me (which will happen at the other end of the trip.) Refreshed with food and chocolate I headed over to the train station where I got ripped off €0.50 to use the bathroom, and then back to the trail. And then the rain came. Not as heavy as yesterday thankfully, but annoying nonetheless. It rained until somewhere around ardning and then let up again. Up and down more hills I went thinking how terribly long these last few miles to Admont were going. And then it decided to start raining again. Still not that hard, but any amount of rain is just not fun.

Part of the path ran next to the Autobahn. Not great scenery, but at least this part was flat.

All forms of torture eventually end though and 47 miles later I arrived at the hotel I booked while eating my food at Billa. Another nicely priced 3 star hotel in an admittedly ritzy state with shiny marble like floors and all. The room isn't as fancy as the rest of the hotel, but it's spaceous enough for me. The view out the window is pretty crummy but there's nothing to see right now anyway. In fact, at the moment I'm very very very glad to be warm and dry inside because it's raining pretty hard.

Someone's house along the way, notable because it's all stone which is rare in this area. Not that stone is rare, just that building with it is. There is plenty of stone on the unpaved paths.

Tomorrow will be determined in the heat of the moment. I will ride in light rain because I am determined to ride the whole trail and because there is nothing better to do in this area of Austria, but a heavy downpour such as the one right now is a no go. My rain gear can't handle total saturation and I just discovered tonight that the rain-proof lining of my rain pants is disintegrating. No wonder I got so wet last night!

Also, I only saw 2 other touring cyclists today so most seem to be smart enough to stay in on a day like today.

Today's ride: 47 miles (76 km)
Total: 175 miles (282 km)

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