June 7, 2024
Day 12 Kiefersfelden to Halbergmoos
Halbergmoos might seem like an odd destination for today. It’s not on any signed bike routes, there’s nothing to see here, and why come here when actually the Urban needs to go back to HoVelo in Aichach near Augsburg. The answer is that there are really three ways to get to Augsburg: to the west of Munich through the hills the way I came, directly across Munich, and to the east and north of Munich. I didn’t want to cut across the south side of Munich along the lakes. I’ve done that enough to know it’s a little hilly. I definitely don’t want to spend all day fighting my way by bike through Munich. So that left skirting around it to the east. Since I was doing that anyway and wanted a hotel around the 60 mile mark, it made sense to just spend the last two nights here in the same hotel near the airport. As an added bonus, I can ride tomorrow with just the bare essentials and enjoy lightly loaded riding.
I did not want to get up and ride this morning. Travel fatigue nearly always sets in for me around the 12 day mark. I start to miss my bed, not needing to wash out my clothes every night, and naturally my cats.
It didn’t help that it started raining just after breakfast either. I took my dear sweet time preparing to leave. I finally departed shortly after 10. There were low clouds hanging over the mountains as I pedaled away from Kiefersfelden to the path along the Inn river. When I created the route for today I debated how far along the Inn to go and whether to take the actual Radweg or bypass it on the road. This section of the Inn Radweg has some extended sections of gravel. I don’t like gravel. It’s slow and dusty. However, the road option was hilly. I don’t like hills either. Given I recently went over an extended mountain pass, I opted for the gravel. It was a debatable choice. Some sections were ok. The longer stretch was…annoying, especially when it went under a bridge and the surface briefly turned to large stone pavers that were wet from the rain. Even my shoes were slipping as I pushed my bike up the little hill. It doesn’t matter what bike you are riding. Gravel will always be slower than pavement. The periodic sprinkles from the sky didn’t make things any better. The path was at least dead flat, and the gravel did finally end. It was followed by some very lovely tarmac and then some winding through fields and farms.
The mountains gradually receded in my mirrors. First through Raubling, and then the outskirts of Rosenheim where they even have a Burger King (I didn’t stop, I hate Burger King). I spent most of the ride focusing on navigating with my gps and did not notice how quickly the miles were accumulating.
And then I came to a hill. Now I’m pretty experienced with hills, having experienced quite a lot of them recently. Whole mountains of them in fact. You would think I would be an expert at shifting to the small ring right now, but clearly my brain was not fully engaged this morning because I tried to shift the front ring while in too small a rear cog. This led to my chain falling off the front rings. On a road with no shoulder. As I got out to put the chain back on, naturally it started to rain. Not just a little sprinkle, but a real proper rain. On the one hand it made it easy to wash the chain grease off my hands, but it also meant I was pretty soaked by the time I grabbed the foam cockpit cover, installed it, washed the grease off my hands, pushed the bike back on the road, and got riding again. While I was stopped, a very nice young German guy pulled up in his car to make sure everything was ok. Very nice of him. It rained just long enough to be annoying. Then it stopped and the sun came out blazing down upon me. Up ahead I saw a bakery. This seemed like the right time to stop, obtain sustenance, and remove the foam cockpit cover.
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Fully hyped up on sugar, I carried on with my ride into the hilliest section of the route. It was during one of these hills that a fine specimen of humanity in a silver station wagon decided my presence on his road was offensive. He honked long and loud at me as he sped by. As he pulled back in front of me I could see him raise his middle finger at me. Clearly this aspect of American culture has been passed on to multiple European countries.
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Beyond Grafing the uphill was replaced by downhill. The weather went back to gray and dreary, but my mood was lightened by an extended stretch of several miles of the most marvelously paved Radweg through a forest area. This was some of the finest cruising since the 102 mile day over the Reschen pass and on to Meran and Bozen. Stretches like this are rare, so I treasured the moment. After this there was a real mix of roads, Radwegs, a short section of gravel around a park where it started once again to rain, an annoying traffic jam in Markt Schwaben, and some varying qualities of pavement as I drew ever nearer to my destination.
Nothing much of interest occurred except for when a vehicle looking an awful lot like one I know started following me. I don’t know a lot of people in this area of Germany, but there is one who drives a BMW with a black hood and white sides that I’d rather not encounter. That’s exactly what the car following me looked like. It followed just long enough for me to start worrying, and then it zoomed off like every other car going around me (this maybor May not reference idler gate from last summer….)
The last few miles passed quickly. The area around Halbergmoos is dead flat with very light traffic. It’s good velomobile riding. Next thing I knew I was at my hotel and the ride for today was finished. It was 4:45pm, my earliest arrival anywhere of the trip.
Tomorrow the bike goes to its new owner. It has had an epic adventure to start its life. It will get a nice bath and be ready for its next stage in life. Soon I’ll post a review with my thoughts on the Urban.
Today's ride: 65 miles (105 km)
Total: 706 miles (1,136 km)
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