September 2, 2021
Day 15
Kronplatz and Ahrntal
Today I mixed things up a bit. The original plan was to ride up the Ahrntal and back, but I also wanted to visit the Kronplatz. So I compromised and did some of both.
The Kronplatz is the prominent mountain in the area. The top is high enough to be beyond the tree line so it’s bare and has 360 degree views of all the mountains in the area. It’s primarily a major ski destination and has at least 9 ski lifts, 5 of which reach the very top. There is one in Percha conveniently located right on the Radweg. Google said it was only around 3 miles away so that seemed reasonable. I debated whether I should do the Arhntal first, or the Kronplatz first. I opted for the Kronplatz since the lifts close at 5pm.
The ride to the seilbahn looked pretty simple. Just get on the Radweg and ride. There was a slight uphill grade according to my map, but there didn’t look to be any really long mean climbs. The ride into Bruneck was pretty quick and easy. Just follow the path along the river. The path stays directly on the river through Bruneck so I didn’t see much of the Altstadt. I figured I’d get a look at that on the way back.
Towards the outskirts of Bruneck I encountered yet another Umleitung sign. My experience with Italian detours is that they are terrible. They never seem to be flat, they often use major roads, and they are generally poorly signed. I made a cursory attempt to follow the detour, but there was no map and afte the second sign the road I was on started going the opposite direction of what I wanted to go. I’ve no idea if a sign was missing, or if the city simply opted for the scenic route, but no way was I going to go in the opposite direction of what I wanted. I took a side street and cut directly back to the Radweg and decided to see how serious Bruneck was about this Umleitung. I figured I already hopped a fence yesterday. What’s one more fence hopping? It’s not like Italians seem hung up on following rules anyway. I’ve seen how they treat the masking requirements, I’ve seen how they drive cars and bikes and how they walk down the middle of the radwegs and don’t move when you try to pass. I’ll take my chances on fence hopping.
Further down the path I encountered the “official” closure. During high water some trees got knocked down. Okay. I’ve dealt with this before. Goodness. I’m from Minnesota. We have a lot of trees and periodically they do fall down on our bike paths. I once hauled a velomobile over a tree. I’m not afraid of some fallen trees. So I rode on. Along with quite a few other cyclists. It did not appear much anyone was taking this closure seriously. I did finally encounter an area where quite a few trees had definitely fallen down. A whole hillside of them, actually. There were a couple large machines in the middle of the path clearly the remains of formerly great trees away. Poor trees. What an ignominious end to their lives. Some cyclists ahead of me skirted around the edge of the machines so I followed suit. It did not appear to be bothering the workers that they had to keep interrupting their work for cyclists. I rather suspect they were accustomed to it. Perhaps the closure was more of a formality to prevent lawsuits?
After the tree graveyard came a series of two tunnels. I had no idea there even were tunnels along this section. It must be a former rail line. At the end of the second tunnel was one last fallen tree. It appeared someone had gotten out a saw and cut a large enough opening for people to get to through. I carried my bike over the tree through the opening and that was that. I had successfully navigated the second detour due to safety precautions. And I did not die. Take that, Italian detours! In the US I doubt anyone official would even know if the path got blocked. The only detours where I live are because they’ve ripped up several miles of trails in Minneapolis to build the new commuter rail line. There would be no point in ignoring those detours. There is no trail left at the moment.
This has been quite a long story, hasn’t it? We’ve now covered the first 45 minutes of my day! It took nearly as long to describe as it did to experience. Let’s expedite the rest of the day, shall we?
So yes, where were we? Well, I was very nearly at the Seilbahn station in Percha. It really was literally right next to the Radweg. In fact, the cable cars go right over your head. There was a steep gravel path up to the Seilbahn station, because of course every day must have a moment where I push my bike steeply uphill on loose gravel. This time I was smart and took only the very most basic essentials: hiking shoes, my fleece sweater, my map book, and the backpack attachment for my Ortlieb pannier. That plus my tools meant my bike was a whole lot easier to push uphill. It also meant I left my big camera back in the hotel room. I didn’t think there would be anything spectacular enough to require that camera.
Turns out the Seilbahn station is also a train stop. Now this was a rather frustrating development. You see, I could have avoided the whole Umleitung tree incident and taken the train for free (my hotel provides a free guest pass thing that gives you unlimited use of local trains and busses) and gotten to the Seilbahn with ease, and could actually have done so yesterday afternoon. That’s a forehead slap if ever there was one. Granted then this entry would have been much shorter because I would not have had the tree incident story to share.
€23 gets you an up and back ride on the Seilbahn. The price is a bit steep, but I really was curious what the view up top was like. I always enjoy Seilbahn rides. It’s fun to go up a mountain with zero effort and 360 degree views out the cabin as you float past the trees, farms, small creeks, cows, meadows, and look down into the valley as you ascend. This ride may actually be the most enjoyable Seilbahn ride I’ve ever had. I was the only customer at the station when I got there. I think they mostly get skiers and I’m sure in the winter the place is packed. I had the whole roomy cabin to myself. And what a ride. When you’re down in the valley you don’t get to see the other side of the mountains. Today I did. On the other side of the mountains are more bigger mountains. Actually my favorite mountains, the Hohe Tauern. Hohe Tauern National Park is home to the Krimml Wasserfall, the tallest falls in Europe, or something like that. My first and fourth trips started at those falls and, to this day, the Tauern Radweg remains my absolute favorite. I enjoyed watching more and more of the Tauern range come into view as the cable car ascended the mountainside. Most of the range has snow on it right now. It was magnificent.
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I checked last night online to see if there were any compelling photos from the top of the Kronplatz. Everything I found were photos promoting skiing. I nearly opted not to go up there. I’m glad I did though. The views from the top are great. Everywhere you look are mountains. You can see the Hohe Tauern, some of the Dolomites, though not the Drei Zinnen, the Pustertal, the Ahrntal, and several other valleys. I ended up hiking the Concordia route around the top of the mountain and stopping periodically to enjoy the view. Perhaps I should have expected nothing out of my trip as a whole and then I could be pleasantly surprised by the good parts? The Kronplatz was definitely a good part.
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Before I left St Lorenz this morning I stopped at the grocery store and bought a roll, a container of tomatoes, a Milka bar, and some sort of allegedly healthy energy bar. I found a nice spot on the mountain and ate my lunch there. It was a little chilly, but these are the sacrifices you make for a nice view.
After lunch I finished hiking around the mountain top trail, watched some people jumping off the mountain with their hang gliders, and headed back down to the valley. The Seilbahn ride back down was just as nice as it was going up. Also, the estimated trip time of 30 minutes is accurate. It actually is quite a long ride, possibly the longest Seilbahn ride I’ve had. Hard to imagine you could watch a whole sitcom in that amount of time. I’d rather watch mountains go by though.
Back at the Talstation I debated my options. It was around 2:30. Too early really to go the 45 minutes back to my hotel room. I decided I would ride as far as Sand in Taufers in the Ahrntal and check out the Reinbachfall. My map book doesn’t have many pictures of the Ahrntal so I wasn’t sure what to expect.
First I retraced my ride back to Bruneck through the tree graveyard, through the tunnels, past the very patient guys clearing away the trees, and then through the outskirts of Bruneck and into the Ahrntal. Here was the second nice surprise of the day: the Ahrntal is quite scenic. Most of the time you get a view of part of the Hohe Tauern range with its snow-capped peaks. Now I won’t say the ride itself was great. The path heading out of Bruneck is congested. Right next to the road, lots of cycle path traffic like women pushing strollers down the middle of the trail. People walking on the wrong side of the path and not moving when you try to pass, people riding entirely too fast, the usual for an Italian bike path. Once out of the city the road surface varies a lot. Some potions are on entirely too busy roads with local truck traffic, others are on road surface so bad it might as well be cobblestones. And then there are the occasional portions of all new pavement. Those were really nice. And really rare. The scenery, however, is great. Even better, I did not lose any fillings on the rough pavement nor did I have the misfortune of anything going wrong on the bike.
The ride to the falls is roughly 10 miles from Bruneck. That was enough for a days journey. I was expecting the falls to charge admission, but they actually did not. It’s a nice walk through the forest with the sound of the river in the distance most of the way. There are three sets of falls. I opted to walk only to the first two. Both are very grand falls, though nothing so large as the Krimml falls. The Reinbach falls are worth hiking up to see though. There were quite a few people on the trail, none of which stayed on their side of the trail. It drives me nuts when I have to move out of the way because an entire family has spread out across the trail. When I reached the second set of falls, a guy was there with his fancy camera on a gimbal taking photos. Since he was hogging the best viewing spot from the upper platform, I went and tried the lower platform where his lady friend was hanging out. I think I may have interrupted some sort of photo shoot. Too bad buddy. You don’t get to hog nature!
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From there I hustled back down the hill to my bike and enjoyed the slight downhill slope back to Bruneck. I put some effort into the pedaling and got a much more respectable average speed out of it. Were the whole trip like the return ride I might have actually enjoyed all of the rides.
I did take a brief detour through Bruneck. I never found a good view of the castle and I didn’t see anything terribly compelling in the Altstadt. There does appear to be some sort of convent. I saw a monk wandering through the Altstadt blessing the occasional child. He even has the traditional monk like robe and sandals with the rope belt. Then I rode back to my hotel, took a shower, and enjoyed the exact same dish at the same restaurant as last night. It tasted just as good today as yesterday.
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I have contemplated taking the train to Toblach tomorrow instead of fighting my way uphill again and around the downed tree obstacle course. I would have to navigate that with a loaded bike this time which seems less fun. It’s an 18 mile ride, 5 miles of which I’ve already ridden, including the bit with the steepest marked hill. It actually may not be that bad a ride. What I will not do, is ride up to the Antholzer See. I have ridden that ride virtually on my trainer at home and it is definitely not a ride I want to do in real life.
Depending on when I get to Toblach, I may or may not have time to do something else. There are several options, like taking the train and bus to the Anrholzer See, seeing if I could still reserve a place on a bus to the Pragsser Wildsee, or possibly even riding towards Innichen on the Drau Radweg. So, be sure to check in tomorrow to see what I end up doing.
Today's ride: 31 miles (50 km)
Total: 455 miles (732 km)
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