May 8, 2019
When the river isn’t to the right!
Navigation successes and challenges
The day started out wonderfully as we navigated from our off the route hotel through gorgeous rolling hills and farmland rather than backtracking 3km. We were greeted by sun shining off the snow covered alps. And we were pretty proud of ourselves for our cross country navigation by garmin and phone. From there the day went up and down, literally, when one bike sunk in the freshly laid dirt she went down and so did the bike following.
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We had some navigation challenges today when the route signs just seemed to disappear. We rode down the path until it dead ended at a T, we explored to the right and found a dead end, then we tried the other way and found another dead end. So back to the T when we noticed an older Austrian couple across the flower strewn field, they were waving to us and gesturing to us to come their way. The woman walked toward us on a very narrow, about 6 inch wide track, with dandelions and meadow grasses up to her hips. We started across the track and found it was extremely bumpy, lots of ruts and holes! Pretty tough riding with a fully loaded bike. We made it across and the couple gave us more directions to Salzburg in German.
We got back to the trail after their help and then shortly after, lost it again, luckily a man on a bike happened by, he could tell that we were looking lost. He asked where we were going, luckily he was also going to Salzburg! He rode with us the rest of the way to Salzburg and took us in a back way that cut off some hills and miles. Yes! Very thankful for friendly helpful Austrians.
| Heart | 5 | Comment | 2 | Link |
5 years ago
Tip of the day : What to do? What to do? When the garmin and the maps disagree and the trail signs have disappeared.... ask a friendly local.
We did have some hills today. The longest was right after we left our hotel on the cross country route we mapped out to get us back to the trail without backtracking, about 5 km long but it was at a reasonable grade so we could ride it pretty well. We went through some really nice little farm’s with the alps as a backdrop , saw some alpacas and a woman raking hay.
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Next came a huge descent, it was marked with triple chevrons on the map, the most we have seen so far. It was so long and steep that we began to wonder if we needed to stop and let our brakes cool off.
Throughout the day the alps slowly got closer and closer to us. Sometimes they would pop into our site line and at other times would be hidden.
Finally, we made it to Salzburg and there we met up with a cycling buddy joining us for the next leg of the trip. We will be off the bikes for a couple days and enjoying Salzburg!
Today's ride: 35 miles (56 km)
Total: 1,395 miles (2,245 km)
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5 years ago