Another attempt at an epic ride climbing gravel. Lingering snow turned my gravel ride into a “groadie” ride with a very silent G, as in very little actual gravel. In a rare move, I took a train to go up a new hill to reach a climb I did 51 weeks ago from the east rather than from the north. (See the first pictures, before and of the gravel, at this post from last year climbing the hill above Muotothal.) It started ok… I was cold and kept hoping the air to warm up to 15C as promised but it stayed around 10C.
There were plenty of trails while I climbed, but they were all designed for mountainbikers to descend. This grate here is a common device to keep the livestock in while letting the mtb’s out.
The problem is this spring has been wet. After climbing and climbing, I was stopped by snow. I knew I had at least 1.3mi more of climbing and I didn’t know what was on the other side. As I stood there, and I kid you not, a skier came down the snow that layered the pavement I was to climb. We talked for a while (his car was parked 20m from this picture) and he said the snow went on for over 10k and was waist-deep.
So, I returned down the hill and took a left to try to get over the mountains a bit further north. There was a road that looked promising. I stopped to refill the water bottles and once again it was chilly. The road was flat here as I went along the side of a reservoir. But then it banked up.
In the end, I had to return to the flatland to get around the mountains as there was no way from where I was to get over them. On the left is that train line that took me to the start.
The return was a flat run, though not exceptionally fun as I was rolling on 47mm tires. There were options to get up into the hills as I went up Lake Zurich and got closer to home, but it just wasn’t worth it. Though the plan was foiled (resulting in a reduction of at least 3k’ of climbing), it was still a decent ride exploring new places.
And now I’m BBQ’ing as it’s warmish (60F) along Lake Zurich, which is much better than the ±50F for most of the ride.