August 26, 2018
Admont to Altenmarkt - now with video
Accomodations here are few and far between
When we left off yesterday we were probably discussing the weather and the impending doom of having to ride the Bundesstraße. I do not like riding with traffic and I don't like riding in the rain. But before we get to that, let's talk about the pretty awesome breakfast at the hotel die Traube. Oh man. Aside from the mediocre buns, the rest of the breakfast was incredible. Multiple yogurts, design your cereal, lots of jams, multiple cheeses including 3 varieties of soft cheese, fruit, fresh vegetables, even a vegan sun dried tomato spread. All in all an excellent breakfast. Now that that's out of the way, back to the story. As I was paying my bill and leaving, the lady at the counter told me to be careful. The Bundesstraße is very dangerous. That's the second time I've been warned about that stretch of the bike route. Ominous words indeed, particularly on a cloudy day!
Before heading off I stopped to visit the famous monastery/cloister/whatever thing in Admont. It's famous for having the biggest library. Admission is a hefty €11. No thanks. I wandered a bit around the gardens, poked my head in the church (they were about to start communion so I discretely departed without taking a photo), and honestly didn't see what all the hype was about, probably because I didn't shell out for the famous library. What good is a library with lots of books if I don't get to read them anyway? While wandering about I also did some checking on train and bus schedules. Nothing until early afternoon. I'd seen all of Admont already and I didn't really want to sit around for several hours when I could be biking anyway. So, I decided to at least ride as far as the Bundesstraße and see if it was really so terribly scary.
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It was lightly raining. I mean, you knew this part of the story was coming, right? I sure did. I'd checked 3 different weather reports with radar. None agreed. 2 of the 3 thought it would stop raining early afternoon. The 3rd thought I'd just keep getting wetter. All 3 agreed that it would rain in the morning though. And it did. Not hard. Just enough to be annoying. And it was cold. I was wearing both of my warm shirts, my warmest pants, warmest socks, and full rain gear. And I was still cold. That is, until I reached the first hill near Weng. And then the next hill. And the next. None of these were listed in my bikeline guidebook. Either they have very special restrictions for what constitutes a hill, or they've never bothered to actually ride this route. It's not that the hills are hard. I can ride them just fine. It's more the fact that it's no fun when it's cold and rainy and dreary. There's no excitement at the top with a beautiful view. Just more clouds and rain. However, it did keep me warm and that was a good thing today.
And then the path ended and there was the Bundesstraße and the entrance to Gesäuse Nationalpark. And there were tons of cars and trucks thundering by. Actually, no. There were hardly any cars and no trucks at all and they were driving quite reasonably! Maybe it's because it's a Sunday. Or maybe it's because the weather is horrid. But whatever the reason was, it wasn't scary at all. I'd checked the various places where I could bail and catch the train so I decided to give it a go.
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It was beautiful. Even in the rain, the scenery was beautiful. The road was in pretty bad shape, but that's ok. It probably slowed traffic down. The cars that came all slowed down and pulled well out around me. I never felt threatened or the need to retreat off the edge of the road. I even found a bathroom along the side of the road and a special cart for people wanting to explore the park but unable to walk.
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The ride through the park was great. There was a nice waterfall along the way as well that I took several photos of. Traffic stayed light the whole time. There were a lot of 4 wheel drive off-road vehicles going the other way covered in mud. Whether that is a popular activity in the park, or there was some sort of race, I don't know. I'm just glad they were going the other way.
The nice park type area more or less ended in Hieflau. I wandered a bit off the route to look for a bathroom and encountered, or more accurately, was cornered by an older lady. She approached in such a way that there was no avoiding her. I enquired after a public restroom and have absolutely no idea what she said in return, but whatever it was , it was very extensive and at least part of it was her wanting to see me ride my bike. She remains the only Austrian I have not understood. The old steirisch dialect is not one I can speak or understand. I never did find a restroom there.
The ride from there started straight off with a longer meaner hill. The road cyclist that whizzed past me did. Decent bit of it out of the saddle so it must have been steep. I just slowly pedalled up the sidewalk. By the top I was getting pretty hot and the sun was peeking out so I stopped to shed a couple layers. The downhill afterwards was much more fun than the going up part.
There was footpath and at times bike path all along this section of Bundesstraße between Hieflau and Altenmarkt. Even if there hadn't been, given how little traffic there is, it was perfectly safe. Whether that would be the case on a weekday, I don't know. There's not much along this stretch besides some mining operations and it's possible there could be some larger vehicles on a weekday. The only thing of note that really ahppened was meeting a super friendly cat. He was a snuggly lap cat and left quite a bit of his hair on me after we warmed up together. I finally had to set him down at which time he wandered a bit ahead and started eating grass.
And then the rain came back. By then I was getting pretty tired of biking in the rain so I started looking at accomodations. The options were slim, and I knew that going in. Booking.com showed a place in Altenmarkt so I decided to head there and then consider my options further.
Upon arriving in Altenmarkt, I examined my map and my accomodations listing. My options were to bail there, or to ride to Großramming another 10 miles down the road. I debated long and hard on that one because with tomorrow being a workday, I was concerned there would be higher traffic levels on the bit of Bundesstraße left. The problem was, 1 guest house was fully booked, and when I road by the other, they had closed at 4pm! So back to considering großramming. But I was cold, and wet, and not having any fun at all. There was one more place on the list, a private room. I called. The old lady had a room. God bless her. It's a cool old building, originally built in 1523 or something. It has a courtyard out back and all sorts of neat things. I doubt I'll have the 3 star hotel level of breakfast tomorrow, but it's cheap, it's clean, it's warm, and it's dry.
What will happen tomorrow, I'm not sure. I'm now behind on my plans and would need to cycle 56 miles to reach Enns at the end of the route. While possible, it would not be fun. There are more hills coming and I would have very little time to explore Steyr or Enns, both of which are neat towns. There's also the little matter of the stretch of Bundesstraße left. There is a train leaving at 9:40 that would get me to Steyr in around an hour. That is very much on the table. The next train isn't until mid afternoon which would not be helpful. There are more mountain vistas, but it's not very varied here and I think I've now got the feel for this area. I also wouldn't mind getting to Gmunden a bit earlier. The weather Tuesday should be exceptional and there's a certain bit of trail that I'd like to ride on a beautiful day again.
I just checked Strava for a review on stats for the day.
This explains a lot. I've never done this many ft of climbing, and certainly not over this short a stretch of mileage. Note the lack of anything flat. This confirms my impression while riding that I was either going up, or going down. Because apparently I was.
Today's ride: 32 miles (51 km)
Total: 207 miles (333 km)
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