August 29, 2018
Chur - We Were Expecting an Easier Day But...
Disentis to Chur
We were expecting an easier day today, but when you plunk yourself in the middle of the Swiss Alps, what can you expect? We had plenty of stunning downhill swoops today, but still climbed over 1100 m to achieve those downhills. The scenery and weather were amazing, but by the end of a 30 degree day, when we were presented with the mother of all head winds I had had enough. I plugged in my music for motivation and tucked myself behind the Chief Navigator. One of the benefits of being married to a big guy.
But back to the beginning. We had a good breakfast at our hotel and were on our way in a timely fashion. We should have realized what was coming when we were immediately routed down all the way to the river. We had some traffic problems to get there too. Keith made it around, but I was stuck in the traffic for at least 5 minutes.
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We went all the way down to the river, and guess what happened when we got there? We started right back up the other side, and it wasn’t a gentle hill either. Once at the top, guess what? Back down to the river. Yup.
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On our second return to the river, the CN took one look at the official route back up and decided on a deviation onto the road. We are pretty sure we didn’t save ourselves any climbing, but at least the road was paved. Traffic was very light and when we got to the top of that climb we had a lovely swoop down into the next village. By now though we were wary of the loss of elevation. We ran into Gerhardt from Switzerland Mobility in the village and had a quick chat. He was surprised to see us there as he had come via the official route. We left him seeking a coffee and carried on.
We returned to the official route and it was very rough. Much more suitable for mountain bikes than fully loaded touring bikes, but we persevered and the surface eventually improved. It was also primarily a gentle down hill at this point, rail trail grades I would say, with a few small hills thrown in for variety.
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Then came the absolute highlight of the day. We headed up, up again on the most spectacular road you could ever imagine. It paralleled Switzerland’s Grand Canyon and the ride was stunning. There was virtually no traffic, and the few cars we saw were travelling slowly to take in the views and because in many spots the road narrowed to a single lane. It was amazing.
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5 years ago
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We ran into a man with his son who had come up the other way at a lookout. They had come from the a nearby village. He told us it would be downhill all the way to Chur. He was wrong. We had a few more short, steep ascents and short steep descents before we hit the flat. When we hit the flat there was a ridiculous head wind blowing. We both agree it was the strongest headwind we have ever ridden in. Honestly, as I was riding behind Keith I was astonished he could do it. By the time we got to Chur we were both tired but happy.
We had booked our hotel on a bench by the bike path in a gale. It was quite funny really. We had a little bit of navigational confusion once we were in the old cobbled streets but finally made it to discover we had to carry our bikes down an ancient winding (into the former dungeon?) staircase to store them. This is a very old building. I looked at the stairs and at Keith. I honestly wasn’t sure I had it left in me at that point, so we carried them down one at a time, him at the front, me at the back. That made it easy. Then it was shower and supper time followed almost immediately by sleep time 😀. A simply amazing day. That ride along the canyon was so fantastic.
https://www.relive.cc/view/1805585994
Today's ride: 70 km (43 miles)
Total: 246 km (153 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 7 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 9 |
5 years ago
5 years ago
We are loving your journal and your new lifestyle. I am not sure we are brave enough to make that plunge! I do find though that once we leave home I just don’t think about it. Interesting isn’t it.
5 years ago
5 years ago
5 years ago
You've got us all scrambling back to our ancient journals. Maun and I did a modified version of this ride in 2001. I don't know what kind of camera we had then but we certainly didn't take many pictures.
We couldn't ride on the path either because of rain. We ended up on the road and the hardest climb I've ever done. I don't remember the route but I do remember the names Ilanz and Flims. It was ten years post heart attack for me and I was taking lots of medicine in order to avoid the surgeon. This included a beta blocker that limited my heart rate to exactly 110 at which point I would simply have to stop. Led to a lot of walking.
Re St. Moritz: There is an afterword in that journal entry saying what a mistake it was not to go to St. Moritz (and Davos). In the meantime we are looking forward to wherever you go next.
5 years ago
You've got us all scrambling back to our ancient journals. Maun and I did a modified version of this ride in 2001. I don't know what kind of camera we had then but we certainly didn't take many pictures.
We couldn't ride on the path either because of rain. We ended up on the road and the hardest climb I've ever done. I don't remember the route but I do remember the names Ilanz and Flims. It was ten years post heart attack for me and I was taking lots of medicine in order to avoid the surgeon. This included a beta blocker that limited my heart rate to exactly 110 at which point I would simply have to stop. Led to a lot of walking.
Re St. Moritz: There is an afterword in that journal entry saying what a mistake it was not to go to St. Moritz (and Davos). In the meantime we are looking forward to wherever you go next.
5 years ago
Keith
5 years ago