Bikepacking Trans Germany

Welp, it’s all done now. I completed the race, I finished the ride and while it was slow I made it to Berlin. As usual I am having trouble figuring out where to start in my writing so I decided this will be the first in several posts of no specific order. All posts will be under the BTG2018 category .

First off the hugest thanks to Achim, Thomas and everyone else who helped put this route together. The list of POI put together was thorough enough it made additional planning difficult (where to start?). The GPX file provided is hands down the best I’ve been given to date. They even mentioned in one update they are thinking of old Edge device owners like myself in it’s creation. I had to split one of the sections in half to get turn by turn and that’s it. Typically I have to spend a half dozen hours getting a route working on my old Garbin. Cheers to you all!

The route itself could not be more stunning. Mountainous terrain starting a mere 60km from the start was a bit of a shock to the system. Not only for the fact I hadn’t trained at all with this much weight but the beauty of it all. Most of the route being on “Wanderweg” (hiking paths) meant despite the heat the direct sun wasn’t as bad as it could have been and we spent a great deal of the time in lush forests. This wouldn’t be true for the entire race but I sure enjoyed it while I could.

Racing vs Riding

I knew from the start I was not in race shape. Ten weeks before the start my work schedule for the year got flipped, my manager approved a month off so I jumped, even having just started riding hard again from a broken foot at the end of last year. Thankfully my commute is fairly difficult at 10km with 500m climbing. So I did that several times a week and hoped my prior experience and ability to function without sleep would get me through.

Day Three Strategy

Day one is usually a blast. You’re fresh, you’re with people, everyone is having a great time. Besides not feeling very well at the start this was basically the case for me. On day two, doubt settles in. What am I doing this for? What am I trying to prove? Why am I so far back? Beelzebub where is the next beer?! Never trust anything you think on day two. This is the day three strategy. Make the decision am I racing or am I touring on the morning of day three. Aside difficulties waking up and getting started I felt quite good, I typically wake up (legs, etc) late in the day and day two had finished quite nicely. I was already climbing better and was sitting mid-20s with plenty of people around. Day three says I’m racing.

Sign on tree of Devil marking the trail — Beelzebub says this way to beer

OK! Next post will be after I am back home, I have some ideas on updating the blog to include more map based posts. Stay tuned, subscribe to the RSS amd leave a comment, I actually check those!

June 26, 2018June 28, 2018

Mini Tour with Thomas and Oli – Day 2

Our second day was fairly straightforward, beautiful forest paths, vineyards, cycling paths between small villages, a couple wrong turns.

Thomas descending with Oli in background

Oli on the descent from the tower

Best part of sleeping up by a tower is the descent first thing. Thomas and Oli seem to be enjoying it.

A fine example of some of the lovely forest paths we rode out.

We stopped in the small town Bühl for lunch. We had only wanted a bakery and coffee but for several small towns in a row everything was closed so Chinese food it was.

Sadly, Oli had to depart us after lunch to get back to Karlsruhe early but Thomas and I rode on with some detours here and there. Including to Schloss Favorite.

But who’s Favorite?

So… I’m a pretty big fan of rodents. I’ve kept pet rats most of my life, I’ve had hamsters and (while not rodents) rabbits and guinea pigs*. So when Thomas asked if I knew what Nutria were my whiskers started to twitch.

(* The title of this BLARG predates my guinea pigs by 8 years)

I MADE FRIENDS WITH THE NUTRIA!

It didn’t take long for my little rodent friends to find me. And oh boy these two weren’t shy at all. They were happily munching on grass as I approached but then decided I looked far more interesting. This was my first time seeing a Nutria up close. With the exception of the round, rat-like tail they appear to be very similar to beaver, including GIANT incisors. Bye my big ol’ water rat friends!

Most of the route from here was increasingly in dense forest with mixed single track. Thomas pointed out one of the local plants (Kleines Springkraut) and told me to squeeze the stamen and…. POP! It’s amazing to witness how some plants have adapted to travel. If my fingers had a nice fur coat (gross) this part of the plant would have happily hitched a ride.

popping stamen of Kleines Springkraut — POP!

With this we were back on the path to Karlsruhe. We passed a nice looking CX/DH-ish mountain bike trail that really had me wanting to make a future trip with my cross country (or future trail) bike.

Aaaand that’s it. Next planned is a solo overnight to a favorite local spot.

'FUCK COPS' on back of road sign. I agree with this message. — I agree with this message.

June 25, 2018June 25, 2018

Mini Tour with Thomas and Oli – Day 1

After a night of anxiety driven shit-show-y-ness I managed to meet up with Thomas, Oli and some other friends outside the small town Irhingen. Not only did I get to catch up with some old friend this vantage point offered my first glimpse of the Backpacking Trans Germany course. These profiles cover about the first 130km.

On the right, 73.6 km 4.76% elevation gain vs. distance. Nice!
And on the left, 53.0 km with 22.47% elevation gain vs. distance. Oof. 3rd steepest segment… on day one. I couldn’t bring myself to taking anymore pictures as my head turned left. Just more mountains.

After some chit-chat, snacks and brekky beers we departed at the crack of noon. The cycling infrastructure in this area is impressive. Even the smallest of towns seemed to be marked with on path signage, making it really easy to keep rolling along without paying so much attention to the route.

Thomas and Oli!

A lot of the days riding looked fairly similar to this with nice forest paths dotted through out as we headed towards Offenburg. We had some elevation gains through the day but nothing major until headed east after getting supplies in Offenburg. Right away we found ourself in vineyard country again but this time heading up some fairly steep climbs. Our destination was one of several lookout towers in the mountains east of Offenburg. Originally we’d planned to stay near an old brick tower but a mistake in the route planning led us to a more modern steel structure. While less visually appealing this did mean we could climb it for sure, offering some spectacular views.

The old brick tower can barely be made out to the south.

And being that it’s World Cup season, we happily cracked some German themed cans as we watched the match. There was a MASSIVE party down the hill who’s cheering prompted us to pay attention to the match and thanks the substantial delay on the phone we didn’t miss any excitement.

Oli admiring his handy work. (see the signs?!)

And that pretty much wraps up day one. We hung out around the fire until late drinking wine, eating bread and cheese and telling tales of our recent adventures. Really good catching up with old friends.

June 22, 2018June 25, 2018

A quick visit in Frankfurt

I’d somehow got it in my head I that my flight landed on Friday and I had to jump on the train straight away. Thankfully I was wrong and I could visit with some friends. That also meant I had to get in touch, which is increasing more difficult and I move away from centralized “social media”. But things worked out, I got a place to stay Thursday night and had plenty of time to visit folks on Friday before my bus.

One of my favorite parts of coming to Germany is that you cannot drink too much coffee. So I, as usual, celebrated this fact. This time with a very beautiful espresso machine made by my friend David with help from the house-mates. They’d cobbled together parts from various machine into this stunning brass enclosure. Has all the features of a fancy machine like auto water filling and a nice powerful pump.

I’d forgotten a couple small parts so Fridays top agenda item was finding, most importantly the proper bolts and plates for my cleats. We visited Parrots and Crows a new shop since the last time I visited. I cannot thank them enough for helping me out.

The shop splits a space with a nice cafe. We’d rolled in just in time for lunch. If I got it right, normally it’s just veggie (yay!). We had a kind of pasta salad lasagna that was very nice.

That afternoon Mo and I rode out to his new place outside Frankfurt. On the way we stopped for a nice view and the obligitory apfelwein.

The apartments I visited are an interesting communal hosting project called Edwards-Kaserne. Old American GI barracks where converted into various sized apartments with several large communal gardens, work spaces, play areas and social spaces.

After this I headed back to the main station to catch my bus. I was left with a timley message on a poster in the basement. Next up, Freiburg to…. I have no clue where I’m going.

Another WORLD is POSSiBLE `NECCESSARY! — Another WORLD is POSSiBLE + NECCESSARY!