Some Bike Rides Stink

Yesterday I biked up to a man made lake supporting snow making capabilities for the Hahnenkamm. I then continued to the top of the Hahnenkamm on steeper terrain with a new, almost sandy trail surface, not yet packed down. It takes both strength and skill to ride this part of the route. As I walked pushing my bike up the steep, I asked those eternal questions: "why am I here?", "is there life after death?", and so on. But it was interesting to work my way up to the top of the Hahnenkamm downhill course. I'd have no problem skiing it slowly and carefully, but I am not a racer and cannot imagine flinging myself down this twisty, steep course attempting to go fast.

After reaching the starting hut of the downhill course, I continued up toward the top of the Fleckalmbahn on a road that was something I could ride. At about 1700 m. in elevation, the weather looked too weird so I headed back down passing both the upper and lower Fleckalms on the way. The lower Fleckalm provides food for winter skiers and summer hikers/bikers. In fact, this is one of the places Julie worked in her early days in Tirol, learning both recipes for regional specialties and the local dialect. She moved to Tirol in 1984, knowing no German - and certainly not the local dialect.

In Fall the dairy cattle are moved off the mountains to the valley, spending the winter mostly inside barns. The manure etc. is saved and stored until the next summer. Then it is then transported in tanks with wheels to its destination and sprayed on the crops as needed. The odor is evil, overpowering, and not featured in the tourist brochures. Encounters with this practice when biking are particularly unpleasant when biking extended uphills (you can only hold your breath so long). Fortunately, on this bike ride the encounter was on the descent. In particular, a leaky manure tank had preceded me on the paved portion (starting at the lower Fleckalm) leaving a liquid center stripe. It certainly kept me on my side of the road.

The weather remained quite weird during the Foehn with temparatures oscillating in the 28 to 30 celsius range and with gusty winds. Overnight it passed and an intense rain squall followed on its heels, cooling us back down. By mid morning the rains had ceased, but recurred intermittently throughout the remainder of the day.

It's time to visit the Konditorei.

Richard
2004.07.09