mountain bike holidays and the guides ramblings

Fantastic day out in the mountains. For some reason I was in a talkative mood, first unfortunately soul was the lift man at the top of Scheffau. Spent some time reconfirming access rights on a few of the ‘more interesting’ trails that we enjoy. He was laid back and I think he appreciated hearing the mountain bikers point of view. Next was a farm boy who was checking my biking out on the singletrack that I was coming down, he shouted over “are you an extreme biker” (in Austrian of course). Thinking about all those videos you see on youtube, I replied (along the lines of)…. “not really, but as long as I’m not on the road with loads of cars I’m happy”. He just shrugged and watched me ride off.

After a couple more good stretches of tight rooty singletrack, I met some elderly locals walking down the track. It was smiles all round but you could see in their eyes that they thought I was daft!

With a lunch break over in Soell planned, I rode off again and made my way to Silleralm. Ate local smoked ham, home-made farm cheese and fresh baked bread, knocked back a bottle of ‘Radler’ (shandy) – no jokes! I just like to keep my head clear when I’m mountain biking. Ended up chatting with the owner, Lotti. She was a fun, bubbly woman who spends 100+ days of the year living in this mountain hut, looking after the 20 cows and feeding the guests. It’s always strange when people know where you live, “ah you’re an Oberachner” is something I’m hearing more often these days.

Just a few stats from the days mountain biking to finish off – hope the stats aren’t too boring.

• out riding for 4hrs 45mins
• 53km total distance (33 miles)
• 2727m total descent (9000 feet)
• lifts total distance 8.5km (5 miles)
• lifts total ascent 2300m (7500 feet)
• leg power ascent 800m (2500 feet)

We added this post on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 8:13 am.

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