- trail finding -
Mountain biking is my job, sometimes I have to pinch myself when I say that! Today I was out alone, looking for singletrack, good trails, restaurants so that our guests can have as enjoyable a holiday as possible. Now the restaurant part is the easy bit as the Austrians have a fantastic number of mountain huts dotted over the landscape. Look for names like ‘huette‘ or ‘alm‘ and you won’t go far wrong for some hearty nosh and a good glass of beer. I’d stay off the ‘Weissbier‘ if I were you, save that for the valley, for some reason it goes straight to my head, not great when you are trying to negotiate some steep curvy singletrack.
Trail searching is definitely more of a challenge, very briefly
- study the maps (many publishers – all slightly different)
- plot a few routes, variations and safety routes
- plan the timing and check the weather forecast
- eat a big bowl of pasta
- sleep well
- wake up, recheck the weather
- check bike
- head out and expect the unexpected (route explorations. weather, incorrect maps)
- GPS the route, take notes
- get home late and track all your findings
Repeat this whole process to refine the route.
Today was exactly this, headed over to Westendorf via a couple of uplifts, found some great singletrack (as well as some trails that aren’t possible on the mountain bike). Walked up a number of forest paths to explore potential routes (this is the only way on unmarked tracks – tiring lugging your bike up these singletrack paths). Overall it was a good day out, some great sections that I’m going to sit down and piece together into a new all day round trip.
