In the past, I’ve struggled with Mountain Biking. Most trails I find are too challenging, to the point of being dangerous to me at the level of expertise I have (i.e. next to none). Since moving to BC, dyke trails are often recommended, but those aren’t really challenging enough – they are mostly flat, though the gravel is too tricky for a road bike. I’ve ridden plenty of these with my Trek hard-tail, but it’s overkill (and a little heavy). So I figured a gravel bike would be my next bike.
Norco Search
My other problem is that I don’t have a bike in Muskoka so my training always suffers during the time where I’m at the cottage. When I’ve had my triathlon bike at the cottage, I have to load it into the car to bring it to a suitable road for riding. On this year’s visit, I considered renting a bike, but after I costed that out, it made more sense to buy a gravel bike. I got a good deal from the Muskoka Bike Pro Shop in Huntsville, and I’m so glad I made that purchase.
My first ride was right out of my driveway, which hadn’t been previously possible on my tri-bike’s skinny, untreaded tires. It was still very hilly, and I confess I got off the bike once or twice, not because the hill was too steep or too long, but because I hadn’t had enough time to recover from the hill before. There were more cars on these roads than I would have expected, but everyone drove safe so I was able to focus on enjoying the ride.
For my second gravel ride, I chose the area around the Lightning Kids summer camp in Novar. I had it recommended to me by Muskoka Bike Pro Shop. I found this ride even better in a lot of ways because it wasn’t as hilly, and I could really enjoy the flying, spinning feeling you can get on a road bike without worrying about any dirt roads. I think that was what was missing when I would ride the mountain bike. It doesn’t quite feel the same in terms of speed and lightness that a road bike does. This has that same lightness, but I’m not stressed when there’s a rock in the road or anything like that. I will say, washboard is still a bit of a nightmare to drive over. The route, as I said, was not as hilly. There were some nice rollers, and though I had hoped to get a 20-kilometre out-and-back done, I hit a point where the road was so steep and rocky that maybe a mountain bike would have been better after all, so I turned around and went back.
Another nice thing about this bike is that it has my first set of tubeless tires, so I worry less about punctures. The guys at Muskoka Bike Pro Shop added a sealant. I might try to do the Tour De Muskoka before the summer is out, and I think this will all put me in better bike shape for the upcoming Vancouver Triathlon.
Before I get any further, let me make it clear that this trip takes place entirely in Germany, and Saxon-Switzerland has nothing to do with Switzerland, other than the mountains. It’s close to the Czech border, and the German name for Saxon-Switzerland sounds a little like you’re saying ‘sexy Switzerland’.
If you’re familiar with tales of my family’s trips to Berlin, you might know that we usually have the kids enrolled in a Summer Camp, which they have unfortunately aged out of by now. While that makes us nostalgic and sad, it did free up our schedule to do a little travel around Germany and find some good hikes.
Bad Schandau is known as a spa resort town, and upon arrival, it was clear that everyone we saw was on their way to, or coming from, a hike. Our hotel had no front desk, but well-appointed apartments, a sauna, a pool and a breakfast buffet. We found Bad Schandau to be a little on the sleepy side, in spite of being a tourist hotspot, many restaurants were closed on the Tuesday night we arrived. Some were closed on Wednesday too. Some were open, but closed in the early evening before we had been able to get out and about after checking in. We finally settled on an Asian restaurant that seemed to struggle with the demand of being the only game in town. For dessert, we managed to sweet-talk our way onto a hotel’s patio for some ice cream, though they had wanted to close the kitchen.
For the next day’s activity, we had used the AllTrails app to scout good trail candidates. My eldest has been getting pretty hardcore on his hiking efforts and doesn’t like to be held back by slower hikers, even if they gave him life and are his flesh and blood, so he found his own. I had picked something easier and more manageable, with a view to possibly adding on later in the day.
A view of Wehlen from the water.
The problem was, all trails within walking distance were long and hard, and though it seemed simple to take a bus to our selected trail head, we found the bus(es) we wanted to take weren’t leaving till mid-day. We ended up walking into a tourist centre right next to our hotel and asking for recommendations. The gentleman behind the counter picked “Utewalder Grund” which involved taking 2 ferries and a train – it sounds bad, but we had public transit passes that cover it all and we were hiking within about 45 minutes.
I suppose the start of the hike was to climb up out of the village of Wehlen until we were atop the village in its castle ruins. They made it appealing for kids and the trail started up the mountain from there.
We climbed and climbed, and the Lightning Kid took a forested path while we stayed on a paved pathway suitable for bikes. We eventually reached a fork where to continue upwards to Utewald promised a “Gaststätte” (restaurant) where we thought we might grab lunch.
Before that, we opted to explore the “Teufelsgrund” – Devil Ground. One branch took us to caves, the other to a canyon, but they both connected into a loop. The caves involved some climbing and crawling, but I didn’t get too dirty.
It was after completing the loop that we read the sign that said the Gaststaette/Restaurant would be closed that day (Wednesday… every weekend is a long weekend around these parts). We opted to head back to the village for lunch; who wants to hike on an empty stomach?
After lunch we wanted to go back to the hotel, but we faced delays in the trains and ferries. I got a little discouraged because I didn’t feel confident about planning further hikes either that day or the next when I couldn’t figure out how long transportation would take. Paying at restaurants was also always delayed, and I began to feel like we were constantly being held prisoner when we just wanted to be on our way.
Thankfully, the hotel pool was nice and cool, as we were quite sweaty when we got back. You’ve probably read the news about Europe’s heatwave. We also alternated with the sauna.
To avoid having problems finding food, we went back to the hotel where we had gotten the ice cream the night before. The terrace was full, so we asked if we could eat inside (which was our preference for avoiding wasps anyway). The indoor area, while empty, was reserved for hotel guests – but our waiter seemed to hem and haw, then let us be seated, with the proviso that we’d face some delays.
We had a slow dinner, but we enjoyed it and wanted to tip generously (i.e. using Canadian rather than European standards), but the waiter was unable to make the card reader work. We ended up having to involve management, who became irate that the server had served us – they felt he was just gunning for tips, but from our perspective, he went above and beyond to ensure we had an enjoyable evening and brought in extra income to the restaurant. It should have been win-win-win, but the manager’s bad attitude about not following ‘the rules’ left a bad taste in our mouths.
The next day involved checking out and getting a train back to Berlin, but with all the difficulties and delays, I wanted to keep things simple so rather than engage in more hiking, we opted to spend our mid-day at a Toscana Thermal Spa.
A view from above of the spa. I couldn’t take pictures within.
We stuck to the ‘Waterworld’ wing of the spa (no naked saunas, or ‘wellness’ exercise rooms for us that day), and enjoyed a variety of pools and hot-tubs. The water temperatures didn’t vary much, but I did like how one swimming pool had an elevated platform with jets in its floor, so that you could recline and get the backs of your legs massaged by them.
There was also a sound bath room, with low lighting and some soothing graphics projected onto the ceiling. The room was meant to be quiet (no conversations, please), but some light modern jazz was playing in the speakers and could be better heard underwater. The water was salted to improve buoyancy. It wasn’t quite salted enough to fully float like in a float chamber (my wife and I’s legs tended to sink unless we propped them on the rim of the pool), but it still created a peaceful experience like being in the womb.
After our 2-hour session, we had lunch in the attached Italian restaurant and observed that our train home was heavily delayed. This gave us a chance to visit an elevator that gives you access to a good view of the town and some trails on the overlooking ridge. We felt too relaxed to hike – while still having a view towards getting back to the train station for our trip home, so we just enjoyed the view.
Getting back to the train station was another contest of figuring out which bus was most likely to show up to pick us up, and we ended up walking more than half the way back.
Overall, we enjoyed Bad Schandau, but I don’t know how a visiting family can make the most of their time when they can’t reliably plan meals or transportation around town.
