I had laid out a route of a little over 200 miles for the day that included some roads that were specifically mentioned in Hermann's book and some that just looked good on Google maps. I was also using this great set of maps as a source of good road choices. Since we managed to hit some good roads yesterday I was hopeful that today would uncover some gems. The weather wasn't looking great, but you have to take what you get sometimes. We all decided to taunt the weather gods and not don our rain gear.
Frank is raring to go
Departing the Hotel Almrausch
After getting gas just south of town our first new road of the day was 305 going west from Schneizlruth. What the road lacked in twists and turns it made up for in scenery. When it wasn't passing through quaint little towns it offered sweeping views of the countryside. It would qualify as a decent connector road to get to something interesting, but I was hoping for more. At Reit im Winkl we turned south on 176 towards St. Johann in Tirol, which turned out to be quite a busy and, quite frankly, ugly town. Truck traffic had increased substantially in this area, and my love for Austria was waning.
I had planned a 50km loop from St. Johann in Tirol west to Worgl, then east to Kitzbuhel and back up to SJiT, but just a few miles in decided to scrap that whole section. While 178 may look good on a map, it was just a busy commercial road that we shouldn't be wasting our time on. I don't know what 170 would have been like, but I'm guessing more of the same. We backtracked through SJiT and picked up 164 to Saalfelden which took us over Griessenpass. Or at least that's what the map said, the pass was certainly not memorable in any way.
We stopped for a quick break (eat, drink, bathroom, warmer gear) near Saalfelden, and then had to stop a few miles later to put on rain gear as the gloomy day with on and off fizzing finally turned to proper rain. We continued on 164 over the Dientner Sattel, which at 1357 meters was our first real fun road of the day - which unfortunately wasn't saying much. Our enjoyment was kept in check by the steady rain and the car traffic. By this time we'd been on the road for nearly 4 hours and really hadn't come across really fun roads.
Lunch (well, pretzel anyway) stop
I was born in the Bronx. Austria is not the Bronx.
My bathroom had a nice view
And the rain gear goes on, making the day even better
We split off 164 onto 166 on the other side of Huttau, and at least shed some of the traffic. There were a couple roads in this area that I had high hopes for - one was Pass Gschutt, which sported a 17% incline, and the other was a road through Postalm. The Postalm was a toll road, and highlighted in Hermann's book.
Pass Gschutt didn't take us where we needed to go so we just did a run over it to Gosau and headed back. The very beginning of the road was quite fun with several hairpins, steep hills and some tight turns, but it quickly petered out into another "just kinda curvy" road. In the town of Gosau there was some kind of big community event going on, with many folks in traditional dress and people setting off fireworks. I'm thinking it was a wedding, but I'm not ruling out a funeral either. Whatever it was, it slowed down our return to the pass while all the partygoers drove from the fireworks site to a reception hall. We did a photo stop at the start of the good section of the pass, and several of the guys made runs up and back for the camera. Unfortunately the gloomy weather did not conspire to make for interesting photos.
Pretty scenery, but the road was just so-so
Frank's enjoying it
Waiting on the revelers
Crappy photo of Dave on Pass Gschutt
And a crappy photo of Frank on the same pass
The front of the TDM is certainly...interesting
We made it back to 162 and turned north to get to the Postalm road. We had some confusion finding the start of it, with the Zumo saying one thing and the road signs saying another. We stuck to the road signs and found ourselves heading higher and higher as the road got narrower and narrower. Within a couple kilometers we were on a glorified goat path with no other traffic in sight. We left behind a couple isolated farmhouses at the start of the road and then were "in the wild". Even with the subpar weather and its attendant visibility issues there were some terrific views deep into the valley below.
The veiew from the start of the Postalm road
Dave's quite pleased
Not to bad on the straight section, but when this bus just missed my parked bike on the hairpin I held my breath
After another few kilometers we came to a toll booth, and had to pay 4 euro each to continue. Given how "blah" the roads had been so far I was happy to fork over some cash for what promised to be a good road. Took the four of us a while to deal with cash, gloves, toll gate, etc. Once we were all on the other side of the gate, I started a routine that would serve us well for the rest of the trip: I told everyone to go "ride their own ride" and "wait for everyone at the top". I was glad we could stay together on the transit sections, but I wanted everyone to do the fun roads at their own pace.
Fortunately the BMW driver was patient
"Who's unimpressed with Austria so far?"
The Postalm was certainly the highlight of the day, and I bet it would be even better on a dry day. We pretty much had the road to ourselves which was an added bonus. A shorter ride than I had hoped led us to the broad open summit where we all met up again. Fortunately the road had much to offer past this point, and it began twisting and turning it's way down the eastern side.
I had to wait a minute for these guys to get off the road
The top of the pass
Dave's day was going to get worse before it got better
More cows at the top
The eastern descent of the Postalm wound its way through a narrow canyon. Dave's in the distance there.
It was at the photo stop above where we ran into a problem. When I packed up the camera and rode up to Dave, he motioned for me to stop. Turns out when he stopped to take in the view he noticed a great deal of steam/smoke coming from his bike, and a pool of liquid forming beneath it. Unfortunately none of us are really mechanically inclined, so we set our heads to scratching.
The investigation begins
Was it the radiator? Didn't look or smell like coolant, but what if the bike shop used water instead of coolant? Brake fluid? Some sort of overflow reservoir? We poked around a bit, and it didn't look like anything was actively leaking when the bike was started. I slotted in behind Dave and we rode for a short while to see what would happen. Not much, it turned out, until we stopped again. Dave stopped the bike, got off, and billows of steam starting coming from the radiator area. The bike wasn't riding strangely, there was no temperature gauge to check, the coolant level wasn't dropping so far as we could tell, and we were really not in a good place to do anything to the bike. We decided to ride the few kilometers to the Agip station the Zumo promised us was ahead.
The rain started coming down in buckets as we neared the gas station, and it was a relief to be under a roof for a bit while we figured out what was going on. With the aid of a very helpful local who lent us his phone (because none of us could figure out how to correctly dial a German number, the + sign was the culprit) we gave the dealer a call, and the best Herman could do was send a truck around on Monday. This being Saturday, that did not fill us with happiness. Worse yet, tomorrow was to be the ride over Grosglockner into Italy, and a bike with issues on a Sunday could be big trouble.
To make a long story short, it was rain water. Like I said, none of us are mechanics. When Dave rode the bike, splashed up rain water would collect on some fairing inner or some other hideyhole, and when he put the bike on the sidestand it would dump out over the radiator producing copious amounts of steam. Buncha geniuses we are.
A very helpful stranger
Once we had that sorted, we just needed to get back to the hotel. My route had included some more exploring east of Salzburg, but the rain hadn't relented and we were mentally beat from mucking with the bike and playing out various "what if" scenarios. A more or less direct course to Bad Reichenhall was plotted (avoiding the Autobahn though) and we pulled out into the deluge. We had some more GPS-induced problems on the way back, culminating in ending up in a back alley of a back alley in Bad Reichenhall. While Frank punched more buttons to find the correct route out, I took off up a tiny leaf-strewn path that looked promising. Fortunately it did end up at the main road so I didn't need to try to turn around or head back down the slippery path.
We parked the bikes, got changed, and headed into town for dinner. Some of us managed to score umbrellas from the hotel, others just used their raingear to stay dry. We ended up at the closest restaurant to the hotel, La Dolce Vita. While it had been a mostly disappointing day for me, with the exception of the Postalm road, this dinner helped end the day on a high note. Meals were excellent all around, beers were large and cold, and desserts were fantastic.
Yum