Stuttgart to Merklingen - Day 71

Date: October 28th, 2009
Distance: 103km
Country: Germany
Song of the Day: Fly - The Tragically Hip

Woke up early and broke camp. I actually got on the road by about 10:30. Which is good, because with the time change (that confused the hell out of me for a bit) it gets dark an hour early. So now I have to start getting up an hour earlier. Ech.

Leaving town was simple. Actually, I never did make it to the center of Stuttgart. I just followed the river south past all the car plants. I then needed to turn Ost(East). This was just a huge pain. The first path I went to take started leading me over a bunch of huge hills. No thanks. I went back to the river and took the next path. This was better in that it was over less hills. The trail markings were much worse though. Various bike paths were marked, but not weather they were part of the route I was supposed to take. I ended up getting lost in Lenningen and my maps was just about useless.

I just found directions to the next town list on the trail and took it. Eventually it did meet up and I started going the right way. I ended up in this mountain valley near the town of Neildingan completely pissed off. Whoever made the path put it right over a huge mountain. Let me put it this way, there are ski slopes on the back side. Now the valley is really beautiful. Basically cliffs on three sides. So I knew I was going to do some climbing. The trees changing colors were wonderful, though. There was even a castle ruin overlooking the whole thing. It looked really spectacular. The critical turn you need to make to get out of the valley isn't marked, however. I took three different roads all the way up until the road just stopped. Three. These aren't nice easy roads either. Most of them I was either stomping in my lowest granny gear or pushing the bike. So getting to the top and finding it isn't the right way is damn frustrating.

Finally, on the forth try, I got to the right on. There was a little sign at the top pointing the way. Thanks. Information that would have been useful at the BOTTOM of the hill. That wasn't the end either. I still had to climb my way on this little gravel road past the castle. That was a hell of a climb. In all I had wasted about two hours in that valley. So now it was getting dark and I didn't have a chance of making it to Ulm.

Argh. But what can you do? So I was on my way again. This is where I saw all the skiing areas. I also saw a shepherd watching his flock in this high mountain valley. That was pretty cool. The path wasn't much better marked in the high country either though. I did a couple of circles before meeting with another cyclist coming home from work. He said he would show me the path as far as he was going. So that was great.

But by the time he left it was pretty dark. I kept going for a bit. When I saw a sign for a camping site I followed it. So I will push on to Ulm in the morning.

-Dravis