August 22, 2025
110km
The heat of the morning is what woke me up, along with a half dozen RV’s that drove scary close to my tiny footprint of a campsite at River Camping Prague.
After my usual morning campsite breakfast and caffeine hit, and having a semi-frantic time trying to find the key to my bike lock, I was off at just after 11am.
Almost immediately after leaving, I was climbing…out of the Vltava River valley as I headed out directly north, in accordance to the advice of Google Maps. As Google Maps does not provide bicycle route options in the Czech Republic, I stuck to the motor vehicle route to Dresden, minus the toll and highway options…an imperfect but doable option.
As soon as I got to the top of the first morning climb, the headwinds started…and were with me for much of that day. The route out of Prague was anything but scenic…I find it interesting that once out of the city centre, Prague looks just like any other city…wide main roads, shopping centres, apartment buildings and subdivisions.
It wasn’t long after leaving the city limits, that I saw distant ramparts of Ore Mountain range…and I was heading right for them.
The first of two climbs came about at about mid day…and it was a welcome diversion as the ridge I climbed acted as a barrier to the headwinds…as most bike packers and tourers will attest, climbing is almost always preferred over headwinds…
The drop into the next valley was awesome…and the ride to the next mountain range took much of the afternoon.
I arrived in surprisingly large Teplice just before dinner time. I stopped at a grocery store and shored up my supplies for the late afternoon climb to the German border.
Throughout the day, I tried to contact a campground on the German side of the border in Altenberg, called Kleiner Galgenteich campground, to secure a site, but they did not return my emails…yet another instance where being able to make a phone call would have made all the difference.
The climb started before leaving Teplice, and along the way I was surveying the lovely and dense forests around me for a possible wild camp…but I had my hopes on being able to camp in Altenberg and get a hot shower, so I took the chance and continued to the top. Along the way, I could feel the temperature dropping the higher I climbed…and when I got to the top, soaked with sweat, the temperature was no higher than perhaps 7 degrees C…not freezing, but after that long climb and sweating so much, it was soooo cold!
I stopped briefly at a hotel at the top of the climb in hopes that perhaps they may have a room available, but they did not.
The rest of the ride to Altenberg and the Kleiner Galgenteich campground was fast…but it was all I could do to hold off hypothermia.
I got the the campground with little if any daylight left at 7:30ish pm. The campground office was closed, but I was able to get around the gate and, after asking a few campers about options, I found a spot and quickly setup camp. After setup, a group of campers across the road invited me to have an absolutely delicious BBQ burger…using Alberta beef, which the generous fellow said was the best in the world…he was not wrong!
It wasn’t long after that I was showered and into dry clothes…I felt blessed to not have to wild camp that night!
River Camping Prague:
Kleiner Galgenteich Campground, Altenberg, Germany:
http://www.camping-galgenteich.de/
1 Comment
That seemed brutal. All the climbing and I kept thinking go electric lol. 😆