These past couple of days I had the chance to ride through the Odenwald, and then follow the Main River for a bit before heading back west to Darmstadt to complete my “loop”. I originally had intended this to be a castle tour, and it still was, but I had to skip a couple of castles due to some route issues.
The first part of the trip was the Odenwald crossing – Heppenheim to Miltenberg. This was where most (basically all) of the elevation was, and also, the route issues. Both Google and Komoot sent me looking for non existing hiking trails to ride my bike on, and at one point, I just did some hike-a-bike to get back on tarmac and roll to a nice town to spend the night. Still, it was a great experience. The landscape is just phenomenal and a little bit of adventure isn’t a bad thing!
The second day was much more straightforward – following the Main River north through Aschaffenburg and Seligen and ultimately turning west to Darmstadt. This was also a very beautiful place to ride through! Very different than the Odenwald, but beautiful in its own way. So much architecture to enjoy – castles, houses, churches and monasteries…just awesome!
My setup was quite minimal (by my standards), and thankfully so. Even with minimal luggage, I must admit I struggled on some of the Odenwald climbs on day 1. 60km in, I had already covered around 1,500m in elevation, and unfortunately that’s quite a lot for me 😅. The 10% and steeper stuff still kicks my butt – gotta keep practicing those I guess.
Highly recommend these parts of the world for anyone who has the chance to see them!
by ironpandas
2 Comments
Biautifull scenarios
Could you please post your minimal setup packing list?