Lindkogel Route

Once again - this year for the first time - up the Lindkogel to the Iron Gate. I ride this varied route a few times a year. I always park at the car park near the Hotel Sacher in Baden. It then goes along the Helenental, past the Antonsgrotte and after the Augustinerhütte the ascent begins slowly but steadily. This is a beautiful tour at any time of the year. In midsummer, however, you should leave early because sweating is the order of the day on this route, especially on some short steep sections with an incline of more than 20%, such as the Orchideenwiese ... Also this year for the first time there was a short visit to the hut, a beer and a liver dumpling soup, had to be. Then it went down the Harzberg route, always an experience. Here you can really let it rip over the many stones and roots. There were hardly any other people on the road today... Over the vineyards via Soos we went back to Baden to the car. A thoroughly successful trip!

Happy New Year to everyone! And here's the video of the tour: https://youtu.be/6eCbi4CT8VI

I started the last tour of the year today with a bit of a cold. Including today, I was on the road 127x this year with a total of 8,092 km and 115,230 bio-hm. Today we went once again through the Helenental up to the Hoher Lindkogel and through the Iron Gate over the beautiful trails back to Baden. Down in the valley it was far from the high temperatures forecast, but the further up you went the warmer it got! The shelter at the top of the Sina control room has once again distinguished itself particularly negatively. They are known there to be slow and often unfriendly. Today they have once again strengthened this reputation. Liver dumpling soup came 15 minutes after ordering, but without the beer that had also been ordered. I had to wait another 20 minutes for the beer. Unbelievable, and the place wasn't even full. And instead of an apology, there was only the stupid hint that the beer had to be poured first. It's no wonder that I paid exactly the €8.10 asked for and later thanked me with a 1* Google rating. It's best to read the Google ratings of this shelter, some positive presumably fake ratings but many with wondrous negative experiences like mine today... Afterwards it went through the Iron Gate down the trails to the rear Lindkogel and further rapidly downhill to Sooß. Instead of above the vineyards, I shortened the route this time and drove back to the car park at the Hotel Sacher via the Weinstraße.

The single trail is very challenging with some steep steps to overcome 🚴‍♂️🚴‍♂️

Super tour, and as a highlight in the middle of the forest right on the trail a beautiful silver pheasant. Iron gate shelter unfortunately closed (vacation)..

I hadn't planned on such a huge tour today, but a lot of things turned out to be different than planned. It started right at the start. The sun shone everywhere but here, here it was storming and pouring. 20 minutes of rain and 10 more minutes later and the sky turned blue again. I decided to start late. Komoot must have had a New Year's Eve hangover today, but that's not true at all. Very easy to see because I passed the same place twice. 1x while driving down, km 22.6 with 668m. Later when carrying/driving up km 32.4 with 518m. So the same place but 150 m too little. And 1310 m down and 1180 m up with the same start/finish isn't possible either. According to the navigation system it was 1,498 m above sea level, as information if anyone wants to follow that. I don't recommend going uphill from the Jägerhaus anyway, see later. So I started and drove through the Helenental, past the Augustinerhütte, up across the orchid meadow to the Sinawarte. The route I have taken many times so far. Then up to the control room, where two workers pointed out to me that the control room was closed today for work - but the barrier at the bottom was blown away by the storm... Then into the shelter. You still need A LOT OF PATIENCE there, but at least this time the waitress was friendly, she was also alone, so you couldn't blame her at all. Sometimes real furies waitresses up here, I've had very negative experiences there a few times and the Google reviews also tell a lot. Then after a slightly longer break than originally planned down to Sooß, I love this trail, stony, rocky, flowing... it has it all. Halfway there I suddenly come across a family with 4 children, 3 of whom are babies in strollers!!! in contrast to. Luckily I have it on video, no one else believes me. Absolutely irresponsible to try to get up this trail with a stroller. They actually made it very far, but they won't get much further up. I hope that the mountain rescue service doesn't have to be called later... Below just before Sooß then turn sharply to the left and along above the vineyards. Since I was in a good mood, I thought I would drive to the Jägerhaus (not planned). I have driven the entire tour up to this junction many times. So I take the forest road to the hunter's lodge. But then I would have had to turn right to get to Helenental. Of course, I drove to the left, past the ban on cyclists. At first it was actually quite nice and civil. Then I saw that this was going to be a dead end and I had to go steeper up to the right. The ground there was high with leaves and deep, driving uphill was not possible, so carrying was required. I always thought it couldn't be that far, but it just kept going uphill. Later it becomes very steep, rocky and rooty. In retrospect I saw that it was an S3 trail, probably only recommended for downhill. However, stubborn as I am, I stayed on the path and carried the bike up, and it was rarely possible to ride for a short time. Overall, I lost a lot of time and when I finally saw a familiar crossroads I was completely amazed at how high up I was. It was getting dark, I turned right to a trail that took me down as quickly as possible. The visibility got worse and worse, but somehow it worked. Then down a piece of the Helenental towards the starting point and finally I was back at the car.

Komoot gave me a lot of altitude difference today, namely at the shelter :-) Keep your eyes open when choosing a route :-). I could have saved myself one or the other route today. E.g. at KM 15.7, the track was littered with branches and stones for 100m. At the end of the 100m I was allowed to drag my bike up what felt like 1000 steps with almost 90 degrees :-) Was a little late today, which was a big advantage. There were very few hikers and bikers on the road. At the Vöslauerhütte (around 5 p.m.) I was the only guest. They gave away cake because they then close for a week :-)