I left Graz early Thursday, before 8:00 a.m., planning to beat the incoming 4:00 p.m. weather in Leoben, forecast to last for several hours. Leoben had a campground, multiple booking.com listings, and a potential warmshowers.org host that I had reached out to the night before but hadn’t heard back from.
Mountains majestically surrounded me for most of the day. The climb, while almost constant, stayed a steady grade as I rode between the river and the rail.
I could occasionally see the break in the mountains ahead of me.
And sometimes I couldn’t.
Occasional exceptions to the steady grade occurred ironically when there were large flat sections next to the river, agriculture then pushing me up the side of the mountain. The steepest signed grade, 12%, lasted only 15 ft in my favor, one of the many times I crossed under the rail line.
The Mur River carved the valley I’m following up into the mountains. I regularly passed (or crossed) hydro sites. The Austrians believe in green power, as well as being environmentalists. Here you can see the track created for fish to work their way back upstream.
During one of the longer descents I missed seeing a rock, and slammed into it hard enough I thought I blew the front tube, not to mention a momentary struggle to not go off the side of the mountain a hundred and fifty miles an hour sideways and five hundred feet down at the same time. Nor into the side of the cliff.
I stopped for lunch in Deutchfeistriz only to discover that my cell plan no longer worked. Translating some text messages, 30 days had passed on my cell plan, and I needed to renew. I’d wondered whether I had 6 gb until the data ran out, or whether I had a 30-day plan. Answered that. I couldn’t refill the card without Internet, and I wouldn’t have Internet until I refilled the card! I stopped in Frohnkeiten and used the free city Wi-Fi. Took a bit of untangling, but I restarted my plan. At that point I learned that my warmshowers.org host had responded he wasn’t available.
It wasn’t until Bruck an der Mur, 60 km from Graz, that an errant storm cell caught me. I ducked under bridge to check the weather. An hour’s wait would let the rain pass, so I settled in. Not all that patient, I checked the weather again in 30 minutes. If I waited out the cell, I’d run directly into the rain I planned to beat at 4:00 p.m. Well damn. Close enough to Leoben, I booked an apartment on booking.com, so I’d have a place to land. I waited until the worst of the cell had passed according to the weather radar, girded myself for rain, and set out.
Five minutes later, directly into the storm. I slammed into thunder, lightning, gusting wind, and torrential rain, with water gushing down the streets. I pushed through the weather, and eventually the rain ebbed.
8 km out of Leoben I hit a small bump and realized the rear wheel has lost some air. Not wanting to stop in the rain to fix a flat tire, I babied the rear wheel hoping I could reach the apartment before I ran out of air. 5 km later I pulled into a bus stop to pump up the rear wheel, staggering the last few kilometers to the apartment. Once I checked in, it of course stopped raining.
By the time I got out of the shower the rear tire had completely deflated. I swapped the tube for one of my spares. In the process of changing the flat, while I had the bike flipped over, I also noticed one of the screws had unscrewed on one of the pedals, but hadn’t fallen out yet. Fixed that as well.
Wandered out for dinner and to explore.
I almost got mugged at dinner – some very aggressive chickadees.
The weather has changed. The forecast for tomorrow calls for heavy storms, and high temperatures in the low 50s. Looking farther ahead, still more rain. There’s not much between me and Liezen, 80 km away. Except a 400 m climb up and over an 800 m pass, surrounded by 1500 m peaks.