June 20th: Lenzerheide to Zernez

 The morning’s breakfast was excellent, and the staff present made me realize that the restaurant we’d eaten at the night before shared the same staff as the hotel breakfast, so the two places were affiliated. After breakfast, we quickly descended down towards the main road, where we linked up with signs to Davos and Albula. The road actually climbs quite a bit before dropping down towards Filisur and the Albula pass. The climb up to Bergun (another town I’d always wanted to stay at but never did for one reason or another) was steep but in the morning cool with fresh legs it was more than doable. Past the lip into the valley we dropped into the center of town with its fountain. There was a Vogl supermarket but also a bakery. Boen had learned that supermarkets provided much faster service for ice cream, so opted for the supermarket, where I bought bananas and chocolate. I couldn’t resist the bakery, however, so we went in as well and bought some pastries to eat outside. It was clearly too early to stop here for the night. We did another weather check and decided we could at least make Zernez that day given how early we were. 

Riding up the pass road, the grade was a manageable 10%. We felt a few rain drops here and there but after the sweltering heat of yesterday it was actually welcome and made me feel like we would make a better pace than expected. The views improved and we even passed the place where Bowen and I stopped for a view of the lake but Boen did not feel like stopping. 

As we turned the corner and started to see the power line pylons leading over the pass (despite the area being a National Park!) the rain started coming down harder. We stopped to put on rain gear, being too committed to stop now. The good news was that with the rain, traffic dwindled to a trickle and by the time we reached the hospiz summit there was no traffic to speak of. Despite signs warning us that the summit hospize was closed there were clearly people inside and services were being rendered. But the rain showed no signs of stopping and I didn’t want to be stuck there, so after a brief stop for a summit picture Boen and I mounted the tandem and rode down the pass. 

I have no pictures of the descent since with rain gear on there was no chance I could reach my phone and nor was I inclined to stop for photos. Many electrons have been spilled and wasted on the virtues of disc brakes for wet mountain descents. In reality, however, sidepull caliper rim brakes work far better in the rain than most relatively new cyclists give them credit for. With Kool-stop salmon brake pads, all you need to do is pulse the brakes once in a while in the rain and the brakes will quickly clear the water on the rim and start grabbing. You won’t stop as quickly as when it’s dry but with good judgement I’ve frequently over-taken disc-brake equipped cyclists in the rain. 

Of course, traffic on the Albula today was non-existent since rain was coming down in excess of 15mm, so I had no one in front of me to overtake. We zipped down the 12% grade, a little too cold and traveling a bit too fast to enjoy the views. The sensation of speed was definitely present, but the rain drops were also striking my face fast enough for me to feel them. 

At the bottom of the pass I went straight into the town of La Punt and stopped at the first hotel on the right. We parked the bike outside, heedless of the rain pouring down on it and walked into the hotel. The hotel inside was nice and warm --- it was clearly a high end hotel, and despite our dripping all over their nice hardwood floor, the hostess immediately asked to take our jackets and seat us down in their drawing room and asked if she could bring us something warm to drink. We ordered tea. I asked if the hotel had any vacancy, and the response was that “There’s an event in town so all the hotels are fully booked.”  It looked like Zernez was our only choice. 

Arturo arrived and looked at the weather radar. It looked like the storm would dissipate after an hour. There was no question that we would stop in Zernez. Wet shoes and socks  meant that a climb up Ova Spin to Il Fourn would be unpleasant even if the rain stopped. Arturo was skeptical even about Zernez, since Google maps claimed there was significant climbing between La Punta and Zernez. I pointed out that Google Maps assumed you wouold take the bike route. “The bike route does dummy lamb things. Just take the main road. It’ll be a very fast descent.” 

Indeed, when the rain turned into drizzle and a light sprinkle an hour later, we got back on the road after paying for tea and headed straight for Zernez along the main road. There was a little bit of climbing, but it was relatively minor. At a construction traffic control light we had a postbus behind us but I wasn’t going to be stuck behind a bus if I could help it. As soon as the light changed Boen and I sprinted and stayed in front of the bus for at least 3 kilometers before there was a stretch straight enough for it to over take us. But the spell of the storm had been broken. We were now warm and flying like the wind, the tribulations of the past behind us. We made Zernez is short order, stopping at the hotel we’d picked out earlier but had made no reservations at. When they quoted us a higher price we showed them the booking.com offer and they immediately revised their price to match. 

Their restaurant was closed for the evening so we walked out to a nearby pizza place and had a pretty large meal to make up for the non-existent lunch we had that day because of the rain. We debated what to do about the next day. The weather forecast had called for increasingly poor weather but it kept being revised on what seemed like an hourly basis. If the weather was going to be bad then going to Bormio would isolate us from the train network that’s the last refuge of a touring cyclist. But I was loathe to give up on Bormio because there were two rides I wanted to do: the Motirolo pass and the Cancano Lakes rough stuff traverse that Sean Kendall had told me about. We agreed that there was no need to make a decision there and then, we would ride up over Ova Spin and Ofenpass and we could make the decision in Santa Maria. If we were worn out we could even stay the night in Santa Maria and make the decision the next morning. I did notice however that the Hotel Alpina had a triple room at a good price in Santa Maria with an unlimited cancellation policy, so we booked it. 

 

June 19th: Disentis to Lenzerheide

Boen discovered this morning that he liked soft-boiled eggs, and ate a couple! After packing and departing, we started with the usual fast descent down the Oberalp pass towards Ilanz. Along the way, we were overtaken by two fast cyclists on newstyle bike packing setups. Jumping into their draft, Boen immediately responded and we drafted them easily all the way to Ilanz, where we stopped at the town center to eat and wait for Arturo, who wasn’t used to high speed pacelines. The town had put in a new exit from the main highway, which was new to me. Arturo praised his new sunglasses, which had a tint that made tunnel traversals much more visible and comfortable at speed.

From Ilanz, there’s a climb over to Versam. When you first encounter the climb you might think that the climb on the official bike route is egregious, but if you look down at the main road from the heights you realize that the bike route is no penalty over the main road and the scenery is far superior, with rock canyons and gorges along the way to keep you interested. 

As we approached Chur from Bonaduz I was about to enter the main road when another cyclist stopped me and told me to follow him. When he showed me the actual bike path entrance I realized that I’d always missed it in the past because it was a sharp turn and a steep (but short) climb before descending into the Chur valley. The views were much prettier than the main road I’d always used and bucolic and peaceful in ways mixing with traffic never was. 

The weather was warming up and we’d all started sweating. There was a false stop at a parking lot with a huge Coop sign out front, but when we entered the parking lot we realized this wasn’t a supermarket but a Coop truck distribution depot with no retail outlet in sight! We chugged along the bike route for a bit before I found a café with shaded seats outside. 

We parked our bikes outside and walked into a nicely air conditioned café where we ordered drinks, snacks and ice cream. The place was run by an Englishman with impeccable English and amazing service. Not only did he provide us with food and advice, he also filled our water bottles with much needed ice before sending us on our way. While waiting, we booked the Hotel Post in Lenzerheide. The hotel would inform us that their restaurant was closed but there were other open restaurants within walking distance. The hotel had a swimming pool as well which was attractive. 

After our break, we rode up to the base of the Lenzerheide and then began the climb. I’d always climbed the Lenzerheide from Chur fresh in the morning when it was cool. Doing it in the hot afternoon after a couple of hard days and with tired legs from the Ilaz/Versam diversion was a different experience. Not only was the heat and tired legs slowing us down, the continuous stream of traffic both from tourist traffic and construction trucks incredibly tough. At one construction zone the signs said: “no bikes” followed by a detour sign off the construction zone into a village path. This provided much relief from the traffic but the diversion was steep --- I estimated it at about 15% grade. At one point we stopped to rest and discovered that we couldn’t get started again. 

When we revisited the main highway I felt broken. Arturo had gone on ahead, but at a water fountain I stopped, filled our water bottles, and stuck out my thumb. If you’re going to stick your thumb out in the mountains it helps to have a tandem and a 9 year old with you. It didn’t take long for a mother with kids to stop. “Can you take our panniers to our hotel?” “Sure, but what are you going to do with the bike?” “We’ll ride it!” I sent her an e-mail with a picture of our booking.com confirmation and details, stuck our panniers in her trunk, and waved goodbye to her. 

Without a load we did much better, but of course, when you’ve burnt all your matches you’re still pretty toasted. The smart thing to do would have been to ask for help much earlier than we did. Nevertheless, we caught up to Arturo just a few minutes before our trail angel sent me an e-mail saying our luggage had been delivered. The rest of the climb still wasn’t easy --- we were using up our Gatorade salt tablets at an astonishing pace, but we knew the ride was doable now. The traffic also eased up because it was getting late enough in the day that the construction crews were starting to go off shift! 

Arriving at the hotel, we’d gotten the keys and instructions to the garage and finished waxing the chain  just as Arturo showed up. We parked our bikes in the nicely enclosed garage and then proceeded to use the swimming pool. The hotel manager told us that the sauna was closed but the swimming pool was open. We were not 15 minutes in the swimming pool before she came by to tell us that she’d opened the sauna for us. We laughed, because after that sweltering afternoon there was no chance that we would want the sauna. 

We debated where to go for dinner. The hotel manager told us that the hotel was providing a free taxi service for us to go anywhere we wanted to, but Arturo advocated for walking instead because there was risk of rain. We walked to one of the two places that looked desirable and ate a healthy dinner, with Boen trying schnitzel and deciding he liked it enough to make it his staple for the rest of the trip. 

After dinner, we walked down to the Lenzerheide lake. There was a playground with no zipline but Boen enjoyed the balance challenges. It was a bit late for us to walk around the lake and the temperature had dropped quite a bit. The forecast was for rain the next day but only 1mm of rain over the Albulapass so I was confident we could go for it. 

I noted that during the 2014 tour we’d ridden from Filisur up Albulapass over to Il Fuorn near ofenpass in one day but the experience over Lenzerheide had shaken me --- I had never thought of Lenzerheide as being steep so now I questioned my memory of Albula being an easy pass as well! 

 

Review: Logitech Pebble Keys 2 K380s

 This year I left my laptop at home, relying on the Pebble Keys 2 K380s and my smartphone to write up parts of the trip report on my way home. The keyboard is much lighter than a laptop, and the batteries last long. The keyboard isn't as nice as my mechanical keyboard at home, but it's also much less expensive than a premium mechanical keyboard that can take bluetooth and lighter as well. The device pairs easily with my phone, but I had to find the settings on the Pixel 8 Pro to disable the onscreen keyboard whenever the device was paired with the K380s, otherwise the onscreen keyboard would take up too much screen real estate. This was a pain but after I learned how to do that (and for some reason I'd have to do that every time), I would happily type away. I'm not as fast, but much faster than swiping, tapping, and much happier using more screen real estate for Microsoft Word on the device.

The device frequently goes on sale for around $33, and I felt it's a fair price for something that wouldn't get used very much but is essential when you do need to use it. Recommended.