Trail service and time management

For the third consecutive day, we hopped on our bikes to take full advantage of the beautiful weather window. First, we saddled up the bikes on Asap, went up a bit, and arrived in Davos shortly after 9. At the Davos cable car parking lot, we got ready, quickly grabbed some spread for our snack, and started pedaling.

Tour 645 Pischa takes us near the Pischahorn. The uphill consisted of almost 99% singletrack and the rest was a forest road. Pure enjoyment. However, over time, the effort started to add up alongside the pleasure of the beautiful trail. Pedaling up a singletrack is unfortunately not as comfortable as a forest road, but it was definitely worth the effort. After 2 quick gear services (Stefanie's and Mini's chains jumped off once each), we slowly made our way up the valley.

After almost two hours of manageable singletrack, it got so steep that we had to push. From a distance, we saw someone spending quite some time in the pushing section, and we feared the worst. When we reached the tough e-biker, it turned out that his gears were not working properly anymore. Mini kindly offered to readjust his gears. Little did he know that he had to fight his way through 1 kg of grease on the chains before he could get them back on track. After what felt like 30 minutes, the gears were completely readjusted, no idea how he managed to ride up with them like that, they were working properly again. Or so we thought. The e-biker took off, we started pushing, and we met again not much later. The chain was now caught in the spokes. Mini got his fingers dirty once again, they are still not clean today, and readjusted the gears once more. Now it fits. Fortunately, for the rest of the day, we only saw the e-biker from a distance. Unfortunately, this fun cost us about 45 minutes. Hopefully, it won't be our downfall. According to the weather forecast, it will start raining lightly at 15:00. 15:00 is our planned arrival time back at the campsite.

We continued pushing, the temperature and the altitude unfortunately scaled linearly with each other, and we finally needed a little break. Fresh root bread with spread, apples, and Maoam energized us for the rest of the uphill. So far, the weather seemed suitable. At least until the penultimate hairpin before the slightly easier uphill across to the Pischahorn Restaurant. Dark clouds were smiling at us that were hiding behind the massive mountain range in front of us. We might miss those 45 minutes after all.

With our last bit of strength, we pedaled and pushed the bike up to 2459 meters of altitude. It was already very dark. Hastily, we put on our wind vests and zoomed along the mega awesome single downhill trail along the ridge. Maybe we can make it without getting wet. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

Extreme wind, rain, fog, and then flashes of lightning and thunder on both sides forced us to look for shelter. We left the bikes a few meters away from us and squeezed into a rock overhang, waiting for the weather to improve. The rain and wind were not so bad, but the lightning and thunder made us a little uneasy. After about 45 minutes, wrapped in rain jackets, the storm calmed down and we continued down the wet trail. With increased caution, we were still able to enjoy the difficult trail, it was really great.

After a strenuous downhill, we pedaled uphill for a bit and finally reached the car after 7 hours and 21 minutes. Just before reaching the car, a super heavy summer rain poured down on us as a final touch.

Back at the campsite, it was still raining, and we were looking forward to a hot shower and a burger from the inn next door. Tomorrow will be a relaxing day with a campsite change.