Ride Lugged

So Saturday was soo successful that Verča decided that we would ride to Okoř today (Sunday 15/04/2007), which is just to the northwest of Prague about 25km as the crow flies. Her friend Jakub (Kuba) who tried to ride me into the ground on Saturday siad it was pretty flat.

A very brief look at the map confirmed it. Okoř is on a small river that flows north into the Vltava (which flows north out of the center of Prague.) Rivers that run flat and slow so we should be fine, but we will take a shorter route, more direct.

We started off through the city, first on the bike path then giving up, on the main streets, and finally through little back streets. We climbed Letna (where every street BMKican video worth its salt takes a stop) and fought though thousands of rollerbladers doing circuits trying to pick up chicks. We weren’t sure exactly where the trail (which typically consist of sewer easments, back alleys, and urban singletrack) was supposed to start, so we ambled a bit. Up some residential street around some park, along some overgrown alley on the side of a big hill. Until we climbed some residential boulevard, strangely all the way to the top. We should have taken this as a sign, but it was somehow lost on us. (A week and several beers late I learned from a czech friend a use ful saying “the shortest way between two points is over the top!”)

We did find the trail. Yes, it was at the top. It disappeared into the woods for a short segment of lovely urban singletrack. In the US, the same trail exists, but it is hidden in you neighbors back yard, and you would never know it existed. Here it is clearly marked with an organized system of blazes and is well mapped. Still you do kinda have to look for it. And you have to be determined. We were just forced to ride up a paved common drive, that Trevor’s Defender would have whined over having to climb. Out of 14 speeds on th Rohloff, it’s scary how much time I spend in 1, 2, and 3?!

We meandered about, following the trail, and finally with tired legs and sore butts arrived in the town of Okoř, where we were to find a old castle that Verča had tried to describe, somewhere between a ruin and a functional centuries old stone building meticulously kept up. When I saw it through the trees, I had to laugh. If it were more in ruins, it would have been merely a pile of stones. Verča laughed too; and swore she didn’t remember it so well; and mentioned being very tired the last time she was there too.

Very hungry we found a terrace of a cafe on the edge of town Verča ran inside and ordered us a nice warm lunch and a beer and a water. When she came back outside to join me, we did a quick accounting of how much money we were carrying: me ~$11, Verča ~$2. She ran back inside to see what our bill would be, and to keep Murphy’s law alive it was ~14.50. She tried to stop something, but they said the food was already being made; and not to worry that what we had was close enough (very accommodating me thinks.) Verča was a bit annoyed, it being the first time she couldn’t pay her bill. I said not to worry, it was a bit overpriced anyway in a rather touristy town.

After eating we decided to follow the water home. Along the rivers we had much more reasonable terrain , no more freaking steep climbs followed but quick descents. It was just a nice fast rolling descent to the Vltava, with a nice unexpected 8 stair drop when the trail meandered through one small town. We actually thought we would take some other route, but ended up so quickly to the river that we rode home the more flat (and windy) way. Back though a big cool and apparently famous park on the north side of Prague, we ran into a carnival with hoards of people and back through all the rollerbladers. We decided to forgo the bike paths and took the city streets home for a much quicker return.

As always, the last bit of road home is paved with cobbles, and my sore butt and tired legs couldn’t be happier to be back at our doorstep.

So second day of riding and another hilly 85km. Yikes, we’ll see how long til Verča kills me.

(OK, so I needed to get caught up, now we can get back to the present day.)