This time of year is one of the most difficult to come up with ideas for interesting things to do. Ski season is winding down, but the snow line is too low for getting up to the really good bike trails. With this in mind I started thinking last week about some activities for the next few weekends until the snowline recedes a little bit. A multi-day tour around lake Zurich seemed like just the ticket. On a road bike the route around lake Zurich is either 70km or 100km depending on if you cross the lake at Rapperswil or keep going around the top of the lake. Our route will be much more then this as we plan to take to the hills and complete as much of the route on unpaved roads and singletrail.
A group of seven met at 10am at Stadelhofen train station in Zurich. Within 5 minutes of leaving we were already in the woods and on the long and seemingly endless climb up to Pfannensteil. The route took us alongside streams, through fields and woodland and almost entirely on unpaved roads and singletrail.
On reaching the top of Pfannensteil we rode down towards Meilen to take in one of the best trails in the area and then rode back up unto the ridge to head towards Hombrechtikon and down to the lake in Rapperswill for a well deserved pizza.
The ride was 40km long with 800m of climbing at a fairly relaxed early season pace. Stage 2, will be from Rapperswil to somewhere close to Biberbrugg in Kanton Schwyz.
