CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
413 km from Herzogenbuchsee to Herzogenbuchsee, about 6 h 48 of riding. It goes by way of Egolzwil 3, Kehrsiten, Vorder Au and Egelsee. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The ride follows Burgäschisee Ost → Egolzwil 3 for 32 km.
For about 47 km this is Emmental Panorama Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Burgäschisee is a small, quiet lake on the border between the cantons of Bern and Solothurn, surrounded by reeds, woods and farmland. It would be easy to ride past without noticing, but it holds a secret: along its shores, archaeologists have found the remains of Neolithic villages built on piles, dating back more than five thousand years. The eastern shore site, Burgäschisee Ost, is one of the components of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps World Heritage site, listed by UNESCO in 2011. There is nothing much to see on the surface, as the remains lie underwater or in the soft ground, but the peaceful setting makes it easy to imagine the wooden houses, canoes and fishing nets of those early farmers.
Read the complete Burgäschisee Ost write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Burgäschisee Ost is where the day begins. Next is Egolzwil 3.
Archaeologists named a whole Neolithic culture after Egolzwil, a small village in the canton of Lucerne, because the settlements found in the Wauwiler Moos, a former lake turned into peat bog, revealed a way of life older than anything else known in the region at the time. Egolzwil 3, one of these sites, was a village of farmers who lived on the shore of a small lake over six thousand years ago, and it counts as one component of UNESCO's inscription of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps. The lake was drained in the nineteenth century to create farmland, and the remains were preserved in the wet peat.
Read the complete Egolzwil 3 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Egolzwil 3 comes up about 32 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kehrsiten.
Kehrsiten is a small settlement on the southern shore of Lake Lucerne, at the foot of the Bürgenstock, a steep, forested ridge that juts out into the lake, and it feels almost cut off from the rest of Switzerland. A narrow road follows the shore from Stansstad, squeezed between the rocks and the water, and ends here; beyond, the cliffs of the Bürgenstock drop straight into the lake. For most visitors, Kehrsiten is the place where the boat from Lucerne stops and the Bürgenstock funicular begins, climbing steeply through the forest to the resort on top, which has been welcoming guests since the late nineteenth century.
Read the complete Kehrsiten write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 79 km into the recorded legs you reach Kehrsiten. Next is Vorder Au.
The Au peninsula pokes out into Lake Zurich like a green thumb, and at its tip, Vorder Au, the shallow water hides traces of villages built on piles thousands of years ago. It is one of the Swiss sites in the UNESCO listing of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps, though as with most of them, the archaeology lies under the lake bed and is protected rather than displayed. What you see is a wooded little hill with a castle-like house, vineyards running down to the water, reed beds and a small harbour.
Read the complete Vorder Au write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Vorder Au, about halfway. Next is Egelsee.
There is almost nothing to see at the Egelsee, and that is part of its charm. It is a small, reed-fringed bog lake in the rolling Thurgau countryside between Gachnang and Frauenfeld, and under its peat and mud lie the remains of a Neolithic lakeside settlement, timber piles and floor layers preserved for thousands of years because air never reached them. It is one of the many sites that make up the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps on the UNESCO list, and unlike the reconstructed villages you find elsewhere, this one has been left in the ground on purpose. Archaeologists consider the soggy earth the best museum there is.
Read the complete Egelsee write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Egelsee sits at 179 km, about halfway. Next is back through Vorder Au.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vorder Au write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Vorder Au comes up about 271 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Kehrsiten.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kehrsiten write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 332 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Kehrsiten. Next is back through Egolzwil 3.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Egolzwil 3 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Egolzwil 3, late in the day. Next is Burgäschisee Ost.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Burgäschisee Ost write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 413 km.
Burgäschisee Ost → Egolzwil 3 is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Egolzwil 3 → Kehrsiten is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kehrsiten → Vorder Au is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vorder Au → Egelsee is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Egelsee → back through Vorder Au is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Vorder Au → back through Kehrsiten is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kehrsiten → back through Egolzwil 3 is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Egolzwil 3 → Burgäschisee Ost is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.