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.
From Windischgarsten it runs 267 km to Windischgarsten; allow about 5 h 08 of riding. It goes by way of Kalkalpen - Urlach, Enns - Gräberstraße, Hirschleitengraben - Wachtturm and back through Enns - Gräberstraße. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
The ride follows Kalkalpen - Hintergebirg → Kalkalpen - Urlach for 45 km.
The Kalkalpen National Park is the largest forest wilderness in Austria, and the Hintergebirge is one of its quiet corners, a limestone mountain range in Upper Austria with steep wooded slopes, deep valleys and very few roads. It is a landscape of beech, spruce and fir, with some of the oldest unmanaged beech forest in the Alps, so valuable that it is included in the UNESCO listing of ancient beech forests of Europe. Walking in it feels like walking in the Europe before the roads.
Read the complete Kalkalpen - Hintergebirg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kalkalpen - Hintergebirg is where the day begins. Next is Kalkalpen - Urlach.
Somewhere in these forests a beech tree has been standing since before anyone thought to draw a border here, and the Kalkalpen National Park exists largely to keep it that way. This is the largest protected forest area in Austria, spread across the limestone ranges of the Sengsengebirge and the Reichraminger Hintergebirge in Upper Austria, and parts of it belong to the UNESCO listing of ancient and primeval beech forests of Europe. Urlach lies on the edge of that wild country, in the folds above the Steyr valley between Molln and Windischgarsten.
Read the complete Kalkalpen - Urlach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kalkalpen - Urlach comes up about 45 km into the recorded legs. Next is Enns - Gräberstraße.
Enns claims to be the oldest town in Austria, on the strength of a charter granted in 1212, but its roots go much deeper. Just outside the modern town lay Lauriacum, a Roman legionary fortress that housed the Second Italian Legion and grew into one of the most important places on the Danube frontier, with a civilian town, temples and, as the Gräberstraße name suggests, roads lined with cemeteries. The Romans buried their dead along the roads outside settlements, and excavations here have found hundreds of graves, stones and offerings. The site is part of the Danube Limes World Heritage listing.
Read the complete Enns - Gräberstraße write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 105 km into the recorded legs you reach Enns - Gräberstraße. Next is Hirschleitengraben - Wachtturm.
Just west of Linz, the Danube narrows and the steep, wooded slopes of the Kürnberger Wald rise from its southern bank. In the Roman period this river was the frontier of the empire, and the soldiers who guarded it built a chain of forts and watchtowers along the bank to watch for raiders crossing from the north. The Hirschleitengraben watchtower is one of these, a small Roman tower in a side ravine of the forest, part of the Danube Limes, which UNESCO listed in 2021 as one of the great frontiers of the Roman Empire. Its remains are modest, but the position, looking over the river toward Puchenau and the hills of the Mühlviertel, makes the purpose clear.
Read the complete Hirschleitengraben - Wachtturm write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hirschleitengraben - Wachtturm, about halfway. Next is back through Enns - Gräberstraße.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Enns - Gräberstraße write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Enns - Gräberstraße sits at 159 km, about halfway. Next is back through Kalkalpen - Urlach.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kalkalpen - Urlach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kalkalpen - Urlach comes up about 221 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kalkalpen - Hintergebirg.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kalkalpen - Hintergebirg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kalkalpen - Hintergebirg closes the day.
Kalkalpen - Hintergebirg → Kalkalpen - Urlach is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kalkalpen - Urlach → Enns - Gräberstraße is 60 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Enns - Gräberstraße → Hirschleitengraben - Wachtturm is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hirschleitengraben - Wachtturm → back through Enns - Gräberstraße is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Enns - Gräberstraße → back through Kalkalpen - Urlach is 60 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Kalkalpen - Urlach → Kalkalpen - Hintergebirg is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.