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 Rotkreuz it runs 313 km to Rotkreuz; allow about 5 h 51 of riding. On the way it passes Rorenhaab, Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps, Inkwilersee Insel and back through Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
For about 62 km this is Grand Tour of Switzerland, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
The ride follows Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps → Inkwilersee Insel for 67 km.
Lake Zug is the quiet one among the central Swiss lakes, long and slender, with the Rigi rising steeply from its southern end and gentle farmland and orchards rolling down to its northern shores. Around its edges, as around many Alpine lakes, people built villages on the shore in prehistoric times, and the remains of these settlements at places like Oterswil and the little island of Eielen are among the sites of the transnational pile dwelling listing inscribed by UNESCO in 2011. Under water and mud, wooden piles, pottery and tools have survived for thousands of years.
Read the complete Oterswil / Insel Eielen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Oterswil / Insel Eielen is where the day begins. Next is Rorenhaab.
The winter of 1853 to 1854 was so dry that the water in Lake Zurich fell to an unusually low level, and at Obermeilen, on the eastern shore, villagers extending their land into the lake found rows of wooden piles sticking out of the mud, along with pottery, bone tools and stone axes. The antiquarian Ferdinand Keller studied the finds and concluded that they came from prehistoric villages built on platforms over the water, and his reports launched the pile dwelling craze that swept through Europe in the nineteenth century. Rorenhaab, at Obermeilen, is that very site, and it is part of the pile dwellings around the Alps listing inscribed by UNESCO in 2011.
Read the complete Rorenhaab write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rorenhaab comes up about 30 km into the recorded legs. Next is Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps.
Five thousand years ago, people were building houses on stilts at the edge of lakes across the Alps, and then the lakes rose, buried the houses and kept them almost perfectly in the mud. The remains of these pile dwellings, found in the nineteenth century when a drought lowered the water, include posts, tools, textiles, food and even bread, and they gave archaeologists an extraordinary view of Stone Age and Bronze Age life. A hundred and eleven of the sites, in six countries, were listed by UNESCO in 2011, and the Swiss share is the largest.
Read the complete Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 92 km into the recorded legs you reach Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps. Next is Inkwilersee Insel.
You could ride past the Inkwilersee a dozen times without noticing it. It is a small, shallow lake tucked into a fold of farmland right on the line between the cantons of Bern and Solothurn, ringed with reeds and alders, with a tiny wooded island near its middle. That island is the reason for the label: beneath its trees and in the mud around it lie traces of prehistoric lakeside settlement, enough to earn the Inkwilersee a place among the Alpine pile-dwelling sites on the World Heritage list.
Read the complete Inkwilersee Insel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Inkwilersee Insel, about halfway. Next is back through Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps sits at 173 km, about halfway. Next is back through Rorenhaab.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rorenhaab write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Rorenhaab comes up about 282 km into the recorded legs. Next is Oterswil / Insel Eielen.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Oterswil / Insel Eielen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Oterswil / Insel Eielen closes the day.
Oterswil / Insel Eielen → Rorenhaab is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rorenhaab → Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps → Inkwilersee Insel is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Inkwilersee Insel → back through Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps → back through Rorenhaab is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Rorenhaab → Oterswil / Insel Eielen is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.