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 Hitzkirch it runs 170 km to Hitzkirch; allow about 3 h 14 of riding. On the way it passes Sumpf, Vorder Au, Technikum and Rorenhaab. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
The ride follows Seematte → Sumpf for 25 km.
Lake Baldegg lies in the Seetal, the lake valley north of Lucerne, a gentle, green landscape of meadows, orchards and woods, with the lake in the middle and the hills rising on either side. Seematte, on the shore near Hitzkirch, is the site of prehistoric lakeside villages, built on piles over the water's edge thousands of years ago, and it was inscribed in the same 2011 listing that covers lakeside villages from France to Slovenia. As with most such sites, there is nothing to see above ground, but the setting is lovely, and standing on the reedy shore you can imagine the wooden houses and dugout canoes.
Read the complete Seematte write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Seematte is where the day begins. Next is Sumpf.
Zug-Sumpf was a Bronze Age village on the northern shore of Lake Zug, near the mouth of the river Lorze between Cham and Steinhausen, and the waterlogged ground preserved wooden floors, posts and objects for over three thousand years. Excavations in the twentieth century recovered pottery, bronze tools and even remains of food, and the site sits on the World Heritage list as part of the prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps. Some of the finds are displayed in the museum of prehistory in Zug. Today the site lies under modern buildings and meadows, and only the name, which means swamp, recalls its watery origin.
Read the complete Sumpf write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sumpf comes up about 25 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 48 km into the recorded legs you reach Vorder Au. Next is Technikum.
Students at the technical university in Rapperswil study engineering on a lakeside campus, and beneath the shoreline in front of their buildings lie the remains of villages that people built on piles thousands of years ago. The site, named after the old Technikum, as the college was long known, is one of the prehistoric pile dwelling sites around Lake Zurich included in the UNESCO listing of 2011. Nothing is visible, but the idea that this shore has been home to people for so long gives a different perspective to a stroll along the promenade.
Read the complete Technikum write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Technikum, about halfway. 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 sits at 78 km, about halfway. Next is back through Technikum.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Technikum write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Technikum comes up about 100 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 122 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Vorder Au. Next is back through Sumpf.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sumpf write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sumpf, late in the day. Next is Seematte.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Seematte write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 170 km.
Seematte → Sumpf is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sumpf → Vorder Au is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vorder Au → Technikum is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Technikum → Rorenhaab is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rorenhaab → back through Technikum is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Technikum → back through Vorder Au is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Vorder Au → back through Sumpf is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sumpf → Seematte is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.