No car, no worries
...it's Friday, Thursday night actually, and we're deciding what to do this weekend. The weather looks like it won't be bad. It's supposed to last from Friday to Sunday without a single drop of rain. After thinking for a while, I had an idea! How about going by bike, with panniers, alone, there and back, to visit my mom in the Jeseníky Mountains? Romcha answers yes! We pack our bags and stuff and on Friday after work we set off towards Světlá Hora. The sun sets around 20:00 and we finish work at 16:00, which gives us 4 hours to get from point A to point B.
The reason we're cycling is that our beloved car is broken and out for service. This is both sad and happy. Cars break down all the time and if we had it we would drive, but we don't have it so we'll be cycling and that's much more fun anyway.
We are looking forward to Friday, the first easy bikepacking in the Jeseniky Mountains.
FRIDAY, Day One.
Friday, it's 4 o'clock and we get on our bikes. We ride through the hectic city, losing Olomouc in the distance on the bike path. The sun is halfway up the sky when we enter the Belkovice Valley. The shadow of the valley keeps the temperature down, but when we come out of it, the sun is waiting for us again.
The rolling hills of the Nízký Jeseník are a pleasant companion for this late afternoon ride. The sun casts long shadows and its warmth makes our faces and souls happy. Halfway up we get a call from my mom telling us where we are and that she has dinner ready for us.
We both enjoyed the ride so much that we forgot all about it. The only thing that seemed important to us was the scenery lit up by the ultimate gold watch. The phone call from Mom was just a small return to reality. We should just throw her a bone so we don't arrive in the dark.
As soon as the sun dipped below the horizon, the darkness would fall awfully fast. The last few miles were on the edge of light and dark. Mom welcomed us with open arms in front of the house.
SATURDAY, Day Two.
We wake up to a beautiful morning, not a cloud in the sky and we are in no hurry. Yesterday's final sprint through the darkness took a little toll on us. We haven't been in the Jeseníky Mountains for a long time, so we're really looking forward to the new backroads and views we'll find.
Long and slow breakfast with mom. At times it feels like we are on vacation somewhere. The sun is quite high and calls for us to go out. It's time to take the panniers off the bikes and hit the road. There isn't a long loop ahead of us, but there are some undiscovered places and roads. Honestly, I can't wait to see what these places will look like. Will there be nice views, rocks, trees, or a lodge? I'll let the mountains decide and surprise me.
That's what I enjoy most about exploring. The anticipation of what it's going to be like, what I'm going to experience, what I'm going to see. It's so exciting. Sometimes there's nothing and sometimes there's so much I don't know what to do first.
We are on our way to Vrbno pod Pradědem, where the Drakov valley begins. It is one of the most beautiful valleys in the shire. We will gradually climb up to Rejvíz. From there we head west and traverse the main ridge of the Jeseníky Mountains to the Videlský kříž, descend to Vidly and then up the long climb above Karlova Studánka and head home.
The route was not that long, so we returned home quite early. Mom was waiting for us outside. The sun was still strong and its warmth was so nice that we stayed outside for a while and talked about our experiences from today's ride. What an epic ride that was.
If you'd like, you can try the route yourself. Here's a .gpx file for your head units or maps to see where we went.
SUNDAY, Day Three.
Time to go home. In Bruntál we meet our friends who came to meet us by train and together we ride back to Olomouc. We had headwind almost the whole way back. It felt like the weather was going to get worse over the next few days, but we didn't let it throw us off.
This whole weekend was absolutely great. Swapping a car for a bike and proving that you don't need a car for everything is a really great experience. It's funny that it took a car breaking down to realize that this idea of not needing it is actually a good thing.
