The date had been in the calendar for weeks and had attracted a few brave cyclists to come out in December - hoping the weather would be kind. On the day itself we had 5, then 4, then 5 :). I picked up number 1 at Liestal, on the way in to St Jacob and the others. As soon as we started I knew I would need to try my hardest to keep up. This winter dynamo wheelset really has an impact! :-).
We soon reached St Jacob and greeted the others gathered for the start. Meeting some who had never been on a BLVF ride but plenty of FAFB ones - too far east perhaps? but as we were going west, it fitted. With the introductions to our new joiner done, we stopped for a few photos then headed off towards Munchenstein.
We were soon over our first set of tram lines. At Dornach we turned right through the trees to Reinach where my "local" knowledge mean we avoid more cars and crossed tram line number 2. We weaved through the housing streets, past my old road, and crossed over the main one. We passed empty allotments and the Erlenhof centre and suddenly it felt very much in the countryside. Avoiding dogs and absent minded runners, we arrived in Ettingen where I had to admit that the toilet stop I knew of, was miles away. I failed in my duty of toilet planner! As luck would have it there was an open toi toi at road works in Fluh which solved the problem. It wasnt long after (tram tracks 3) we turned right and on to the new veloweg to Leyman (tram tracks 4, 5, 6). With the slight detour to the other new veloweg, we were only on the main road for a few hundred meters in Rodersdorf before we were again on empty farm roads. Between there and Oltingue we had to negotiate the section that Komoot had suggested could be unsuitable - this turned out to be about 500m of very wet leaves squishy and some greeny gravel. We all survived - see! my heavier winter wheels do OK.
We had had a head wind all the way till now, and it started to turn into a side wind and would soon be blowing us all the way back to Basel. A stop to eat and warmup was needed, we pushed on till Wolschwiller. where I knew there would be a bench. We managed to take the group selfie here.
It was here that our newest companion headed home as she was really suffering from the cold. Despite having 5 layers, her legs and feet were very cold so she headed off and reached home & warmth, safely. We stayed for a longer stop, ate some more food including vegan gummy bears - hmmm - and we set off. The last big climb of the day up to Metzerlen was taken at our own pace (guess where I was) and onwards over rolling hills ending back in Ettingen. We said goodbye to 2 more here as they went back to Basel while companion 1 and I would continue on to Liestal. To get to Liestal we followed my old cycle to work route to Munchenstein (tram tracks 8 and 9) and then to Muttenz for the toilets (tram tracks 10 and 11)
As it was on our way home we decided that the climb to Frenkendorf from Pratteln would be fun to try - where do I get my ideas from?
In Liestal again, we said goodbye, she went up her final hill and I continued back to Gelterkinden.
In the end I was pleased with the route - headwind for the first half, tail wind for the second half is always helpful.
Thanks to all for joining, hope you are all warmed up again and see you on a bike soon!
Total Distance - max 107km, 64km smallest as we started from different places
Climbing - 993 - 657m
Avg Speed - 19.3km/h
Tram tracks crossed - at least 11 that I can remember. It felt like more. I hate them, at least it wasnt too wet.
