Sat, May 12, 2012 - 25.53 mi [Cycling] Pfaffers to Rheinau & Chur vai Kunkelspass

Sat, May 12, 2012 - 25.53 mi [Cycling]
Max Speed: 35.30 mph
Calories: 3212
Elevation: 2335 ft

25.53 mi in 02:31:11 hours at 10.13 mi/h on Hire Hire. [Cycling] Cycle after work from Pfaffers up and along the valley which lies behind the mountains overlooking the north of Chur - a steady cimb until the last few miles of the climb when the elevation inreased rapidly from about 3000 feet to 4500 feet.
Over the top of the Kunselspass the track dropped away rapidly and was even carved through the rock face in tunnels - it descended intp the Rhine valley at an alaming rate !



Elevation :

Photographs :

2 Miles : The beautiful Village of Vadura
This is the view looking up the Valley and
the ride that lay ahead of me.

3 Miles : Looking across the Valley just
after Vadura - the view was fantastic with
massive waterfalls and terraced fields.

4 Miles : This is Mapgraggsee which is
a dirty green/ blue coloured lake that runs
parallel to the rroad for about 3 -4 miles. 

6 Miles : I stopped and set up the camera on a post to take
my picture cycling along the Valley road which at this point
was actually going downhill !

7 Miles : Fantastic - I was confronted by an
avalanche tunnel with stilts on the side - just
like you see on the Tour de France in the
Pyrenees on the classic climbs like the
Tourmalet - now I know this was far less
severe but now I was doing my own Haute
category Tour climb !

9 Miles : This is the Village of  Vattis and
on the wall of this house you can see the kunkel
after which the pass is named and seems to be
a multi headed hydra like dragon.

10 Miles : The view looking back down the valley at Unterkunkel
just up the valley from Vattis.

10 Miles : A small wooden barn sitting in a lovely woodland setting
just off the road in Unterkunkel.

10 Miles : A lovely house in Vattis.

10 Miles : The most beautiful scene you could
come across - this gorgeous Alpine Chalet
in the Village of Vattis is just a photographers
dream sitting below the mountains.

12 Miles : Yep - i have reached the snowline and in the
North facing sheltered slopes the snow was still lying at the
side of the road.

12 Miles : Snow !

14 Miles : My Garmin shows I had reached an altitude of
4000feet which thought would be peak height ... little did I know
I still had another 500feet of ascent ahead.  

14 Miles : The view back down the vallley at
4000 feet up in Oberkunkel.

15 Miles : Closing in on the top of the climb
nearing 4500 at Oberkunkel

15 Miles : The road was still going up but this
is the last bend up ahead of the summit.

16 Miles : 4500feet up and this is the top of the Kunkelpass.

16 Miles : Boy did the road drop quickly
the gradient must have been near 20% and
the drop over that femur wooden barrier
was about 200feet ... sheer. 

16 Miles : Suddenly the track went
inside the mountain and a dark tunnel lay
ahead of me.

16 Miles : The dark & foreboding Tunnel.

16 Miles : Inside the Tunnel I stopped to take some spectacular
pictures from the holes they had carved in the side.

16 Miles : Still inside the Tunnel this is the view from one
of the view holes carved into the side of the mountain.

16 Miles : Another view from the Tunnel
This time a tree clinging to the very edge of
a precipice.

21 Miles : Now down the mountain & in
the Rhein Valley heading towards Chur.
The green fields with a lovely view of a
church & a cross with the mountains
in the background.

22 Miles : The Rhein just above the hydro electric
power station anout 3 miles upstream from Chur.