Šumava National Park is one of the four national parks of Czech Republic. The other three are Krkonoše, Podyjí, and Česke Švýcarsko. Characteristics of the natural environment: almost 85% of the area is forested in the central part. At higher altitude locations, there are remnants of primeval forests, abundant wetlands and raised bogs and glacial lakes. Many protected species of fauna and flora are relicts of the Ice Age. According to my bad math the park is about 7% of the size of Yellowstone National Park which is where I grew up. So I can appreciate the zoning they need to do in Šumava so not to overrun it with tourists. It means we can bike through but still see the tranquility of the forest and meadows from a distance.
An interesting thing I learned about the Vltava is some of the smaller rivers that feed into it like the Studená (cold) and Teplá (warm) Vltava being of different temperatures. We actually felt it during our boat trip earlier when we passed through the merge of those waters and could dip our hands on the opposite sides of the boat.
The next attraction on this trip was to see the Schwarzenberg canal which was used to float timber from 1793 to 1962 and is 44 km long. At present only 15 km has been reconstructed as a technical monument.
After a long basically flat ride along Vltava to point 2, we climbed to the beginning of Schwarzenberg’s canal at point 3, where you can see the memorial to Mr. Rosenauer, the main architect of this monumental construction. You will be able to appreciate the size of this canal on the ride down along this waterway. At point 4 you should not miss the entrance to the channel tunnel, where it was necessary to go underground to find the way for the water to flow.
https://mapy.cz/s/hatojerafe 46 km with 275 m elevation gain
