Biking the Zugerberg

Mountain biking is relatively popular here in Switzerland, I'm guessing because the country is like 75% covered with Alps. Sitting above the town of Zug is a small (by Swiss standards) mountain called the Zugerberg. It offers beautiful views of the town, the lake, and the surrounding peaks, like the Rigi and Pilatus. We've taken several visitors to the top of the Zugerberg by car, to give them a small taste of beautiful Swiss views. While driving up the Zugerberg, we've always marveled at the crazy souls who were biking their ways up. Something like 600 vertical meters (the Zugerberg's peak is over 1000m) is a long way to go without a car, ski lift or airplane. Seemed crazy to think how difficult it would be to get all the way to the top on a bike. Crazy.
Well, this past Wednesday, inspired by a colleague, I made the self-propelled journey up the windy trails to the top of the Zugerberg. Phil, a teacher friend from school, who lives on the side of the hill (mountain?) invited me and another friend, Mark, to bike up the Zugerberg last Wednesday evening. The journey started out relatively painless, as I realized the advantages of a bike with 27 gear combinations. There were some steeper parts, which burned the legs, and some longer, less-steep parts, some of which offered ridiculous views of Zug and Zugersee. About 2/3 of the way up, we got drenched by a 15 minute thunderstorm, but were able to resume our trip with sore legs the rest of the way up. Once at the top, we rested for a few minutes before taking the fun part of the trip: the downhill. Though a bit trickier given the recent rain, we got to enjoy the downhill at decent speeds and with beautiful views of the town below (kinda like the pic above).
The plan is to make this a weekly event. I hope my legs can handle it...