Isarradweg Bike Tour

I spent hours on Google Maps planning our epic bike adventure.  That makes it sound like a massive 6 month bike trip instead of a fairly tame 3 days on the Isarradweg! However, I wanted to get it right and in four days I wasn't sure on the distance we should cycle (I am not at my fittest bike wise) and also the uneven placement of overnight stops.  It changed to three days as Katie had a birthday party on the Sunday afternoon.  But all went swimmingly in the end except for the slightly poor weather on the second day which was a bit poorer than forecast but nothing too terrible.

We got the 7:30am S-bahn into Munich and then had to get on the big train to Scharnitz. Fortunately we were there nice and early so after hopping onto the wrong carriage we had time to get into the right carriage and be the first bikes on board.  Lucky we did as a dozen more bikes and people came on and it all got very busy.   Matt handily hung our bikes on the bike rack thing only for Mrs happy the ticket lady to tell us to take them down and stand them all stacked side by side.  So much for bike racks.  

It was a two hour trip on the train which was ok and fortunately all the bikes got off before us so we had no stress getting ours off at Scharnitz.  The the cycling began!

 

The train leaving us behind on its way to Innsbruck.

Scharnitz Bahnhof

It was really nice gentle cycling along wide paths with nice views and all slightly downhill.

The first bit

Happy Katie

 We soon passed from Austria into Germany but you wouldn't know except for the sign.

It got a bit cloudy and cooler but was perfect cycling weather.  We tried finding a cache that was too far up a steep bank and resolved to only find treasure when it was easy and directly on the path (more or less).

We got to Vorderriß which as I recalled, was in the middle of nowhere at the end of the toll road and I could only remember the weather being bad.  Well the weather wasn't too bad and I was surprised by the number of people.  We had beds in the bunk house in a room of ten, but the children were extras.  I hope the eight other cycling men didn't mind us too much!  The children were well behaved though.  

Playing on the river bed of the Isar. It reminds me of New Zealand.  Alex is playing a French Horn by the way!

We had to me to play in the late afternoon/evening, have dinner and go to bed nice and early.  I was a bit concerned as I had forgotten to bring a torch but didn't need to get up in the night.


The next day the weather was a bit ominous looking.  It was a bit tough to start with as we had to go uphill  - yes uphill!!!  On the road too which was a bit horrid.  It got a bit chilly for the kids who were on the trailgators. We stopped at Syvensteinsee where we went up to the viewpoint to find a cache and then stayed there too to keep out of the rain.

Setting off the next day.

Finding a cache at Sylvensteinsee.

We had to do a bit more road and then turned off onto a nice tarmac trail so we let the children cycle on their own.  As it had been raining there were tons of big snails on the path which we successfully avoided smashing.

Alex talking to a big snail.

There was another tedious road bit but then we turned off onto a back road and found another cache in the forest. Fortunate,  as it also poured with rain and we were sheltered, so were our bikes. 

At Lenggries it got a nice again and we went along a bit of the river that I always wanted to see but we drive on the other side of it and never stop.  It was nice.

Building cairns

We powered on up to Bad Tölz and just before we turned up to the hotel we found a nice playground for a play.

Katie climbing

 

 

 

The place we stayed in reminded me more of an English guest house than a German one. I think it was because there was carpet everywhere instead of wood floor.  We went out to eat and the nearest place was Croatian which was very nice but the children were so tired.  Hurrah!  Another early night for us!


The next morning the weather was good and we climbed the long hill out of Bad Tolz onto some nice country lanes and for a while we were a long way from the river but going through the forest on nice trails.  Got back down to the river again and the going was good all along to the Mühltal where the rafts go down the slide.  Too late to see that but time for a beer and food. 

Rest spot after coming out of Bad Tölz

Nice tracks

Look!  Downhill!

On the banks, of the river. . . .

Beer!

From the river we had to head uphill to home.  It was a long third day.  Katie had only done about 12km and we gave her the challenge of cycling all the way up the hill.  It's not that steep but long. The first bit is the steepest but on tarmac and the it's a long steady up on forest track.  Anyhow, she rose to the occasion after some bribery and blinkin did it!  I couldn't catch her, but then I was tired, gave her a head start and had a dead weight to pull (Alex).  We were most impressed by her steady cycling and I think she was when she got to the top.  She was even more chuffed when someone came up pushing their bike!

At the top after cycling up from the river

 I was tired after that and Matt led us through some bumpy and I'm sure not the easiest track to get onto the main route home.  We stopped at the biergarten just up the road from our house and had dinner there. My legs were aching!

Späzle dinner to finish

All in all it was a very successful trip and now to do it again.

Things to bear in mind:

• I hate carrying such a large pack but we have no panniers (as we don't do bike touring…)
• Stop frequently for change of scenery and child entertainment -playgrounds, ice cream, geocaching, river bank playing.
• Make sure terrain is varied.
• Next time I need to pull Katie as she "helps" a lot by pedalling and her bike has gears and bigger wheels.  Alex is quite hopeless! Matt got the better deal there!
• Our days were 30km, 35km and 50km.  50km was a bit too long fir one day as we kept having to push on.  Had to get back for a birthday party on Sunday though.
• Just because you are following a river down, do not always assume you are going downhill too . There was more uppage than I imagined as I'm sure Google Maps got the profile wrong!

It's not a cheap thing to do these bike tours as you have to stay somewhere different every night and unless you camp (which means carrying shed loads more stuff) you pay premium rates.  The train gets expensive.

I felt I had a good work out for my legs though and we all enjoyed it. 

So where to next?