Day 1: Eschenlohe (Bavaria) to Steingarten (Tyrol)

September 23, 2021

I have berglust. After reading the journals here on rides through the mountains, I wanted mountains, too. With three brilliant sunny days in the forecast and who knows what on the fourth day, I quickly planned a route that would take us to a lovely section of the Alps, the Ammergau mountain group.

The first leg of the journey was by train. We caught the city train in Gauting to Tutzing and from there we could board the train heading further south to a good jumping off point for a closer looks at the mountains. We had a lift at the beginning, could stay on the same platform for the change, had roll-on entries each time, and a ramp from the platform at our destination. A cyclist's dream. After about an hour we were in Eschenlohe.

Janos walking his bike to the lift to the platform

Eschenlohe train station - We see the mountains

We rode through Eschenlohe to the beginning of our route which is on a section of the Via Claudia. The whole day we have intermittently gravel and sealed surfaces while gaining altitude. It's a gradual climb with very few short steep portions. Today Janos's and my tracks recorded by Komoot didn't agree. Mine said 550 meters altitude gained, Janos's said 680. We'll say 680 is right. My phone seemed to stop recording for a while.

Painted facades and onion dome church steeple in Eschenlohe

We hadn't planned to ride through Oberammergau as nice as the center is. Our planned route circled around the town to the path along the Loisach. But not everything today was perfect and went according to plan.

The astute observer will have noticed that the crank and pedal are missing from Janos's bike. How did that happen? All of a sudden the crank just fell off, no screws or bolts to be found in the vicinity.

Good fortune that we were within two kilometers of a bicycle shop and they were open. Janos hoofed it and the repair took five minutes and cost even less. As they say, Glück im Unglück. Fortunate in misfortune, or something like that. That was our stopover in Oberammergau.

Some stony paths and the gradual gradient aren't a problem as we follow the Loisach upstream, it's feeling like an adventure again. We have driven to Austria by car a couple of times by way of Ehrwald and each time I remember saying, I would love to do this by bike. And here we are! For a while the bike path is close to the highway and I'm happy not to be with the cars and trucks even if I can hear them.

The next little adventure for the day was a railroad crossing, adventurous mainly in my imagination.

Where the Via Claudia Augusta crosses the train tracks

The bed of crushed rock was deep and the tracks higher than you would think, all making for a slow crossing over the tracks. I thought if a train comes now, I'm in for it. The loaded e-bike is heavy and I struggled briefly to get to the other side. Had I anticipated that I would take so long, I would have waited for Janos to help me. All went well, of course. I waited to watch the next train pass and get a picture, and saw that they whistle a long way in advance, but as I say, I was slow.

Train on its way from Munich to Garmisch

We never saw where we crossed the border into Austria. No one there to aks for a vaccination certificate on the bike path. Our hotel, Lärchenhof, in Steingarten needed proof of vaccination, but no maskes were required in the hotel or restaurant.

Our stony path - well not so stony here - often followd the train tracks

In Ehrwald, passing under the railroad bridge

Plenty of petunias and geraniums at our hotel, too

We planned our tour just the day before we left and expected the tourist season would have more or less come to a close. Surprisingly there were plenty of bicyles on the train and hikers heading for the mountains, as well. Autumn is the most popular season for the mountains, I had forgotten that. It wasn't easy to find rooms, either. Most hotels had no vacancies and our choice was limited. But so far, so good. We didn't even forget anything.

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Today's ride: 45 km (28 miles)
Total: 45 km (28 miles)

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Kathleen JonesTo the mountains! How wonderful. Good on ya for just deciding and then doing. The photos, again, are fabulous and making me wish I could be there with all the wonderful CBers too.
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3 years ago

Rachael AndersonGreat that you are able to get another tour in! It’s definitely a great time to see mountains.
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3 years ago

Rich FrasierI love how you threw this together at the last minute. I too have berglust from all the beautiful pictures posted here. And now yours are making it worse! :)
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3 years ago

Suzanne GibsonTo Kathleen JonesThanks! How about a CB meet up in the Alps?
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3 years ago

Suzanne GibsonTo Rachael AndersonWe are having so much luck with the weather!
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3 years ago

Suzanne GibsonTo Rich FrasierThanks. When summer is over, I hesitate to plan too far in advance. So it was kind of a carpe diem ride based on three days of good weather in the forecast.
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3 years ago

Tricia GrahamHow lovely to be riding in the mountains. I envy you
Tricia
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3 years ago