Mountains, Forests and a Bowl of Spätzle

Mountains, Forests and a Bowl of Spätzle

2 days of bikepacking in the Bavarian Forest

Bavaria: Beer, generous portions of food and some more beer - at least as far as the clichés go. Having lived in that southern most part of Germany for five years I can assure you there is much more to it as this small trip shows.

In mid 2016 Torben and I packed up the bikes for a two day adventure in the Bavarian forest close to the Czech border. At that time we both lived quite near to the place but had never toaken to close a look on bikes. After the trip it is hard to say why we did not go earlier as we found great landscapes, fun trails and a bit of adventuring right at our doorstep.

Our route went over the highest mountain in the region - the Grosser Arber (1456m above sea level) - and its slightly smaller cousin on the other side of the valley - the Grosser Falkenstein. The rest was mainly on gravel roads, forest trails and what we liked to call forest Autobahn (this is Germany after all and even the forest roads are well groomed and great for quick riding).

Riding was easy in terms of terrain but you need to deal with some longer climbs. Overall the route was about 140 km long with 3.600m of climbing (most of which due to the two mountains we passed).

We camped in a log cabin and did a small detour into a town called Zwiesel to restock supplies. You cannot wild camp in Germany, however cheap campgrounds, cabins and mountain huts available all over the area. Actually using a campground is quite the cultural immersion as Germans both love their camping and are quite unique about it.

Standing out from this trip is the great landscape, the chance to see “real” Bavaria and eat tons of carb and fat laden food. It would be easy to do a much longer trip in the region by taking in more of the German Bavarian forest and maybe passing over into the Czech republic.

Adventurers: Torben and Bengt