Just call me bikerbabe. I’m thinking this former runnerchick is going to hang up her jogging shoes for a mud bucket on wheels for good. (?) Alex and I wanted to cranked things up above our Englisher Garten trip and made a hardcore cycling adventure along the Isar river. How shall I say it, I was spoked stoked!
I recently bought a Isarradweg Radwanderkarte (Isar River Bike Path Map) at our local bike shop. The map, I had been eyeing for some time, follows the Isar river from Scarnitz to Deggendorf. Even though the bike trails are well marked, the map is still extremely useful for planning ahead or keeping tabs where the nearest biergarten or train station is in case body exhaustion takes over. The only annoyance is that the map is littered with advertisements. Perhaps that was a way to keep the cost around 6 Euros for its laminated and tearproof construction.
Sunday we oiled up the gears and starting just shy of the Wittelsbacher Brücke. Our handlebars veered south to Kloster Schätflarn, a Benedictine monastery on the Isar. The path was familiar to me up until Grünwalder Brücke, until then, the path was pretty comfortable, nice and shady and a rolling mix of up and downhill fun. But Grünwalder Brücke revealed a nice twist to our adventure -I have no endurance for uphill cycling battles. Hey, at least I didn’t have to get off my bike and push it, but even on the lowest gears I was huffing.
This reminds me. All of you out there with your fancy biker jerseys, helmets without a smudge of dirt and snazzy expensive mountain bikes that you occasionally take out for a Sunday spin and you maybe wondering why there are others passing you with a tinge of growl under their breath..learn to shift your bicycle gears, ugh! You’ll have so much more fun with your mountain bikes on these sort of trails when you have a clue before you ride. We all need a refresher now and then. So here. I’ve included a straight-forward outside link. We cool? Peace.
The area around Kloster Schätflarn is absolutely gorgeous, so peaceful and green, definitely a recommended stop for hikers and cyclist. We bought ‘halfway mark’ beers and schorle at the Klosterbräu and ate every bit of food we brought on the way: sandwiches, Camembert, carrots, crackers, and dark chocolate. We briefly visited the herb and flower garden and got inspired with ideas for our own balcony garden. I told Alex I was up for riding back instead of taking the S-bahn home.
The ride back from Kloster Schätflarn to Hohenschäftlarn is an uphill battle. I had the strength but no endurance. My lungs gave out and my muscles soon followed. We made it up to Hohenschäftlarn only to realize we went up too far and had to take the other trail. Pooh. This was the only time I felt ticked off and Alex didn’t seem too happy because his saddle was being a pain in the ass.
But the ride down hill was exhilarating. Not so rocky like the last downhill and long, long, long. There was a fancy biker girl in front of me braking more than I cared to. So I passed her. Pretty stupid when I think about the shape my bike is in, but it was so worth it to feel the wind against my face and being on the edge of control and potentially losing control.
She passed me on the uphill. Oh well. Alex was impressed that I did the unthinkable of passing a bonafide fancy biker girl. Yeah, when your boyfriend’s impressed, it was worth it.
The rest of the ride was a weaving mess around the people on foot trying to enjoy their warm Sunday too. In the course of the ride, we had two chain derailment episodes and by the 42nd kilometer, my knee minus the ACL was making it clear it had enough. But despite all that, the day was full of discovery and essentially enjoying our green backyard in Munich.
Passing a bonafide fancy biker girl to impress your boyfriend is smart. Everytime I pass a bonafide fancy biker girl to impress my wife it turns into a fiasco…:blush:
Sound like a great day out. This reminds me I should dust of my bike for the summer!