Tips für den Ausländer - alp trails

[Kruhy]

Hi guys,
This is my first post, so I would like to say hello to all and every one of you.

As my German is not sufficient to understand all what you write on this forum, I would like to apologize if what I ask can be already found somewhere here (and I am sure, that it can). I have been browsing some of the topics here with help of Google translator (especially the "Der schönste singletrail") but the translations are not very accurate so I thought it would be better to try to get the answers from you in English.

Me and a couple of friends (up to 5 people all together) are planing on visiting the alps with our bikes next year. We will have a motor home and only one week to spare. Coming from Poland we plan our route to go through Salzburg, Innsbruk and than either down to Lake Garda or further west to Bodensee (this are the general directions). The plan is to ride bikes during the day and move to another location during the night.

I would be very grateful for some tips, information, gps tracks, photos, maps, names, etc. regarding the trails that we should ride. According to "Die Singeltreil-Skala" we should be able not to kill ourselves on S2 trails and we are hoping for fun rides, flowy single trails and great views.
I am sure that you guys know the right places to go to!

And a bit off topic: do you guys know what are the laws regarding wild camping (i.e. sleeping in motor homes on parkings, gas stations etc., outside the paid camping spots) in Austria/Germany/Italy/Switzerland?

 

[cxfahrer]

S2 trails is allmountain biking? No bikeparks?

I cant help you with such trails around Salzburg and Innsbruck. Did you look in all those gps sites? In the Bike-magazin.de and Mountainbike-magazin.de sites?

I always use Kompass maps (they have the complete alps on map online for free!) and topograhic maps to plan ( e.g. http://www.gps-tracks.com/TrackToGo...gDialog=d&FiOrt=Topin&WHeight=768&WWidth=1024).
On these maps you can find interesting trails when you look for those small lines, that meander down the peaks.

There are so many well documented trails at Lake Garda (e.g. gardamtb) that it is useless to try to tell you here.

I never heard of a place to bike around the Bodensee, it is quite flat all around the lake.

Staying for one night with a camper should not be a problem anywhere, if you are not the scary type...

 

[sub-xero]

Maybe you should take a closer look at the skiing areas south of Salzburg and east of Innsbruck. There are a lot of trails including cable car transportation uphill. I think you could have a lot of scenic biking fun there for more than a week, and the infrastructure is great too.

 

[ciao heiko]

#

 

[Pfadfinderin]

May be you can also stay at the station of a cable car, i.e. in Garmisch at the Wank cable car they have places for mobile homes with electricity and a dump station.
In the Salzburg region look i.e. at www.gps-tour.info for Salinen-Trails at Bad Reichenhall. It is a pretty short ride but really flow trails, mostly S1. If you want to go harder look for "Von Reichenhall ums Lattengebirge". There are two really steep uphills, a nice singletrail downhill (prob. S2) and back to Reichenhall great flow a little bit up and down.
From there you could get easily to Neukirchen am Großvenediger. Go to Wildkogel (by cable car or your own muscles) and ride the famous Wildkogeltrail. 1000 hm flowtrail with S1. The view from Wildkogelhaus is really amazing!
From there you have serveral opportunities to go futher south to the Dolimites or Lake Garda.

 

[Kruhy]

Many thanks for your responses.

@ cxfahrer - I agree that planing routes with maps is great way, but it is best if you at least can guess what you will find when already there. I want to avoid situation where I need to get through some terrain with the bike, that getting through without one would be tricky.

@ ciao heiko - many thanks, I definitely meant staying over night not camping

@ Pfadfinderin - thank you very much for the link and the trail ideas. I need to explore the site and will be back with more questions regarding the trails I will find there!

Any more ideas are very welcome!

 

[Pfadfinderin]

You also could go to Brenner Pass to ride the old Military Paths which Mussolini built. You could start either in Austria i.e. in Gries, go to Sattelberg and then at 2000m lightly up and down southwards. Take trail 1 down to Gossensass and back the cicling route to Brenner. You could also start at Gossensass, so you would´nt have uphill at the end of the day. In the same region you could also make Schlüsseljoch or Flatschjoch which are both pretty well-known crossings for transalps. Schlüsseljoch is an old military path, Flatschjoch is a lot to carry the bike, then a trail S2-S3. Both ends at Pfitschertal which you can take outside to Sterzing. Your choice...
You can find GPS tracks for these loops in the www. , i.e. at www.mountainbike.bz or the linked portal above.

 

[transalbi]

You can also ask Tomasz Pawłusiewicz from Krakow. He knwos the Alps very well. His homepage ist: www.transalp.pl

Albi

 

[tiroler1973]

Cycling between Salzburg and Lake Garda is a far distance. I think you should have two plans. One plan for good weather conditions in the northern alps and one plan for bad weather conditions in the northern alps -> go to th e south.

In the northern alps we have got some good spots in my region:

- Kirchberg / Westendorf: http://www.kainer.net/mike/content/view/265/86/lang,germani/ & http://www.kainer.net/mike/content/view/88/86/lang,germani/ <- You should add the Wildkogeltrail to this tour and take the cable car to come back. Otherwise you should plan two days for this tour and should stay at the Wildkogelhaus.

- Kirchberg / Kitzbühel: http://www.tourenwelt.at/radtour/144-fleckalm-ehrenbachtrail.html

- Wildschönau: http://www.kainer.net/mike/content/view/343/1/lang,germani/

- Zillertal: http://www.kainer.net/mike/content/view/263/86/lang,germani/

- Rofan/Karwendel: http://www.kainer.net/mike/content/view/325/86/lang,germani/

- Alpbach: http://www.kainer.net/mike/content/view/189/86/lang,germani/ - take track 2 because of better downhill and it doesn't matter where to start.

My girlfriend is from poland. So if you have some questions in polnish you can ask her.

At the above mentioned page of moutainbike.bz this one is a very smart one: http://www.mountainbike.bz/de/bikeregionen/sterzing-umgebung/touren/674-schnogge-lang.html - amazing downhill like bob sleding.

Have a good time and lot's of fun.

 

[weisser_rausch]

hey guys,
I live near lake of Constance (Bodensee) in the Danube Valley -danube mountainland and I lived in Constance for some years -maybe I know the area a little bit. If you want some Information, maybe some guiding in this area, you can contact me.
Greetings weisser rausch