The Sawyer Stories

To quote myself (Michael) ‘This is going to be an adventure!’

Not only was it an adventure but it was the most memorable and beautiful bike ride of our lives. Based on a recommendation of friends, we planned to take the train out approximately 60 kilometers to a stop called Imst and bike through the alps back to Innsbruck. 

We woke up early(ish) on Monday knowing that the E-Bike shop was going to open at around 8:30am and we wanted to get a jumpstart on our day. After quick showers we were out the door. 

The walk to the shop was familiar as, the night before, I had blazed this trail in reverse. There aren’t a ton of ‘I’ moments in this trip as we are traveling for our anniversary but that previous evening I had to leave Amber behind as collateral. 

We had purchased some bland vegan cake to consume as dessert but found ourselves caught in a ‘cash only’ trap. I had to take a long journey back to the apartment to retrieve said Euros to rescue Amber from being forced to wash dishes in the back room. 

Once we arrived at the Bike Shop, a nice young Austrian man greeted us. We let him know that we’d called to place a hold on two E-Bikes earlier that morning and were there to pick them up. He walked us to the side of the shop with the rentals and sized us both up. Amber was ‘small’ and I was deemed ‘a little bit bigger’ which helped pair us with our steed for the day.

In juxtaposition to renting something in America, I didn’t have to fill out multiple forms, provide a significant amount of money as a security deposit, as well as the placenta from my first born. Nope, I gave him my ID, he looked at it, handed it back, and said we could be on our way. 

Between the bike stop and the train station, we made two stops. 

First, we walked through a fantastic little market reminiscent of Union Market (for those of you in DC). The hope was to find some breakfast but we came up short. 

Since we were in a hurry to catch our train to begin today’s adventure, we stopped at something familiar instead of searching out something new. On the way in, we had seen a familiar brand and stopped back by at Dunkin’.

Much to my surprise, I wasn’t stuck with the typical plain bagel for breakfast but instead there was an entire VEGAN MENU! Recently, I’ve not eaten many sweets but I gladly ordered a vegan donut to support the plant based community and help tip the demand algorithm toward keeping vegan items around as a long-term menu category.

As we were waiting for the vegan sweets to be handed to us, I checked the train times and saw that we had many options, as is typical in Europe. If we went quickly, we could make a train that left in 12 minutes and with a journey of approximately 30 minutes. The next train that went through our destination would depart in 45 minutes with a journey of approximately an hour. 

If we wanted to make the most of the day, it made the most sense to quickly ride our newly rented E-bikes to the train and jump on the train that left in 12 minutes. The good news is that the by this point in the trip we (I) knew the city well enough to navigate without directions. So off we went.

On the quick jaunt to the train station, we stopped at a stop light and I pulled out my phone and purchased our tickets. As a side note, in Innsbruck and Europe in general, there is fantastic infrastructure for cyclists. Also, there is minimal bikes performing lane filtering and it appears that it truly is a culture of multidirectional ‘sharing the road’ that ensures the safety of pedestrians and cyclists. 

We arrived at the Innsbruck Hauptbahnhof and headed towards our platform wheeling our E-Bikes along. We had about five minutes to spare once arriving at the station so we felt highly confident that we could make our train. 

There were signs indicating that bikes were not allowed on the escalator so we found the nearest elevator to head toward our platform. There was a bit of a line and with our bikes being large, we had to wait. 

Three minutes until departure.

We finally made it on the elevator and pushed the button to descend below the platforms. We jumped off the elevator and looked for the signs indicating our platform. It was a bit far off so we had to go pretty quickly to ensure we made it to our train. 

To return to the platform level, and our train, we had to go back up and, of course, another line for the elevator! I made the decision to break the rules, which is an extreme rarity for me, and we took the bikes onto the escalator. 

Two minutes until departure. 

Once off the escalator, we saw our train about 50 meters off. We didn’t sprint but we did hurry. We jumped on the first car, and to our surprise, it was the car that included tethers for our bikes. This was totally by chance and we, after a quick learning curve, had our bikes strapped in and we were on our way. 

After around 30 minutes, we arrived at Imst, untethered our bikes and stepped on to the platform. My first stop needed to be at the restroom but I was half a Euro short of access so I figured I would make do. Off we went on our biking adventure. 

Adventure Segment One

It appears that the bike infrastructure is highly developed outside of Innsbruck and into the greater Tyrol area. With that said, we didn’t know where to find the entrance to said trail. We knew that it was off the station parking lot from when we were completing our research for this trip so we looped around the lot until we found an entrance to what appeared to be a bike trail. 

The only issue we faced was a metal barrier and a sign in German that, when translated, read something to the extent of ‘Path Closed Indefinitely.’

We contemplated the next steps asking the obvious question ‘To what extent is it closed? Is it actually passable or is the sign just precautionary?’

Again, I’m not a rule breaker and I like to follow posted signage so against my internal monologue, we decided to take a chance and ride around the barrier to start our ride. Truthfully, what other choice did we have outside of jumping back on a train to start at a closer station to Innsbruck or just staying in the town we were in? At the end of the day, we weren’t planning to put ourselves in a dangerous situation so if we had to turn around, we would. 

It turns out that over the course of the next few kilometers, there were parts of the path that had fallen into the river due to erosion. We stayed clear of the portions of the path that would plunge us to uncertain death so, in the end, it wasn’t too impactful of our journey outside of preceding with caution in certain spots. 

After three kilometers we saw a second barrier indicating the end of the closed path for us and the beginning of a closed path for those heading the opposite direction. We’d successfully navigated our first challenge of the day and felt confident in our continued journeying. 

Adventure Segment Two 

Right before this ending barrier, we crossed a small wooden bridge and noticed a beautiful waterfall dropping into the river. We parked our bikes and stopped for a quick picture before heading around the barrier and continuing our journey.

As we snapped a picture of the waterfall and a quick ‘us-ie’ we noticed a van driving down the path toward us from the direction we had come. I joked with Amber that it was the Austrian authorities coming to arrest us for ignoring the warning signs. We quickly rode on knowing at some point we would have to pull over for the van to pass. 

No big deal. 

Earlier in the ride, my E-Bike sounded like it had slipped gears. Nothing concerning as it was something I had heard thousands of other times on rides in my youth so I didn’t think much of it. As we were pedaling away from our perceived misdemeanor of ignoring posted signage, I heard another pop. Again, no bid deal, I’ve heard this before. 

I continued to pedal my way up a hill, with the assist of my E-bike’s motor, and heard another pop but this time it felt different. My pedals were suddenly loose and I could immediately tell I had an issue with my chain. 

I stopped, parked my bike, and took a look at what was going on. I had assumed that my chain had slipped off the gears but lo and behold, that was not the case. I guess it did slip off the gears but the chain had also snapped and a weak link had broken off. 

Crap. we’re in the middle of the Austrian countryside with a broken bike, 57 kilometers from our ‘home’ for the week, what now?

Remember that van with the ‘Austrian Authorities’? It turned out to be a super nice older gentleman who didn’t speak a word of English. He was kind enough to stop and try to assist us as we worked to communicate to each other through gesture.

He wasn’t able to help us fix the chain but he did help us in three other ways: 

   1.    He was able to get the chain off of the bike since it was stuck in the pedal gear.  
   2.    He gave us a towel to wipe our hands up and wrap the chain to put in our bag. 
   3.    He was a genius in the field of physics (I’ll circle back to this momentarily)

Back to the wonder of the European rail system. While we were 3 kilometers from our origin, we knew there was another station and small town relatively close. After referencing our phones we determined that there were 4 bike shops back where we had come from in Imst but all of them were closed that day. Up ahead about 2 kilometers there was another train station in the town of Roppen but no bike shops. 

After discussing for a bit, we concluded that it made the most sense to walk to the train Roppen and take the next train back into Innsbruck. 

Here is where physics comes in. 

The nice Austrian gentleman started to drive by us and I kindly waved. At that point we were walking the bikes and our new friend slowed down to make the most wonderful gesture at me. It is hard to describe the gesture but in essence I could tell it meant, ‘You’re an idiot, why are you walking your bike down this hill when you could be gliding down the hill.’ Brilliant!

The next 2 kilometers included a mix of walking up hills and gliding down when the grade allowed. Absolute genius! I did try to have Amber pedal her bike while I held on to her but that lasted all of 30 seconds before realizing that this method was not genius, and only going to end in pain.

It wasn’t too long before we ended up in the picturesque Austrian village or Roppen. Talk about a peaceful village. Sitting in the valley between Alps, this little farming community had narrow, winding streets, and beautiful homes that were in a traditional Austrian style.

And after working our way through the town, we found the train station, purchased some tickets on the next train back to Innsbruck, waited 40 minutes for the train to arrive, and boarded the train with our bikes to head back to the city. 

Adventure Intermission

By the time we were back in Innsbruck, it was already past lunch time but we were determined to complete our planned ride. We headed about 1 kilometer back to the bike shop to get the chain on my bike fixed. 

With this in mind, technically, we were supposed to have our bikes back by 6:30pmthat evening when the shop closed. This timing didn’t give enough time to finish our ride. Fortunately, we were able to negotiate with the owner to keep our bikes overnight as long as we brought them back by 8:30am the next morning with a full charge. We appreciated this allowance and once the bike was fixed, we were on our way.

We made a quick stop at our apartment, which was right next to the train station, for me to change from pants to joggers, use the restroom, fill our water bottles, and drop off the E-Bike Charger the shop lent us to charge that evening. 

The next train left to go to Roppen in about 10 minutes and since we hadn’t eaten lunch yet, we decided to take a later train and grab some food first. At the train station, they had a McDonald’s and in Austria McDonald’s serves the McVeggie which when slightly modified becomes a quick (but not healthy) vegan meal. I always enjoy these little finds that feel like an alternate reality from what I’m used to at home. 

Adventure Segment Three

The rest of our day became a race against sunlight. 

After the quick 30 minutes train ride back out to Roppen, we were off the train and on the trail. For the majority of the ride, the bike trail followed the river, giving us splendid views of the water running through the valley with the Alps surrounding us. 

One beautiful spot was a suspension bridge that went over the River Inn which we found after a few kilometers into this second start. We stopped here to take some pictures but couldn’t stay long because we wanted to make the full ride back to Innsbruck and it was getting late. 

After about another Kilometer there were three trucks and some constructions workers blocking the trail. One of them looked at me as I rode up and said ‘Der weg ist gesperrt’ which, whether I spoke German or not, I knew it meant that the trail was closed. As I had many times this week I said ‘English’ with the intonation of a question. No such luck until one man stepped from behind a truck and said the ‘The trail is closed.’ 

I asked if there was a way around the construction and he said ‘Yes, if you go back about a kilometer, there is a bridge, cross that and turn left.’ I politely said ‘Danke’ and headed back the way we came and after a mile came back to the bridge we had crossed 20 minutes earlier. 

Adventure Segment Four

We wound our way through the town near the bridge and used our phones to navigate around this unexpected detour and try to find the path beyond the construction site. In doing so two things happened. 

First, we rode by this really cool recreation center, camp ground, and waterpark called Area 47. It wasn’t open yet but it certainly felt like something Liam would love and we would do as a family if he was here. 

Once we were passed Area 47, we found ourselves in some of the most beautiful scenery we’ve ever seen. Mountains. Valleys. Farm Animals. Water. I truly had never seen something so wonderful and just soaked in the views. 

We were about 5 kilometers in to this segment of our ride when I noticed that I didn’t recognize any of the town names the directional signs were pointing toward. Earlier in the journey, I would recognize the town names as we were essentially following the train tracks back. Earlier in the day each sign I saw was always followed by ‘Innsbruck – XX kilometers.’

Welp, we did it again. This time instead of heading back east toward Innsbruck, we had found a trail that was heading south. I had a pretty good idea of where we made the wrong turn but honestly, the views alone were worth the extra time and distance. We weren’t frustrated but found the joy in the detour. We saw a level of beauty that we never would have witnessed if we wouldn’t have made that wrong turn.

We made it back to where I thought we made the wrong turn and about a half a kilometer down a logging road, we saw a ‘Do Not Enter’ type sign again. I knew the road we wanted was just beyond that sign so we did what we’d been doing all day and ignored the warning sign. Fortunately, the road was indeed there and only about 200 meters past the sign. Unfortunately, this road was a heavily traveled two lane road with a speed limit of 80 kilometers per hour. 

At this point, I didn’t know what other choice we had, so we got on the (extremely small) shoulder and pedaled / motored as fast as the bike would carry us. We must have been going really fast because only a few cars passed us and those that did slowed down so that we weren’t blown over by the wind wake of their vehicles. 

It was exactly 1 kilometer into the next town where traffic slowed, a sidewalk appeared, and my heart finally dropped below 180 beats per minute. 

Adventure Segment Five

We found our way through another quaint Austrian town and finally found a sign that said ‘Innsbruck – 50k kilometers. Wait, 50 kilometers. There is no way that is correct!

It was correct. 

I was more determined than ever to make it to Innsbruck by bike so we sped off. It wasn’t long before we connected back to our original trail about 2 kilometers past where we had turned around for construction. For those keeping score, we are somewhere between 12 – 15 extra kilometers into our ride by this point. 

Moving forward we only made two more wrong turns. The first we found ourselves pedaling towards the on-ramp onto the autobahn which we quickly remedied. We’ve had enough fast cars for the day. 

The second came after about another 35 kilometers of biking.

We came to a town called Zerl, and realized that the dark had finally caught up with us. Unfortunately our E-Bikes didn’t have lights on them nor did these Austrian streets, so we made the call to catch a train home for the last 15 kilometers. We missed our road to the train station but we caught it quickly, turned around, and made our way to the platform.

I opened the Austrian train app (OBB) and found that the next train would be there in about 30 minutes and would be about an 10 minute ride back into the center of Innsbruck. To help pass the time, we called family, got some water and bars out of the platform’s vending machine and waited on our very sore behinds. 

What a fantastic day. It may not seem like that with all the trouble and detours but isn’t that a microcosm of life at large. We were able to experience so much beauty in a single day. When life threw things our way, we just found the next new adventure. 

I’m so glad we got to share this experience and can’t wait to do it again.