{"id":24371,"date":"2021-02-15T08:00:03","date_gmt":"2021-02-15T16:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/community.nrs.com\/?p=24371"},"modified":"2021-02-12T11:33:52","modified_gmt":"2021-02-12T19:33:52","slug":"to-the-other-side-a-bike2boat-adventure-through-the-alps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/2021\/02\/15\/to-the-other-side-a-bike2boat-adventure-through-the-alps\/","title":{"rendered":"To the Other Side: A Bike2Boat Adventure Through the Alps"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a tour of this kind, it helps to assess your current situation in an overly optimistic fashion: 1) The mosquitoes are gone. 2) The heat has cooled to a pleasurable temperature. 3) There will be additional water for the waterfalls tomorrow, despite the midsummer low. I try to suppress the reality: It\u2019s shortly after midnight. I lie huddled in my sleeping bag, and water runs down my face as if I am paddling whitewater. The thunderstorm makes its third pass, like a drunkard it staggers from valley to valley and vomits its effusions over us. Hours ago, we were happy to have found a roof. Now we dream of walls because the rain is lashing horizontally, soaking us as we all pretend to sleep.<\/p>\n

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Defereggenbach, Osttirol, Austria.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By bike, we\u2019ve been pulling our kayaks on trailers for more than a week now. From the south of Germany, we pedaled to our home run in Lofer, Austria, enjoyed the famous Devil\u2019s Canyon, and biked farther past the Kaiser Mountains and up 2,504 meters on the Gro\u00dfglockner. From there we continued to Lienz in East Tyrol, Italy, paddled several stretches of the Isel River and the Defereggenbach. Then we biked over the Staller Sattel pass to Merano in Southern Tyrol.<\/p>\n

Including our bike, trailer, kayak, stove, and clothes, each of us maneuvers around twice his body weight. Admittedly, it\u2019s arduous to travel this way. Logistically and physically speaking, this is the complete opposite of a week at an \u201call-inclusive\u201d hotel. But for us, we\u2019re simply combining two of the greatest modes of transport that mankind has invented: kayaking and cycling. And now, we sit in Southern Tyrol under a canopy bearing our wet fate with the stoic calm and humor that can only be found in moments like these. Besides, it was quite humid anyway.<\/p>\n