Day 6 - Drive from Bad Berneck - Zonhoven

After a pleasant second stay at our hotel in Bad Berneck and a solid dinner yesterday evening, it’s time to pack up and make the 6-hour drive back home. All good things must come to an end — even bikepacking trips through the Fichtelgebirge.

So what else can you do during a 6-hour drive besides argue about who gets to control the music? Review the adventure, of course! We went over our best moments, talked about our biggest fails, and brainstormed what we can improve for next time. Here’s the summary for you.

The Most Beautiful View #

On our first day we arrived at a ski piste and were absolutely amazed by the view. I was even breathless — though that might have been due to the climb we had just finished. The combination with the heat of the sun breaking through after a rainy couple of hours was the icing on the cake. Sometimes suffering pays off.

The Biggest Fail #

We really didn’t have a big fail this year, which was a welcome change after the bad luck of previous trips. But our detour through a graveyard, followed by pushing our bikes up a singletrack and then back down only to end up at the exact same road we were on 20 minutes earlier, surely takes the top spot.

It almost felt like we were pushing the boulder of Sisyphus, just to end back up at the bottom of the hill again. But this was purely self-inflicted, so essentially this year was one big win for us! No mechanical failures, no failing ebikes, no dad losing his keys. Just one very scenic detour to nowhere.

The Funniest Moment #

We had been climbing this mountain for the last couple of hours. First we had smooth gravel roads, which morphed into singletracks — smooth to start, then the roots came. They gradually became larger and then morphed into stones. At some point the stones became so large that our dad was cursing and swearing continuously. There was absolutely no way to cycle through this, and we laughed so hard while pushing our bikes up and over boulders. I’m sure a lot of you don’t understand why this would be funny, but the situation is so surreal that the only thing you can do is laugh. Three grown men, one camping stove, and a mountain that clearly didn’t want them there.

The Best Attribute of Our Trip #

There is a definite first place here, and that’s the camping stove I hauled along. We decided to take it with us because we were expecting cold and rainy weather and thought that some warm drinks during the day would cheer us up.

But it was even better than expected. No idea why, but setting up the stove, boiling water, and making soup or coffee turned into a surprisingly wholesome moment for us. It forced us to slow down and sit down, and it’s definitely something we’ll bring along more frequently on future trips. Who knew a tiny stove could be the MVP of a mountain bike trip?

But there are surely a second and third place in this category, and those go to the smartphone stand and the Rummikub game my brother brought along. The stand was just pure fun and yet another thing that made us slow down and have a good laugh at ourselves.

The Rummikub game was an ideal evening activity (except when I was too tired to participate — turns out climbing mountains on a non-electric MTB while the other two cruise on eMTBs is exhausting, who would’ve thought) and ensured we had another opportunity to shout and swear at each other. Family bonding at its finest.

The Best Trail #

We saw a lot of cool trails on this trip. The Fichtelgebirge is a beautiful place to cycle through. Still, a couple of trails made a lasting impression.

The first one was a beautiful singletrack running alongside a river. Whenever I see a track going along a river, I’m tempted to take that route. It doesn’t always pan out because these singletracks can sometimes be a bit too sketchy, but this one was a perfect combination of nature, flow, and a small dose of technical sections.

The next mention was a trail through the woods where the combination of moss, birdsong, and towering pines made it an absolute dream to cycle through. It was so beautiful that we forgot to take pictures — classic. So here’s the next best trail, which has the same vibes.

The Biggest Takeaway #

For me, the biggest takeaway was that our lodging places weren’t too far away from each other. This gave us lots of options for adapting the route to our, or more specifically, mine 😅, liking.

And that’s really the most important takeaway for the three of us: the kilometers or the elevation meters don’t matter. We just want some adventure, cool places, and each other’s company while cycling. Doesn’t matter if we do that in 10km or 100km. It’s about the journey, not the Strava stats.

Thanks for following along on this Fichtelgebirge adventure! Not sure when the next one will be — maybe there’s another trip hiding in 2026, otherwise we’ll see you in 2027. Until then, keep the rubber side down! 🤙