Westweg, Germany

Germany has been a gap in my walking resumé. I don't remember how I heard of the Westweg and I knew little about it in advance of starting except that it went the whole length of the Black Forest from north to south so there would be lots of trees. I didn't expect all the mountains. I had planned to camp but this proved difficult because there were so few opportunities to buy food, there was almost no water on the trail (taps or streams) and nowhere would ever be open at breakfast time. In the end the trail really grew on me; at first I thought it was nothing special but after a couple of days I began to appreciate how it was so well thought out, all beautiful without exception. Like Offa's Dyke it was hard to pinpoint what gave the trail such a good feel, although nine straight days of sunshine certainly helped. 

23 May I left my hotel in Pforzheim and had a short way to the official start of the Westweg. It was a cloudless sky and already warm. There was an archway signifying the walk start. Initially there was a maze of little paths in the forest but my route was meticulously signed although my gps route differed from the signs. I went through a town and was then on a bike path in the forest (red cedar, beech, horse chestnut, sycamore) alongside a river which was very nice. I climbed to Schloss Neuenburg (a large mansion) and descended to Neuenburg, rather sleepy and no bakery. After a lot of climbing and more forest paths I came to the edge of Schwan and detoured to try and find a bakery: nothing. The next forest path had good views over towns of red roofs and forest in the valley from a slight ridge. I reached a main road and an outdoor cafe with this same view and had an ice cream.

More forest paths, in fact there was quite a choice of paths and I might not have always been on the Westweg. It was still a mixed forest but increasingly conifers. There were lots of piles of logs, a frequent feature of the trail. It was hot and uphill. When I reached Dobel (surprisingly to me it was a ski village) I walked along the road to where I was staying and the owner booked me a table at the pizzeria. 27 kms

24 May Seems to be a heatwave here. I hadn't realised this was a long weekend, posing problems with food because all the shops would be closed today and tomorrow. I sneaked two filled rolls from my hotel breakfast (itself a last minute measure because the bakery was closed and I had only found out when I walked past on my way to the pizzeria).

Back in the forest I went along wide paths and after a while there were several openings with good views of pine covered hills and tucked away villages. Then a clearing with a hut where I rested a bit, it was already hot. More viewpoints, I went over a peak, an interlude on a narrow rocky path and I came to a serviced hut with an expanse of grass overlooking the forested hills and I had a coffee. This was what I had expected from a walk in Germany. There were some walkers but mostly bike riders.

Mostly downhill in lovely forest on the other side of the ridge, lots of birds tweeting. I came to a hotel/ restaurant and was intending to eat but I continued on past a marshy area with ponds and came to a high tower which I climbed for a view of the surrounding forest and valley towns, such a variety of greens.

Narrow rocky trails to a closed hut where I sat for lunch and another hut with a view over the valley (where I had originally planned to stay) and a long descent towards Forbach deep in the forest.

A couple of lookouts. I was playing leapfrog with the same walkers all day. On the edge of the forest I emerged at an area of sloping meadows and walked downhill into Forbach. The supermarket was closed but I got food and drink at a servo, then went past several cafes and a bakery. 

I began my climb out of Forbach to the hut where I hoped I could sleep; it was a brutal steep climb, no zigzags like on the way down, and I was soon a liquid mess. Nice view of the town looking back.

After a couple of kilometres the path narrowed and the grade eased for the remainder. The hut (Wegschiedhütte) turned out to be idyllic, a tiny A-frame on a triangle of grass with forest all around and an upstairs sleeping platform. 32 kms

25 May Cute colourful birds around the hut. Soon I was climbing again on a rocky path beside a stream. I came to a river basin that is usually full of water then I walked a loop around little hidden Herrenwieser See whose still surface reflected the trees. More climbing to an opening with a view of dense forest, some time on a plateau walking between all sorts of firs and pines and bilberry bushes with unripe fruit, warnings about wolves and at the summit (1002 m) a tall tower Badener Hohe that I didn't have to climb as it was closed. 

Long downhill on a wide trail with a few views north to beyond the mountains. I passed a closed cafe and at the next one I sat down and ordered a coffee (I wasn't sure if it was really open but there was nowhere else). I paused at a ski hill. The heat is energy sapping. Another ski hill then I had a long climb to a plateau of heather and bilberries and stunted pines, the summit Hochkopf had a good panorama of mountains. I came down to very busy Untersmatt (2 restaurants, nothing else) and ordered kaiserscharrm because I haven't eaten it for years.

I went higher again to a shabby ski/walkers lodge. 19 kms

26 May A bit more uphill on a rocky rooty path to the summit of Horningsgrinde (1139 m) with a tower I had seen yesterday. Views.

From there I walked to a viewpoint over Mummelsee, a brown lake with a resort in the forest,

and then a lovely narrow trail deep in the forest to another ski hill. The path undulated along the mountainside with views over valleys with houses until I reached a serviced hut for a rhubarb soda. Next I glimpsed a tiny hidden lake, Wildersee.

I went up to a plateau and came down steeply through a ski field to Ruhestein where I had a pair of wurst for lunch. A lot fewer people around now the long weekend is over.

Then I had to go all the way back up to the summit of Schliffkopf; a lot had been logged so there was no shade and it was very hot. The top was an extensive plateau of heather and bilberries with views of the mountains. I still seemed to be climbing and there were some good views from the trail into a narrow cleared valley.

The occasional breeze was very welcome. The tall dark conifers are really beautiful and often growing in a thick carpet of bilberries. Eventually I came to clearings at the top of the ski area at Zuflucht and there was a smart hotel there; I had a flammekuchen for early dinner before I went on.

The walking was easier after that as it had cooled a bit and I was done with serious climbing. I went along logging roads until I came out onto an open hill top with a great view west of tiny clusters of houses in little valleys. I got to Hildahütte at a junction and as there was a patch of mown grass by the hut I put my tent up there; there were so many insects I didn't want to sleep in the open hut. 30 kms

27 May The path became narrower and climbed to a viewpoint (Seeblick) over a little lake hundreds of metres below.

Then I crossed a logged area and had a long descent to a road crossing where there was a water tap just providing drips of water (the previous source was dry). Had to climb back up on the other side to a hut with beds and a table inside. Walking along a ridge I had a view of the mountains to the east and the forest became darker.

I was pleased to come out of the forest onto cow grazing hillsides and arrive at Harkhof (a farm) and its terrace restaurant, where I was staying in the mattress room. Lunch was a pile of shredded salami with potato salad and cottage cheese, and Black Forest cake. It was so hot. I was still tired from yesterday and by the evening I was feeling quite unwell with a temperature and I could hardly eat. 13 kms

28 May This was a cruisy day with plenty of shade, several good lookouts and a long downhill to Hausach. Mostly on narrow paths deep in the forest.

The first lookout at Hohenlochen was a break in the trees to see forest from a rock platform.

Further along I looked the same way but over a farmed valley.

Then a lookout the other way over a village and minimal ruins of a castle. I came to a small tor with my first view over Hausach in a long valley, the biggest town on the route so far. The final descent was steep to fields on the edge of the town then I crossed a river and was in the town. My hotel was right at the beginning of the spread out town and I had a long walk to get my ice cream. But I was near the supermarkets so I could buy food for the first time on this walk. 15 kms

29 May This was going to be a hard day of climbing in the heat but luckily I was almost always in the forest with a lot of shade. I walked the length of Hausach then had a steep climb up past a tower ruin to a low summit, then prolonged steep uphill to a hut, Farrenkopf, where there was a good mountain view and I caught up with the only remaining walkers that had started out from Pforzheim the same day as me, a German couple and a Dutch couple. There was a long stony descent then more uphill at an easier grade to ruins of a fort (where the Dutch guy tried to use my tick key to remove a tick but it didn't work!) Many fortification ditches around. We all thought there was a restaurant within a few kilometres but the next food available on the Westweg was a lot further away; there were so many trails with different features intersecting and separating it was confusing. Lots of wind turbines but mostly not active today. Lots of little shrines.

I came to a lookout on top of a rock at Huberfels with a big metal marker indicating the halfway point of the trail.

Good view. Soon another rocky tor with an extensive view. I was back high again. The best thing about the second view was that I could also see the restaurant

and I was soon there, cutting through the forest and across grass in my haste. I had an elderflower soda and a slice of cheesecake. Then it was a flattish stretch out of the forest, the path overlooking a small town, until the next restaurant where I didn't stop because I had to find somewhere to camp. 

The huts along here were more like little bus shelters, by a road and nowhere suitable for camping. Then I noticed a walkers' campsite on the map that was only 1500 metres away so I went there and it was ok, some grass in the forest and water tap, the toilet was locked. (The Germans said later I had been sent a code hidden deep in an email for me to access a website for the lock combination.) 27 kms

30 May It was distinctly cool when I got up, probably because I was at over 1000 metres. I took a different route back to the Westweg walking through a green valley with a few typical mountain houses and into a forest with a slightly different feel: mossy and with several little streams. I hadn't seen flowing water for a while. I arrived at Martinskapelle, a small chapel

and hotel at the site of the source of the Danube; the source was a tiny trickle in a field with an ugly sculpture on the bank above.

I got a coffee at the hotel. 

I went back into the forest, which had lovely soft pine needles underfoot, and searched out some big groups of moss covered boulders (Günterfelsen).

Then on to Brend where there was a low tower to climb - nice views of distant mountains beyond the plateau. The next bit was especially nice walking slightly downhill between forest and meadows. Despite a thin layer of cloud the day had heated up. I saw a town in a valley and in the other direction reached a restaurant, but the owner's dog tried to attack me and the place was closed apart from vending machines with beer, wine and wurst. There was a town not much further so I detoured off the trail and asked for directions to a restaurant, the town was baking hot but there was indeed an open restaurant, a locals sort of place. I could see Feldberg with two towers on top (highest mountain in Black Forest) from the terrace.

From there I had the hardest climb of the day because of the heat and I walked near a road but well separated until Kalte Herberge where I was staying. The hotel has been in operation since 1480 and it was altogether a nice place. 22 kms

31 May Hot from the get go. The path was close to the road and frequently crossing it, on a ridge with good views until returning into the forest, but still emerging to pass meadows and farmhouses.

I stopped at the first hut and when I came out it was windy and clouding over and soon the sun went behind a cloud for the first time on this walk. I was in and out of forest on gravel tracks with views towards Feldberg, a small town and isolated farmhouses, stacked logs everywhere as usual and shrines.

The route was undulating, reaching almost 1200 metres before a long descent to Titisee. It was again hot coming into the town and I was suddenly confronted by souvenir shops and masses of people. I went down to the lake and found a cafe there and the Dutch couple. A several kilometre long lake with forest all around apart from the town and a few resorts. The wind came up while I sat there and some thunder; within two minutes of me leaving it started raining and I sheltered on a covered stage as it bucketed down. Then I walked along the road to a huge campground by the lake. It rained more. 23 kms

1 June It rained a lot in the night and the morning was cooler, lots of cloud. I went on roads past the end of the lake to the edge of Hinterzarten, pretty village with onion domed church. Steep climbing for a while by meadows and in forest, some streams with little falls, until 1000 metres when the grade eased. I came to an old farmhouse and could see Feldberg clearly, last view I had of it until I was on the summit. The track became stony and I had a view over little Feldsee far below among the trees. I could see one of the towers on Feldberg and the top of the chairlift long before I was on the summit but the trail didn't pass them instead heading across the grassy summit to a radar tower and the highest point at 1493 metres. The views all around of so many distant mountains were amazing and along the southern horizon a line of much higher mountains, the Alps including Mont Blanc and the Eiger. Also the distinctive peak of Belchen, tomorrow's climb.

The sun was shining but there were dark clouds.

I descended slightly on grassy slopes then climbed back onto a plateau that was nearly as high before starting the real descent. This side of the range was open grassland/bilberries with continuous views southwards and a few copses of pines. I went back into the forest and it was a shame all the restaurants on the way down were on their day off (this explained why the trail was suddenly deserted). By Notschrei, a nordic skiing centre, I was tired and I didn't like the next unnecessary climb. I rested at a lovely hut, a pity I had a hotel booking and no food or I could have stayed. The last part was by fields, a narrow rooty path between electric fences. The green valley views were nice but Wieden, my destination, remained hidden. I reached the road and a hotel and I went in to ask them to phone my hotel owner to pick me up as Wieden is off the trail, 250 metres lower and I had done enough walking. It proved to be a cute village deep in a valley; the restaurants were both closed so my hotel owner gave me a bowl of soup. 31 kms

2 June I asked the hotel owner at breakfast (at least I got breakfast!) if I could buy some food from her but she said she had nothing. She took me back to the pick up point and I started my climb up Belchen, I was in a mixed forest until a saddle then the path got steeper, some scree falls and big rocks and I was on a grassy mountainside looking across to Feldberg,

and also at the cable car up Belchen with a car park far below.

(The path didn't quite go to the summit but I had read there was no need to go there.) The cafe by the cable car was about to open (10am) so it was a no brainer to wait as I was extremely hungry. I had coffee and a big slab of strawberry cake. The view was the best yet with 270 degrees of mountains in Germany, Switzerland and France. Lovely sunshine. 

The descent began on open hillsides

with views across to Blauen my next summit and a rocky hillside in the foreground, something unusual on this walk.

Soon I went into a forest with rocky cliffs, contouring a steep forested chasm. Then out again for walking in the full sun and along one stretch I noticed tiny wild strawberries that were delicious. There was some climbing to avoid a road, a closed restaurant, and I went back into dense forest, beech at first later pine. The trail was often a ledge cut into the hillside and it was very peaceful. I had window views west over the plains and the Vosges beyond.

I knew it was going to rain in the afternoon and I timed my arrival for a rest at a roadside shelter well: there was a downpour just after I settled in then some thunder, and road workmen who had been making lots of noise there left. The rain got really heavy and there was lightning. A walker I had chatted with this morning turned up looking drenched and hopped in a car with some forest workers who arrived at the hut at the same time.

After an hour the rain had stopped and although I knew it was coming back I thought I could get to the top of Blauen without getting soaked. The path was steep and the edges were wet also the trees were dripping, it rained lightly but it was ok. The summit (1160 m) was entirely in cloud and there was no point in climbing the tower, a few seconds away I couldn't even see the tower let alone a view.

Then out of the mist I saw the new Blauen hotel and went in for a coffee.

When I came out of the hotel I saw that there was a trail diversion on a tiny unmarked path, a bit worrying in the mist but it met a sealed road and then the real trail. I had almost 10 kilometres of downhill ahead. Coming down gradually in the misty forest was very nice, birds singing and trees dripping and nobody around. I got all the way down to Gümpen (760 m) before I was out of the cloud and the sun was almost shining. There were some interestingly shaped clouds hanging on the hillsides and there was a clear colour change between the conifers and the deciduous trees. There were several huts that I could have stayed at if only there was somewhere to get food. I checked out Sausenberg 15th c castle ruins (a tower and bits of wall), came through a small village and eventually hit a lookout point over Kandern.

I was exhausted coming into the town and my hotel was just beside the pretty square.

Not much was open for dinner so I went to another hotel and when I walked into the restaurant my German friends were sitting with car guy (who hadn't noticed me at the hut) and I really enjoyed my meal with them. 33 kms

3 June I left my pack in Kandern and set out for Basel. The route went through narrow little Wolsfsschlucht gorge with high cliffs

and then out of the forest to pass through a series of villages surrounded by vineyards, orchards and cereal fields. I was very happy to find a wild cherry tree with lots of ripe dark cherries, more tiny strawberries by the roadside and later a white cherry tree. By the time I returned to the forest it was raining lightly; the weather was very changeable. I took a few short cuts and came to Burg Rötteln, ruins of a medieval castle on a spur with a couple of towers, walls, a cellar and a commanding view of towns in the valley.

I ate cheesecake at the cafe, sheltering from the rain in the beer garden under a tree, amazingly the only place I saw to get food on the route until Basel. 

I went off the Westweg for a while to walk along a river and I had my last climb, up to a park overlooking the Basel conurbation, except that it was pouring when I reached the top so I couldn't look properly. I rejoined the Westweg and came to a chapel on a hilltop nearby with a patch of medieval fresco and the same view with the sun out. Then I walked downhill through a town, along some parkland and back to the same river; so close to Basel but no sign of a city. The trail had a last surprise: there was a stretch through a zoo with bison, deer, geese and goats. When I left the zoo I had the feeling I was in Switzerland and I asked someone, who said yes. There had been no indication of a border. I continued to Basel Bad train station (curiously the station is officially in Germany but physically in Switzerland, some sort of EU train corridor) and the official end of the Westweg although I intended to finish in the centre of Basel. I got the bus back to Kandern. 24 kms

4 June I took the bus back to Basel Bad station and strolled into Basel for a short look around. It was a public holiday in Germany (Corpus Christi) but not in Switzerland. It was a grey day. I crossed the Rhine with a good view of Basel cathedral on the far side, the old stone bridge and ornate buildings. 

I went in the red stone cathedral with its sculpted towers, simple columns inside and crypt with frescoes and tombs dating back to 900, and the adjoining chamber of tombs from wealthy local families. The white stone buildings around the cathedral had typically painted shutters. I made a loop in the old town, looked inside the entranceway of the town hall - painted red with frescoes and some 15th c statues - had a sandwich in the market place, passed other churches and went back to Basel Bad when it started raining. A wet finish to my walk. 6 kms

Total: 303 kms, 8617 m elevation gain, 13 days