Monday 31 July 2017
| Distance (km) | 20 kms | |||
| Distance (time) | 6 hrs | |||
| Climb / Descent | 1180m / 440m | |||
| Hard / Soft surface | 10% / 90% | |||
| Landscape |
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| Weather |
 28° 1 Bft
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A new holiday and the continuation of the Vosges. The last bits at least. On Saturday we drove from home to Belfort to pitch our tent on the camping site. That was not completely without problems because the camping was kind of full and not very well organised. We got place 157, but when we got there it was already in use. We noticed that place 160 was still free and so we went to the camping reception to ask if we could use that spot and that was ok. Back at spot 160 a Swiss campervan just installed there - they had been assigned spot 153 but you can guess: it was already occupied by somebody else. Ok, no more talking, we pitch the tent on spot 163. And on Sunday we moved everything to place 51 to have electricity: after a walk we deserve a well-cooled drink, right? Anyway, on Monday we take the bus to the downtown of Belfort and change there to the bus to the TGV train station of Belfort-Montbeliard. Why not from the train station in downtown Belfort? Well, in summer holiday there are only few trains from Belfort centre to Mulhouse so the TGV station was more practical. And so we take the high speed train to Mulhouse for a 20 minutes ride, after which we take the tram/train to Thann. It takes a while, but at 10:30 we are at today's starting point. And it is already sweaty warm. As it should be we already start climbing before we have even left the town. Briefly along some wineries and then straight into the forest. And that is what it is today: up through the forest. Where the track reaches the D14b for the first time there is a picknick site but the table is already occupied by some noisy road workers. There is more space, but the road workers parked their tar sealer next to the picknick area and didn't bother to switch it off. So apart from the noisy engine sound a cloud of tarmac vapours passes over the picknick area. Ok, so a quick bite and on the move because this is not a healthy nor pleasant place to be. We continue throug the forest and end up on the D14b again at the Col de Hundsruck where we cross the road. At the ot her side we simply continu climbing through the forest. It's a pleasure to get out of the forest just before Col de Rossberg and be in the fields. We have a view now, and some wind. The sky is pretty much overcast now and we can see the rain hanging under the clouds in the distance. That would be disturbing because we didn't bring rain coats! It was supposed to stay dry and so in order to save wait we left the rain coats in the tent in Belfort. At Rossberg we have to turn left into a pasture where a farmer is doing an attempt to release some cows. He sees us coming and decides to leave the fence closed for a moment longer so that we can pass, very friendly. Cows just released in a pasture usually behave like, well, wild cows, and are dangerous to pass. As soon as we leave the pasture we hear the cows are being released. We continue through open terrain and we feel the first rain drops. For a moment it seems to be some more serious rain but after a minute or so it stops and so far our choice to not bring rain coats is fine. We reach the Vogelstein rocks, the highest point of today, and descend to Belacker. This is a really nice part with great views. Not far after Auberge Belacker we get into the forest again and the path keeps rolling up and down. The legs are getting tired, it's sticky warm and we clearly didn't eat enough. But finally it starts descending to Col des Perches. Great! From there we have to briefly leave the GR5 to get to our hotel. It's just....that little piece starts with a steep climb followed by some seriously rolling hills. Pretty bad and with our last bit of energy we arrive at Rouge Gazon. The shower is hot and the dinner with mushroompastry, pulled pork and potatoe gratin is very nice, but acutally we're simply too tired to really enjoy it. At 22:00 we drop dead in bed.... |
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