A hike through Western Europe: The planning

I have spent almost two months researching this trip. Preparing one of the famous existing long-distance trails like the Appalachian Trail or the Pacific Crest Trail is easy in comparison: You just buy the existing map sets or guide books and off you go. Planning your own route is much more work. So how exactly do you plan such a long hiking trip?

First stage is the rough planning and of course everything starts with an idea. My idea is to hike through Western Europe. I want to start at a former East/West border and end at the "end of Western Euorpe", Cabo Finisterre (which translated means the end of the world). Other conditions are that I prefer hiking in areas where I have not hiked before. The next determining factor is how much time you have got. As a rule of thumb I know that I can hike anything between 800 - 1,000 km per months depending on the terrain. Now you go ahead and calculate the overall mileage you can do in your time frame. The result for me is that my hike will be about 5,000 km long and lead me through Germany, France and Spain.

In order to simplify the planning process and to get an overview of the hiking possibilities you need good overview maps. As I usually want to string together existing long-distance trails those trails should be marked on the overview map. For this trip the following resources have been extremely helpful:

• Germany: Wanderbares Deutschland, a great internet resource that has an interactive map with almost all German long-distance trails on it. 
• France: IGN map 903 France Grande Randonnee that shows all long-distance trails in France. 
• Spain: Overview maps of the Spanish caminos like this one

With the help of those resources you will be able to create a rough route of where you want to go and now it is time to move on to the more detailled planning for which I create a gpx track for the whole route. Having all your route and possible alternatives as a gpx track is a fantastic help. It is now easy to determine overall mileage and weigh one option against the other. And of course you can use this track later during your hike! The big problem now is where to get all those gpx tracks from. For this I found the following resources helpful:

• Germany: wanderkompass.de where you you can download gpx tracks for all popular German long-distance trails
• France: gr-infos.com a website that lists almost all French GR's with links to gpx downloads plus information on trail facilities
• Spain: There are plenty of gpx tracks for the caminos on the internet and especially useful has been wikiloc and gpsies
• Maps: If you need free GPS maps for the countries you are going to hike through have a look here.

Once you have downloaded all the different trails you want to hike and linked them together you also have a much better idea of the overall mileage and you can now look for shortcuts or detours. In my case this is the result of my research and the route I am planning to hike:


                     
Next comes the detailled planning of logistics: Where can you buy food, fuel, maps, shoes? I determine all the towns I will be hiking through and look up what services this place has to offer and compile my own little service guide.

• Food resupply: This is the easiest part. Go to google maps, type in the name of the place and "supermarket" or the name of a specific supermarket chain. Google will come up with all the supermarkets in the area. 
• Fuel and shoes: This is the worst part. In Germany you have to look up outdoor or sports shops and then call them to make sure they actually stock gas canisters and the shoes you like. France and Spain are a lot easier in this respect. Campingaz which is the most wide spread gas canister type in both countries and the company has a fantastic store locator on their website. Unfortunately, their gas canisters are not compatible with my preferred stove, but there is an adapter. Also, France has an outdoor and sports shop chain called Decathlon with outlets in many French and Spanish cities - and a store locator on their website.
• Maps: I try to buy maps as I go and therefore look up the addresses and phone numbers of book shops on the way. I also note down the ISBN number of the maps and books I need so that I can call the book shop ahead and order the stuff I need ahead of time for later store pick up.
• Sightseeing: Along my route their are some interesting cities with lots of sightseeing opportunities. I try to find out what there is to see via guidebooks and internet research and write down opening times and entrance fees to major sights. I do not want to go 5 km out of my way to visit a place only to find out that it is closed.

I will also invest into a new smart phone so that I can do more or more detailled research on the way, but it is better to have most of the information compiled in paper - much easier for overwiew and you do not depend on batteries and cell phone coverage....

Still, there are some logistical problems left. I could not find the brand and kind of shoes I usually use in France or Spain. I will either have to mail them ahead or find alternatives in the local outdoor shops. I also will have to mail ahead maps and guidebooks that I already own and this turned out to be much more difficult than in the US. While post offices in the US along popular trails are used to hikers and their resupply packages this is not the case in Europe. Poste restante is available, but mail is restricted to letters or small parcels and will only be held for 14 days. So much for theory - whether this will actually work I will have to find out. While in Germany I can resort to hiker friends and mail stuff to them, but unfortunately I do not know anyone in France or Spain.

A hike through Western Europe: The route

Right now I am planning the longest continouos hiking trip I have ever done: Inspired by a book by Nicholas Crane called "Clear waters rising" I want to hike across the whole length of Europe from West to East, a hike of about 10,000 km. Nicholas Crane hiked from Cabo Finisterre to Istanbul across the three big European mountain ranges Pyrenees, Alps and Carpathian mountains. But he was not an experienced ultralight hiker and miscalculated his route: He ended up in the Alps in winter and had to detour a lot to lower altitudes.

I want to avoid Crane's mistakes and decided to hike in 2 seasons: I will start with Western Europe one year and hike Eastern Europe another year splitting the route into two 5,000 km trips. But even with this trick it turned out to be very difficult to hike the whole length of the Alps and Pyrenees in one season: You cannot really start hiking in high alpine terrain before mid June and the season finishes already by end of September. I therefore decided to skip the Alps (which merit a trip alone anyways) and concentrate on an interesting route for the rest of trip incorporating the whole length of the Pyrenees. I also decided to hike from East to West one year and starting at the same point the other year but hiking East then. And because the map situation for Eastern Europe is still a bit dire I decided to start hiking in Western Europe - the longer I wait the more maps and information will be available for Eastern Europe.

Although I am still working on the details of my route this is already a rough outline linking together existing long-distance trails in Germany, France and Spain. My emphasis is on creating an interesting and very varied route visiting areas I have not hiked in before. And of course this being Europe and want to incorporate some cultural sightseeing once in a while. I will start in Altenberg at the German/Czech border and finish in Cabo Finisterre, the "end of the world".

• Kammweg Erzgebirge: a new Premium German long-distance trail: 286 km
• Rennsteig: the oldest German long-distance trail finishing in Eisenach: 168 km
• Elisabethpfad: a pilgrimage trail honouring St. Elisabeth: 167 km
• Lahn-Dill-Bergland-Pfad: 83 km
• Westerwaldsteig: 241 km
• Rheinhoehenweg und Ahr-Venn-Weg: to cross from the Rhine to the Eifel: 91 km
• Eifelsteig: home of the famous Eifel crime thrillers: 228 km
• Saar-Hunsruecksteig: 66 km
• Saarlandrundweg: 66 km
• Pfalz: a short stretch on a pilgrimage trail and some free style: 75 km

• GR 53: through the Vosges: 126 km
• GR 5: through the Jura: 486 km
• GR 9: from Geneve to Grenoble: 283 km
• GR 91: through the Vercors: 204 km
• GR 4: an old friend I have already hiked: 127 km
• GR 44 and GR 72: into the Cevennes: 44 km
• GR 7: from the Cevennes to Languedoc: 266 km
• GR 36: from Languedoc to the Pyrenees via Carcasonne: 301 km

• GR 11: the whole length of the Pyrenees: 591 km
• Camino del Norte: a less travelled alternative to the Camino Frances: 475 km
• Camino Primitivo: a "wild" camino alternative: 373 km
• Cabo Finisterre: The grand finale from Santiago to Finisterre: 90 km

• Total distance: 4.837 km

Winter trip in Franconia: Fraenkischer Gebirgsweg

I had to leave Berlin to attend my parents wedding anniversary and decided to combine that trip with another winter test hike. This time I chose one of the new certified long-distance trails in Franconia called "Fraenkischer Gebirgsweg" (Franconian mountain trail). Don't take the "mountain" trail too literally - the trail just rises over 1,000 meters only a couple of times. But that suited me right as snow fall had been predicted and I did not want to carry around snow shoes. As I visited parents and friends and did a lot of sightseeing before my hike I did not want to carry any cumbersome gear at all and therefore left my trekking poles and an extra cell foam mat at home. Temperatures were supposed to be cold, too and therefore I decided to hike only three days and two nights. I might sound like a wuss but I am renting this nice and warm room in Berlin now - why should I then stay outside and freeze my ass off in my tent?

Anyways, my short hike started in Pegnitz and ended in Bayreuth from where I took the train back to Berlin. I stepped out of the train in Pegnitz at 7.30 in the morning just before sunrise - and immediately started freezing. Stupidly enough I had brought my Platypus bottle with a drinking hose and within half an hour of hiking the water in the hose was frozen solid... On the positive side though the weather was brilliant: very cold, but blue sky with even the sun shining. I hiked into a glorious sunrise and a solidly frozen forest. Everything was icicled - even my nose....

The trail was nice enough - usually well marked, nice views and little attractions like show caves, castles and museums, but of course everything was closed now in the middle of winter. At least there was some open air modern art sculpture exhibition in the middle of nowhere. I made good progress but night was approaching too soon and I had to find a campsite. One of the downsides of hiking in Franconia is the lack of shelters. In the Black Forest there had been shelters almost everywhere and it had been relatively easy to plan an overnight stop there in bad weather. But no such luck on the Gebirgsweg - I had to camp in the forest which was no problem as it wasn't raining or snowing or windy. Still the night seemed endless. It gets completely dark at 5.30 pm and even with setting up camp, dinking around and cooking you are done with everything by 7 pm. As it was so cold I had no choice but to crawl into my sleeping bag and try to sleep - until 6.30 next morning... This is a long time in a tent at - 10 C.

I started hiking next morning with the first daylight at 7.30 am. The light was fantastic and I enjoyed a great sunrise again - but I would have enjoyed it even more if it had been 10 degrees warmer. The cold was getting to me, especially since I had planned to spend 3 long days completely outside without any warming break in civilisation. As long as I was moving things were not too bad, but as soon as I took a break I started shivering. I sort of started dreading my second cold night out... I had planned my next campsite ahead in a nice big forested area. Well, the area was nice and forested but I had not taken into consideration that the motorway 2 km away sounded like next door. Also I had overlooked the fact that there was a busy train line going through that forest with train traffic till 1 am in the morning. I had to hike much further in the pitch dark before I found a quieter camp site in the woods and thank God for ear plugs.

Again I was lying inside my sleeping bag at 7 pm looking forward to a long night. At least I did not get sleep deprived on that trip. Although I had brought a very adequate winter sleeping bag for that trip, a Western Mountaineering Puma, it was just about warm enough. I always seem to have the same problem: After a couple of days of use the down gets damp and starts clumping, especially on the back of the sleeping bag where there is less down to start with. Lucky are those you can sleep on their backs because it will not bother them, but I am a side sleeper and as soon as I turn around to go to sleep I wake up again because my back gets cold. To make things worse I woke up and realised that the upper front side of my sleeping bag was almost soaking wet. First I suspected I had been drooling in my sleep, but then it dawned on me that this was condensation from my breath. Sleeping in a fetal position brings a lot of problems....

I was happy about the prospect to spend the next night in my warm bed in Berlin again! My tent was frozen solid when I packed it up as was my water bottle. Ice cold muesli with ice cold water for breakfast - what a treat! But I only had to hike half a day to Bayreuth where I would do some sightseeing and thawing before I took the train back to Berlin. Unfortunately I visited the unheated and ice cold castle of Bayreuth - so much for thawing out. Still it had been a nice trip. Due to the cold but sunny weather I had enjoyed some brilliant views. But I also had to find out that my winter equipment needs some more improving...

Winter trip in the Black Forest: The hike

Ursula and I set off hiking after visiting the fantastic bathroom museum in Schiltach. She would accompany me for only one night and one day whereas I would continue northward on the Mittelweg up to Pforzheim and then back southward on the Ostweg. We had just one hour of daylight left and made it to a nice stealth campsite even with a little table, a bench and a spring next to it. These accessories were really important as we had brought Swiss cheese fondue and a little bottle of red wine for dinner. And then we sat there at freezing temperatures in the complete dark in the Black forest and enjoyed our sumptuous dinner.

Next morning we set off early and arrived on top of a mountain just in time for a glorious sun rise above a lake of fog in the valleys. Absolutely fantastic view! But the day turned out to be slower than expected.... There was much more snow than we had thought.... We arrived much later in Freudenstadt than planned. Ursula went back home and I rushed to Aldi's to do more shopping. I eventually hiked out of Freudenstadt in the dark. I had to camp close to civilisation and despite the winter weather there were still people out jogging making stealth camping a bit risky... but nobody detected my tent.

Unfortunately I had not realised that a storm warning had been issued for the next night. I had planned to camp in or next to a shelter that was indicated on my maps but when I arrived there in the last rays of daylight I found out that it was more a house than a shelter and telling from the smoke coming out of the chimney people were actually staying there! I did not have much choice but hiking on which brought me on top of a 900 m mountain - very exposed, but luckily there was an open shelter. I deliberated whether I should set up my tent inside the huge shelter and luckily decided for it! During the night the weather got worse and worse: I could hear the wind howling with storm force and saw to my great horror that my tent started to get covered in snow - inside the shelter!!!! When I woke up in the morning everything inside the shelter was covered with about 5 cm of snow and outside there was at least 30 cm of fresh powder snow with the storm still going on.

The storm turned into a thunderstorm and I must admit that I have never experienced thunder and lightning in a snow storm before. When the whiteout had disappeared I hiked in a beautiful and untouched winter land scape but the snow slowed down my progress and in the end I had to take a train for the last km into Pforzheim. In Pforzheim all three long-distance routes through the Black Forest converge: Westweg, Mittelweg and Ostweg. Pforzheim has been completely destroyed in WWII and is now about one of the ugliest German cities I have ever seen. I lacks any charm and the only interesting thing to see there is the jewellery museum. But this was my one and only day in a bed on this trip.Unfortunately, couchsurfing has failed me in Pforzheim and therefore I had booked myself into a B&B.

The next day was the 31st of December and I definitely wanted to avoid the noise of the fireworks by camping in the forest which turned out to be more difficult than expected. I was still very close to Pforzheim and although I was at least 2 km from the next village I was still woken up by the noise of the fireworks at midnight. Happy new year then! Lighting the fireworks must have been a big problem that night as the weather had changed dramatically from subfreezing temperatures and snow to 14 degrees Celsius and rain!!! Of course my rain jacket had failed me again and I had arrived soaking wet at my shelter. This drastic temperature change led to a complete snow melt and turned the trails into mud pools - and flooded the rivers. I started 2012 with hiking in spring like temperatures....

Mark stone

The rest of my hike on the Ostweg was a wet and damp affair - luckily I could camp a lot inside shelters which reduced condensation in the tent and made packing in the morning so much more comfortable. But I came across a last highlight in Calw: The Hermann Hesse Museum. Although I am not the biggest fan of this author I learnt a lot and really enjoyed this informative little museum that kept me busy for almost 2 hours! I spent my last night in a shelter again because there was another storm warning. The wind was blowing my tent around even inside the shelter! When I broke camp in the morning before sunrise I was nearly caught by a logging truck but luckily the forest workers had probably not expected a lunatic camping in the storm and I could escape undetected. At least the train trip back to Berlin turned out to be uneventful...

This trip had been a test trip for an extended winter camping trip in the Southern Appalachian Mountains in the US. And unfortunately I had to realise that my gear set up is not to this challenge: My winter sleeping bag and a new cell foam mat are so bulky that I had to switch to an old, very big backpack in order to even fit everything in. My new Integral Designs rain jacket had leaked like a sieve and does not even deserve the name rain jacket! I do not understand why it has gotten so many positive reviews. And on top of that all my WM Puma sleeping bag which is rated down to almost arctic temperatures was just about adequate because all the dampness reduced its warming capacities. I have to think about some serious gear adjustments before I can tackle months long winter trips...

Winter trip in the Black Forest: A surprise beginning

Ursula and Alfred

I do hate Christmas and I do hate New Year - especially the noise of fireworks that scares the shit out of me. So for many years now I have always tried to spend those days in the middle of nowhere on my own. But this year I have had a very nice invitation to spend Christmas with my old hiking friend Ursula aka Fritz in the Black Forest which I could easily combine with some winter hiking and camping. Ursula is not only the only other German female Triple Crowner, but she has done a tremendous amount of hiking, paddling and cycling. She has not only paddled the Yukon, but also the Mississippi which is another river high on my list. So I was looking forward to some fantastic Christmas food, lots of paddling advice and an interesting winter trip.

Train evacuation

Alas, things did not start smoothly. I had booked a train ticket with efficient Deutsche Bahn to Ursula's town, a journey that would take about 7 hours. Unfortunately, it would take me more than 12 hours.... Just one hour after leaving Berlin I suddenly smelt something burnt like hot metal. I must admit that I started to worry what was going on when the train slowed down more and more and eventually came to a full stop in the middle of nowhere. As this was the main track between Berlin and Hannover it was definitely not a good place to stop: Something must be awfully wrong. Sure enough after a couple of minutes we learnt that a wheel had overheated (therefore the burnt smell) and could not be repaired: the train would have to be evacuated! This sounded easier than it was because we are not talking about a dinky little tshu-tshu train but a ultramodern high speed ICE on a busy electrified and fenced in track First .of all another train big enough for 240 passengers had to come (which took 2 hours) and stop alongside our train thus blocking the route completely. Tremendous delays for all following trains were the result. Then firemen would put ladders between the two trains on which passengers could pass from one train to another. And eventually 240 passengers including all their luggage had to get into the evacuation train on only two ladders... The whole operation took 215 minutes and of course I missed all connecting trains and arrived 5 hours late - and all this on the 24th of December! It was indeed a merry Christmas for me.... (Germans celebrate Christmas on the evening of the 24th).

The tractor and me

But as if to compensate for all that hassle the weather turned really nice once I had arrived and I experienced the first white Christmas in decades! I devoured a whole Black Forest cake and tons of fantastic Christmas biscuit. We went for short hikes with dog Leika who loved the snow but was shit scared of wind turbines... Ursula's partner Alfred collects old tractors and he insisted that I should test drive one. I was very much afraid to start with, but hey - I had just come back from the UK where I had been steering a 18 meter long narrow boat. Driving a tractor could not be much worse - and it was not. It was great fun instead and an unforgettable experience. But before I set off with Ursula on a winter hike we had some interesting sightseeing experience: Hans Grohe is a global manufacturer of designer bathroom fittings and its headquarters are in Schiltach which is smack bang on my Black Forest hiking trail. Integrated in the factory complex is the Aquademie, a water experience centre with a bathroom museum, design exhibition and a life shower experience. I had hoped it would be nice but it exceeded my expectations by far: First of all the whole thing is free. That includes free entry to a fantastic little museum with bathrooms from 5 centuries, a posh designer area, an audio guide to all that and a free drink. If you reserve ahead you can even experience the shower world where you can "test shower" HansGrohe products. Everything is supplied from towels to shower gels and body lotions. Unfortunately this was the start of my hike; elsewise this would have been the perfect opportunity for a dirty hiker to get a luxury shower. Honestly: this is a fantastic secret tip: If you hike the Mittelweg in the Black Forest, try to visit HansGrohe - it is definitely worth it.

Back in Berlin again

For the fourth time this year I am back in Berlin - quite unusual for me as I normally return only once a year. But now I am preparing a new long trip. Instead of hiking 35 km every day I am sitting in front of my laptop 10 hours daily planning hiking routes in mapsource, improving my blog and doing research on my upcoming trips. As much as I like planning new trips, meeting old friends and getting a cultural fix in a big city - I am already longing to live outdoors again. By April I will be back in my tent!

How to steer a narrowboat

When I first thought about steering a narrowboat I was truly intimidated. It seemed HUGE! It is 18 meters long and with a weight of 17 tons it has enormous momentum once it is going. At least you are never faster than walking speed, but you can still create quite a crash when hitting a wall or bank. I have seen several severely damaged bridges on canals that must have been hit hard by boats....

My first lessons

The first problem is that the engine and the steering called tiller is at the back of the boat. Therefore you are standing at the back of the boat too, and try to look along your 18 meter monster in order to see where the front is going. To make things even more complicated steering a boat is opposite to steering a car. If you want to turn left you have to turn the tiller right. Although I should have been used to that from paddling I still got very confused in the beginning and ended up with pointing my hand to right hand side in order to make me realise I have to steer in the opposite direction. Unfortunately this very illogical system got me so confused in the end that I stood there with my two arms pointing in different directions and no hand on the tiller..... I freely admit that it took me more than 3 days to even steer the boat in a straight line and John confessed afterwards that he had regarded me as a hopeless case.

But somehow it sort of "clicked" after 3 days and the steering became sort of automatic. I managed to keep a straight line and even got around bends - still screaming "John, help me" every time I was about to crash into a bank or wall. My straight lines sometimes looked very zigzaggy, but I started to feel more confident.

Going into a lock after a bridge

Unfortunately, boating is not only going along in a straight line on a broad canal - there are various obstacles to master. First of all there are other boats around trying to pass and that means you better get out of the way without hitting them or getting stuck on the shallow sides of the canal. And then of course there are tons of bridges. New bridges tend to be very wide and pose no problem but the old original bridges are very narrow. And if bad comes to worst the are located in a bend of the canal. With an 18 meter boat you cannot turn directly under the bridge or the back of the boat will hit the bridge. Therefore you have to "thread in" already in the right angle - not easy for a beginner. And because bridges were difficult and expensive to built, some canal companies preferred lift bridges that are so narrow that a boat can just pass through - a nightmare for me in my first steering lessons.

Perfect lock approach

The most difficult part though is going through locks and it took over a week until John would allow me to try that. But to my big surprise I seem to have a hidden talent for locks as I never crashed into one despite the fact that the locks are so narrow that there is just centimetres of water on either side of the boat when in a lock! When approaching a lock I felt like a pilot trying to land a jet on a airplane carrier on the ocean. Again you have to get the angle 100% correct before you enter the lock as you cannot steer once the front of the boat is inside - and the front is almost 18 metres away from where you are standing and trying to figure out which way to go. Also you have to approach very slowly or you are not able to stop the boat before it hits the front of the lock.

The worst is over once you are inside the lock but you still have to pay attention. When water comes rushing into the lock while going up the boat is bashed around a lot. In a single lock this is not too much of a problem but when alone in a double you have to be very careful not to damage the boat. Boats have fenders in the front and on the back which lessen the impact when hitting a lock gate a bit. When going down you have to watch out not to get stuck on the cill - or you will end up like the boat in the picture. This is one of the worst possible accidents for a boater as you cannot float the boat again without drowning it - you have to get a crane to lift it out.

Opening a lock gate

I still feel a bit frightened and claustrophobic when inside a boat in a lock and the water comes rushing into the lock chamber bashing the boat around. It feels like a big relief when the lock gates open and you can get out. By the way: Opening and closing the locks is hard work, too. You run up and down the locks always trying to prepare the next one while the first one is in the process of filling up or draining with water. Sometimes John even uses a foldable bike to cycle between locks and speed up the process. Opening the panels on the locks can be hard. If the water level inside the lock chamber and outside are not absolutely the same you are not able to open the gate. Luckily most locks have grips on the gate area to help you push the gate open.

Threading into a tunnel

My biggest nightmare are tunnels: Usually narrow as locks they are not only difficult to get in, but even more difficult to steer once inside as there is hardly any room for steering corrections. On busy canals there are 2-way tunnels and they are wide enough for two boats to pass each other - but no matter what you do you will most likely scratch along the tunnel walls or hit the other boat.
Don't take a wrong turn in a canal as turning around in a boat is a difficult operation. You can reverse in a boat, but steering in reverse is almost impossible. Basically you just hope for the best and correct by going forward again. By the way: Braking is also done by reversing.

Disappearing into a lock

All this sounds really complicated and it definitely is very difficult for a beginner - but it is also great fun. After having been classified as a hopeless case and then re-emerged as a natural lock talent I became really addicted. So in the last month John has mostly been twiddling has thumbs (and silently praying) whilst I was doing all the steering and becoming better every day. I might not have been John's fastest student, but definitely his most enthusiastic. I am very sure that this has not been my last time on a narrowboat.