Vosges

Home Vosges Trip Easter 2000

“Lets find a Mcdonalds to fill up on before we get to the Hotel, we don’t know what the food’s like there”. “ I think we’ve left it late” I replied as the hills of the Vosges got nearer and bigger, whilst the villages got smaller and more deserted. The Vosges is a seriously hilly area of the Alsace region of France, running along the western edge of the Rhine valley, Strasbourg being the nearest major city. We’re heading 35 km south west of Strasbourg to the small village of Le Hohwald for a couple of days hacking around the locality. This is the third or fourth trip that some of the guys from work have made to the area, previous trips have now attained legendary status amongst the initiated. I’m impressed by the first sights of the heavily wooded, steep ridges with the odd ruined castle turret sticking out of the trees. All this steepness offers the potential of some excellent downhill. Nik, who I’m sharing the car with, doesn’t seem quite as enthusiastic. ”Oh no, That looks like hard work, best get some carbing up in” he mutters, hence the search for a fast food supplement to our diet. It’s also late on Good Friday afternoon which dosen’t help the search for food, everything is shut. The plan is to do a big ride the next day and a less hard one the following day, giving us Easter Monday to nurse our wounds.
We get to Le Hohwald which is halfway up the side of one of the hills at 650 metres. “We’ve been out for a walk, there are trees down all over the place from the storms a few months ago” reports Sean when we meet up with the others. We were not to appreciate the significance of this comment until later the next day.
The pension we are staying in is clean and tidy, but a bit quiet. Niks’ plan to get extra sustanance pays off as the hotel evening meal is adequate, but can’t really be described as a gut buster. Unfortunately this extra food dosen’t stop Nik from becoming a bit worse for wear from the beer as the night wears on. We loose the girls, Zoe and Shannon, early on, then Pete and I baled out at 1.00 in the morning whilst nik and sean try to serenade the rest of the hotel whilst sat in the car park.
I’m awoken at 2.30 in the moring by Nik kicking my bed. “Sorry chris, you’ll have to go careful in the toilet, I couldn’t find the light switched so I tried to pee by sound, unfortunately I didn’t hear much water hitting water noise”.

Le Hohwald, has a nice water fall !

Nik’s not really up for it the next day and takes some coaxing into life, Breakfast is a subduded affair. Some last minute bike fettling and tweeking occurs in the car park before we head off out of Le Hohwald and up the first climb. We wind our way up some fire tracks for a climb totalling about 450 metres towards an area called Champ de feu. The gradients aren’t too bad and the condition of the fire tracks is good, without too many soggy bits making the climb more bareable. It’s late morning when we near the top and come across the remainants of the winter snow, it feels a bit bizarre cycling throught snow wearing shorts and a T-shirt in the bright April sunshine. There’s a small bit of grassy single track as we near the top before our efforts are rewarded by some brilliant views of the surrounding area. The tarmac roads are swarming with motorcyclists who are enjoying the sweeping, twisty roads as much as we’re enjoying the trails. A quick on-road descent to a cafe a La Rothlach for some cokes and coffees follows. Having got our caffine fix, it’s the downhill bit you look forward to on the way up. The downhill is mainly single track with a liberal sprinking of rocks and roots, not technical enough to slow you down , but enough to keep you concentrating hard., I have a few Sideways Sid” moments as I bounce the bcak wheel of some rocks.

On the road at the top of Champ de feu.

Having reached the end of the downhill, it’s time for an on road spin up to the old convent at Mont Ste. Odile for some lunch. This requires another climb of approx. 400 metres, not that hard I think. This climb turns out to be a bit of a epic, but the lure of food at the top keeps you going, as does the constant procession of shiny motorcycles going past you. At this point I can’t help thinking about the greater wisdom of having a large engine attached to your two wheeled toy. The convent at the top is quite impressive, there are some excellent views of some of the small villages that are sprinkled around this part of the country. Unfortunately, the food in the cafe at the top is somewhat disappointing, but does at least provide cake which we eagerly devour. The downhill back to Le Hohwald is fast single track, this time fairly technical and gnarly in places. You have to be careful as there are steep drop-offs to the side of the trail. There are a lot of small streams crossing the track, most negotiable by a small bunny hop. I get one a bit wrong and endo as the front wheel falls short of the other side. Pete does an action replay of my endo shortly afterwards, only more spectacular, with blood being drawn. Zoe bins it about five minutes later whilst trying to negotiate a slippery log bridge and ends up emerging from the stream underneath with her bike covered in frog spawn. The trails are starting to become blocked by the trees blown down in the storms that devistated Northern Europe at the end of last year. It’s quite impressive seeing four foot wide tree trunks just snapped off. Near the end of the trail there is a level section of fast, rock strewn, track that is just what I want. The progress then becomes seriously slowed by the fallen trees, we end up carrying our bikes more than riding them. By this time we are only about 1 k.m. from Le Hohwald, Zoe, Nik and Pete elect to finish off on the road. Sean and I decide to try it on the trail, but after a few minutes it becomes apparent that the others had the right idea. It starts to resemble a Vietnam war film as we clamber over trees and hack our way through the fallen branches. We give up and head for the tarmac which makes up for it with some nice high speed corners. At last the hotel appears, but it’s only 4.30 and suppers not until 7.00, so we all clean up and head off to a small restauraunt on the edge of the village where we have some scrummy omlettes that hit the spot. A quick wander around the village follows supper at the hotel, after which we turn in early, and quietly.

This shows some of the storm damage, Unfortunately not all the paths were this well cleared.

The next morning is a bit more leisurely. “Do you feel better this morning Nik ?” I ask, “No, I feel worse, but in a different sort of way” comes the grogy reply. The days’ route comes from a leaflet found in the hotel and is only 20 k.m., we’re meant to be on holiday remember! It follows a similar format to the previous day with lots of fire tracks and a sprinkling of single track. There is an initial hard climb that wakes us all up, a lot of the trail being covered by loose earth and more debris from the storms making the progress a bit slow. The ascent then gets back onto the familiar, wide fire tracks. The climb is again rewarded with good views out of the vosges and out over the plain towards the Rhine.

View on the way to the first cake stop of the day.

A cafe stop follows the fast, fire track descent from this point. The Cafe is an interesting mix of mountain bikers, motorcyclists, walkers and horse riders, all of whom seem to be tolerating each other remarkably well. The cafe serves some excellent ice cream and fruit tart which dosen’t stay on the plate for long. We explore the nearby Strasbourg castle which is really just a ruined tower that is closed for renovation and then head off for lunch proper at Welshbrucke. Welshbrucke is reached after more fire trails and and tree clambering, though unfortunately the menu dosen’t appeal to everyone so we descend back to Le Hohwald where we have a late lunch. Lunch is eaten in the Auberge “A l’Ancienne Grange”, which serves generous portions which make a good end to the weekends cycling.

Team photo.

We finish the day exploring the area around Le Hohwald on foot, taking in the "Cascades Waterfall" on the way. It is apparent that there are a large number of trails to ride around the area. As with the majority of europe, there is no bridleway type restriction on where you can ride. The fallen trees are being cleared, so the problems we encountered should not be so apparent in a few months.
We leave the hotel the following day and look around some of the other villages and towns in the area, all of which seem to have kept there charm and haven’t allowed tourism to spoil them too much. I'd like to go back sometime, but that will have to wait, the next trip is planned for the Austrian alps. More of the Alps trip coming soon, read about my trip to the Kitzbuhel hospital casualty department...

Well, the cost of naming Nik as the Phantom Floor Wetter is I have to include this picture of me the morning after the car park drinking session, so here you go.