Bikepacking the Black Forest and Alsace

Day 1 of our off-road bikepacking trip brought us from the start in Durbach at the edge of the Black Forest, into the heart of the Black Forest. Most roads consisted of great gravel roads. We ended up sleeping in a 'Schutzhütte', an open shelter, near the village of Haslach.

Day 2 of our bikepacking trip was a short day full of beautiful gravel roads. A nice chilled glass of Coca-Cola halfway brought some great relief from the heat. Eventually, we ended up sleeping in a beautiful shelter called the 'Offenbacher Eckle Hütte', which had a kind of Scandinavian vibe to it.

The… read more

Day 3 of our bikepacking trip brought us from the peaks near the restaurant 'Schöne Aussicht' in central Black Forest, to the eastern borders of the Black Forest and eventually – after not finding a suitable shelter for the night and rain coming in – a hotel in the village of Villingen-Schwenningen… read more

Day 3 of our bikepacking trip brought us from the peaks near 'Schönes Aussicht' in central Black Forest, to the eastern borders the Black Forest and eventually - after not finding a suitable shelter for the night and rain coming in - a hotel in the village of Villingen-Schwenningen.

Along the way we… read more

Day 4 of our bikepacking trip brought us from the comforts of the city of Villingen back west into the Black Forest. We set sail for the Feldberg (highest peak in the Black Forest) and on the way there we ended up at a nice and big shelter on top of a hill near the village of Neustadt. Along the way… read more

On day 5 of our bikepacking trip brought, the highest point of our travels, the almost 1500 m high Feldberg, awaited. From Titisee the gravel climb up to the top is nothing shy of an amazingly beautiful climb. After the top we kept as much altitude as we could, finding shelter in yet another fine 'Schutzh… read more

Day 6 of our gravellish bikepacking adventure took us from the hights of the Todtnauberg hills to the south, direction: Rhine river and the Swiss border. We wouldn't ride to the Rhine today, but did end up in a nice (and big) shelter in the forest near the village of Todtmoos, stopping along the way… read more

Day 7 of the Black Forest bikepacking trip brought us to the southern edge of the Black Forest, enjoying the forest and swimming in the Rhine river near Basel.

Since we needed power for our devices and a nice shower after days of riding in the heat... we decided to sleep in a hotel that night. From there… read more

At the start of day 8 of our bikepacking trip we decided on where to go next... The answer was, the Vosges Mountains.

We rode through Basel (Switzerland) and quickly after crossed the border into France. After a week of the Black Forest, this was something completely different. The hot, burning, dried… read more

Arriving at the edge of the Vosges Mountains at the end of day 8, taught us that riding the Vosges Mountains is something completely different than the Black Forest on the other side of the Rhine Valley.

Where German gravel made for smooth riding, the Vosges off-road paths were more like mountain bike… read more

After waking up in a local vineyard, day 10 in our fine bikepacking adventure brought us further north up the alternative gravel version of the Route du Vin, that we drew on the go through the komoot app on my telephone. A hot day in the sun, filled with the nicest gravel roads around, endless vineyards… read more

The final day of our bikepacking trip was a relaxing day of crossing the mainly flat Rhine valley, in between the Vosges Mountains on the one side (France) and the Black Forest mountains on the other side (Germany).



Our day started by waking up after a night in a local vineyard. We said goodbye to our… read more