The world went quiet with inches of snow last night. It stays with the current freezing temperatures. Until a couple of years ago, this was very uncommon for Belgium. I have parked up my car; due to its summer tyres we will wait for the snow to melt away.
I stay indoors, study for an exam in a couple of months, drink hot teas, cook good food, and, for a change, only briefly look at mountain biking.
For my brief notes on Baraque Michel and Malmedy trails, surf to the East Cantons page.
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Notes on Sprimont. Its three trails are squeezed in between trail systems of Trooz, Theux and Aywaille.
So far I have only visited this area on foot.
Tags:Aywaille·Banneux·Chanxhe·Damré·Fraiture·Hautgne·Lincé·Theux·Trooz
Some notes on Aywaille itself, the same commune that Sougné-Remouchamps belongs to.
Tags:Comblain-au-Pont·Ernonheid·Ferrières·Sougné-Remouchamps·Sprimont·Stoumont
Finally, all my notes on Anhée have been eternally memorized. I rode in this place already in July 2010, spontaneously and without any particular planning.
Anhée, the village of very confusing mountain bike signage.
I hear many people return for the trails, although the best bits do not seem to be covered by the official trails. I saw enough to put Anhée on my list of where to go for trail exploring. For next time, I am now more prepared.
Here is my blog report for July 2010. Oh, and my favourite map shop in Brussels has switched over to Institut géographique national.
Tags:Annevoie-Rouillon·Bioul·Denée·Haut-le-Wastia·Hun·Maredret·Salet·Sosoye·Warnant
I did a short mountain bike loop in village of Sougné-Remouchamps in May this year.
Most of the loop is on wide dirt track, with only one or two singletrack sections. The second singletrack section was nice and technical. The climbing is steep and long, in particular the beginning is on solid rock with loose stones, very tricky!
Half way through there is a steep dip with loose stones, and then immediately re-conquering of the lost height meters on gravel road.
Signage was excellent.
Here are more pictures from trail number 34.
A couple of picasaweb pictures on Burg-Reuland.
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I do not think I have ever driven 2 hours to ride my bike for a tiny 30 kilometers. And then, of course, 2 hours driving to get back home.
After a massive week with lots of things happening, big things for the future, Friday evening I was left exhausted, terrified, exhilarated, and full of anticipation. All at the same time. I felt I needed to get out of town, I felt I wanted to drive my car, and I felt I wanted to go somewhere that enticed me. Failing to find decent-priced last-minute overnight accommodation in the East Cantons, I decided for a day trip. Did I regret it, and find it difficult to leave the area once I was there? Oh, yes. So many trails nearby! For sure, an extended weekend, or more, in the East Cantons will be on my wish list for next summer!
Red trail of village of Burg-Reuland (in commune of Burg-Reuland) enticed me mainly because of its 23.4 of a hill factor (750 hm/32 km). However, when finishing, *my* gps only showed 30.51 kilometres and 587 height metres, and thus a disappointing hill factor of 19.2.
Despite this, I had a very enjoyable day. Trail was reasonably dry: Only a couple of muddy patches at the bottom of the valleys. The valleys were dream-like with scenic views. The sun reached into the them while the late-September wind didn’t, and it felt like summer again.
This trail touches the border of Luxemburg, and in the east it loops into Germany.
There were a couple of long, steepish climbs, but, in between, the riding was quite mellow; nothing too technical, mostly wide trails and a couple of lengthy flattish sections. There was very little tarmac riding; two sections on busy winding, narrow roads made me, however, feel quite uncomfortable.
Signage was very good, although in a couple of spots very deteriorated, broken off, or hiding in vegetation.
More backlog! I believe I could spend a year indoors, just living off my trail stories!
Driving on the highway to Ondenval last August it was POURING down. In the end I stopped for a long break at a rest stop three quarters of the distance there: What was the point of getting to Ondenval early with the weather like that? I had two Mars bars and a cappuccino (all part of my new GI diet ha ha).
I was amazingly lucky. By the time I arrived in Ondenval the drizzle was hardly noticeable, and diminishing by the minute. I decided to go for it. The trail was drier than I expected; maybe the lenghty downpour on the highway had never reached this area, after all?
First thing I noticed was that the gps file that I had downloaded (either from mtbroutes or the eastbelgium site, I cannot remember which) was not tip top. The further I rode, I grew convinced that it has probably been drawn in a software programme only. It is still very much of use: Signage out there felt scarce, hiding in overgrown vegetation or completely missing.
There was lots and lots of climbing, in places very steep. Some steep descending as well. Rooty, bumpy and/or singletrack sections. I loved it! The section by the highway, in the southwest, is to the most part very wide and boring. Wide forest track does dominate on this loop, but in combination with the finer, more technical off-road sections, it was tiring enough for me to welcome the breather the odd tarmac section offered.
My luck continued. During all of my biking this day I had no precipitation. As I returned to my car, the first couple of rain drops fell. I heard thunder in the distance.
I would love to re-visit this area!
I have uploaded a couple of pictures to my picasaweb account.
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So many photos to process! Looking at them, let me rephrase my blog post of 29th August 2011. It might have sounded less technical than it is. With all those loose rocks and roots althrough the ride, it can be pretty rough! With the photos I recalled it: My calves came out cramped rigid from the descents!
Surf to picasaweb for my photos.
Web page summary on Voeren: The bloso link is, by the way, a good link also for other trails in the region of Flanders (only)
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I had a great day out on the trails of Voeren today!
I first came across these trails when exploring ghost trail number 12 of Aubel.
Trail signage is very good. I would have welcomed one or two more on the longer stretches, but there were no signs missing in the (oh so crucial) turns. In fact, there were TWO signs per turn; one indicating the turn, the second one further into the turn, confirming it. Beautiful!
These two loops (blue and black) are not very technical (please see my second opinion of 3rd September), nor hilly. There are a couple of long uphills, made technical more by the amount of loose stones than by their steepness, and then there is a screaming downhill with roots and loose rocks and small steps (yehaw!) just before arriving into village of Sint-Martens-Voeren; but they are fully walkable for any rider of less than average strength or technical skills.
In the east around village of Teuven there is a long stretch of tarmac. (Luckily it was not spent going downhill: Minna stayed calm!) In the east there is a lot of deteriorated but fairly uneventful gravel road. The landscape is, however, beautiful for all of this loop, in between pear, apple and corn fields, and there seemed to be quite many cafeterias to pick from along the route.
There were several nice singletrack sections, made extra bumpy by grass, loose rocks and roots.
More pictures and details will follow!
Tags:'s Gravenvoeren·Aubel·Fouron-le-Comte·Fouron-Saint-Pierre·Fourons·Fourons-Saint-Martin·Sint-Martens-Voeren·Sint-Pieters-Voeren·Teuven·Voeren