Craig Henderson Europe '23 Part 6 - Schluchtensteig (Gorge Trail)

10 August 2023 - Stuhlingen, Germany; day prior to start of Schluchtensteig

The Black Forest (Schwarzwald, in German), is located in south-west Germany. There are two almost distinct portions of the Black Forest - the northern portion and the southern portion. Our proposed walk, the Schluchtensteig (Gorge Trail), is in the southern portion.

One of the reasons we’ve included the Black Forest on this walking safari is that it’s one of Germany’s oldest regions for recreational walking. In fact, the Schwarzwaldverein (Black Forest National Club) was founded in in 1864, making it the oldest German hiking and mountaineering club. Amazingly, the Schwarzwaldverein has almost 90,000 members in 241 local chapters. With that huge membership, it’s not surprising that it has been very successful in promoting the protection of the Black Forest environment and the maintaining of walking paths.

In the early 1900’s, the Schwarzwaldverein laid out three long distance walks that run the length of the Black Forest, generally in a north-south direction. They are: the Westweg (the western trail; 230 km), the Mittelweg (the middle trail; 245 km) and the Ostweg (the eastern trail; 245 km).

Each of these walks is longer than we’re looking for and, also, we’ve decided to focus on the southern portion of the forest as it sounds hillier and more rural than the northern portion. That brings the Schluchtensteig to our attention.

Schluchtensteig is a relative newcomer to the Black Forest walking scene, having been established in 2008. It runs in a horse-shoe shape through the southern portion of the forest, linking seven different gorges and several historic towns. It also features the picturesque lake, Schluchsee. At about 120 km, it’s exactly the length we were looking for, so it got the nod.

We’re doing the six day version of the walk, which looks like this:

Day 1: Stühlingen – Blumberg (19 km, 5.5 h)

Day 2: Blumberg – Schattenmühle (20 km, 6.0 h)

Day 3: Schattenmühle – Fischbach (18 km, 6 h)

Day 4: Fischbach – St. Blasien (20 km, 5.5 h)

Day 5: St. Blasien – Todtmoos (20 km, 6.0 h)

Day 6: Todtmoos – Wehr (22 km, 7.5 h).

On the language front, this walk will be a different experience to our walks so far. In Stuhlingen, it becomes immediately obvious that we can’t assume those we meet will speak fluent English. And, unlike the other walks, it looks as if there are few international travellers around. Time to dust off our rudimentary German and activate our “Translate” app.

11 August 2023 - Day 1 of Schluchtensteig: Stühlingen to Blumberg (19 km; 5.5h)

We set off early as the forecast is for 29C and we’re keen not to be walking for too long in the heat of the afternoon. The first few km’s are a little underwhelming. The outskirts of Stuhlingen are fairly flat and featureless and we pass an industrial facility.

After a couple of hours, things pick up as we enter the first of the gorges. This one is known as Wutach Cliffs, due to the bare cliff faces towards the top of each side of the gorge. The trail stays high, up near the cliffs with the river far below.

So far, we’ve not seen any others on the trail but on this stretch we meet Andrea and Albert, two Germans doing the walk independently who have just met. They’re very friendly and with the aid of translation app’s and their English we chat about the walk and our respective itineraries.

There’s a climb at the end of today’s walk, up to Buchberg (880m). By the time we get to the start of the climb, it’s pretty hot. We spy a minor road that appears to skip the climb and take us directly to our overnight accommodation. We hesitate. A shortcut so early in the walk; should we? Then we spot Andrea and Albert on the shortcut. When in Rome, do as the Romans! We follow them.

When we reach our accommodation in Achdorf, Andrea and Albert are installed in the shady outdoor courtyard. They call us over and we follow their advice to rehydrate urgently.

12 August 2023 - Day 2 of Schluchtensteig: Blumberg to Schattenmühle (20 km; 6.0h)

This region of the Black Forest is known for its apples and there are apple trees everywhere. As fences are quite rare in the Black Forest, we succumb to the eternal temptation of the apple. Might be a bit early in the season for these ones as they’re quite tart.

It’s Saturday morning and as we enter Wutachschlucht, the biggest ‘name’ gorge of the trip, we become aware of lots more walkers. This stretch of Schluchtensteig is clearly popular with day walkers. So, we go from virtually no one on the trail yesterday to quite a few today.

The appeal is immediately obvious - a steep-sided gorge lined by pristine lime green forest, with a clear, fast-running stream at the bottom. There are stretches where the trail has been hacked out of the cliff and, so, the drop to the river is precipitous. Other times, unlike yesterday, you’re right beside the river.

The end of the day’s stage is at Schattenmühle, but as there’s little accommodation there we bus to the nearby town of Loffingen for accommodation. Whilst Loffingen has some attractive traditional architecture, it’s a very sleepy town in early August; clearly not on the radar for German holidaymakers. Good ice creams though!

13 August 2023 - Day 3 of Schluchtensteig: Schattenmühle to Fischbach (18 km; 6.0h)

In line with the sleepiness of the town (and probably the fact that it’s a Sunday), the bus driver sleeps in this morning. When he eventually arrives, he apologises to us and the one other passenger and doesn’t charge us for the trip. The other passenger is someone we’d noticed on the track yesterday, so we introduce ourselves. His name is Lars. He comes from Stuttgart and is doing the full Schluchtensteig. We immediately strike up a good rapport, helped in no small part by the fact that Lars speaks faultless English.

Today starts with more of yesterday’s wonderful gorge walking. We walk some of the way together with Andrea and Lars and when we get to the pretty town of Lenzkirch I lure Lars away from the path of righteousness to a cafe selling the best Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte (Black Forest cake).

We pay the price for the indulgence. It’s positively steamy by the time we get going again and it turns out we need to climb to get to our overnight accommodation at Fischbach. Lars is staying in another town (Schluchsee) and is hoping to get the last bus there from Fischbach, so we need to power along. We are balls of sweat when we present ourselves at our accommodation.

We’ve eaten outside each night on this walk so far and that continues tonight. The temperature during the day is high 20s, but by 6.30/7.00 pm it’s a very pleasant 20/21C. No mosquitos or midges either. Perfect outdoor eating conditions.

The gorges feature tranquil river and forest scenery

14 August 2023 - Day 4 of Schluchtensteig: Fischbach to St. Blasien (20 km; 5.5h)

A lovely stroll through attractive forest country this morning, down to the popular lake Schluchsee. In the still of the morning, the mountain lake (930m) reflects the fringing forest and the sky. We walk around the lake for a few km’s until we get to Unterkrummenhof, an historic cafe/restaurant laden with flower boxes. When they look as picture-perfect as this, it would be a crime to walk past. Andrea and Lars also stop. They, very kindly, have become our translators and cultural advisers, but they’re stumped by the name of the cafe which literally translates to ‘Under Crooked Farmhouse’.

Soon after we catch up to another Schluchtensteig walker, only the third that we’ve come across. This is 66yo Volker who is doing the walk with his 3yo Rottweiler, Ruby. Volker actually comes from the home of the Rottweiler, Rottweil, which is less than 100km from the walk. Ruby is very friendly and a keen walker. She has her own backpack that functions like a dual bike panier. Unfortunately, Ruby got a splinter earlier today and is limping a bit.

Then we cross a winding stream called the Krummen and the explanation for Unterkrummenhof becomes blindingly obvious!

The day finishes with a couple of spectacular flourishes. First, we hit the Windberg Wasserfalle, an attractive waterfall that heralds a cool gorge walk down to the level of our overnight town of St Blasien. Secondly, as you reach the middle of St Blasien, the cathedral of St Blasien with its huge dome reveals itself. The cathedral, its forecourt and its monastery complex are all on a grand scale and speak of a time when St Blasien was more prominent than its size today would suggest.

Dinner with Andrea and Lars is on a terrace overlooking the cathedral. I remember that I once did some work for Bosch, the Stuttgart headquartered industrial behemoth. Turns out that Lars works for Bosch. However, so do 50,000 other Stuttgart residents so chances of Lars knowing my instructors are very slim. He didn’t!

15 August 2023 - Day 5 of Schluchtensteig: St. Blasien to Todtmoos (20 km; 6.0h)

We leave St Blasien reluctantly; it’s an attractive town and there’s a decent climb out of it! It’s due to hit 30C today so we’re hoping for plenty of forest.

Most of the day is a mixture of farmland and forest. We retain height (around 1,100m) and pass various panoramic viewing points. At a couple of these, the Swiss mountains are visible to the south. Even the mountains that we were amongst a week earlier - Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau - can be spotted on a clear day. Today’s heat haze prevents that.

We walk with Volker and Ruby for a while. Ruby is not enjoying the heat and got zapped by an electric fence earlier that day. But she is still trudging along doggedly.

Thankfully, the last few km’s of the day involve a descent through the Hohwehra gorge. The forest lining the gorge and the Wehra river provide relief from the heat.

Our accommodation is beautifully located just above the town of Todtmoos. It’s a wellness retreat, with spa, sauna etc, but from our perspective its best feature is its shaded outdoor restaurant terrace that provides views of the surrounding hills.

16 August 2023 - Day 6 of Schluchtensteig: Todtmoos to Wehr (23 km; 7.5h)

The last day of the walk is actually the longest in terms of km’s. It also involves 490m of ascent and 940m of descent. Another warm day forecast so needless to say we get going early.

Before long we link up with three more Schluchtensteig walkers - Lynn from Freiburg and Dieter and Jurgen from Tubingen, a well known university town. Dieter and Jurgen are making a film of their walk. Making films of walks is a hobby they’ve pursued for 10 years. They tell us about a few of them, including the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path in Wales.

Today’s walking is primarily through the Wehra gorge. So, whilst it’s quite long, we have shade for much of it and the descents are pretty gradual.

The seven of us walk together for the last few hours. The only two Schluchtensteig walkers that we’ve met who are missing are Volker and Ruby. We guess that Volker decided that Ruby had probably had enough at the end of yesterday.

We can feel the ‘scent of the finish’ and keep up a good pace. A dam and associated infrastructure announce the approach to Wehr. We reach the finishing line in the centre of Wehr at about 4pm. There’s congratulatory signage and good finishing photo opportunities. It’s always fun marking the finish of a walk with others that you’ve shared the trail with!

That night we have a celebratory dinner with Andrea, Lars and Dieter. Multi-day walks really are a great way to meet people. After dinner, Dieter shows us some of his video of the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path. The film has been produced very professionally and includes excellent drone footage. I put the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path on my shortlist for early October! Others are also thinking about their next walks.