Mountain bike trip in Alsace-Vosges
September 1-9, 2007
Prologue
Participants:
Jim: - a regular in those trips, a.k.a. “the intrepid downhill biker”, thoroughly trained in the hills and forests around Auckland, New Zealand, and specially fond of rocky, stumpy single tracks that the great majority of mankind would consider unfit for a walker, even less for a biker!
Mike: - another highly trained sportsman, practicing his activities at high altitudes in far eastern countries where people live on about a quarter of a normal oxygen ration, which may explain his stamina and endurance. Impossible to tell from his performances he was the senior of the team.
It should be mentioned that those two characters were rooting for the New Zealand rugby team in the world championship starting at the end of our trip, a major politically incorrect stance given the fact they were in France!
Gernot: - living in Strasbourg and fully familiar with the geography and the weather of the area, not to mention highly trained and with a super equipped bike, the first instance among us where the biker was able to fully exploit the performances of his bike.
Jacques: - who has been refer to as a “sadist” or a “slave driver” by some participants for his enjoyment at choosing tracks that may be a bit challenging, but with beautiful views from the tops of mountains selected for their high altitude and lack of tar-covered roads. A completely undeserved reputation!
The grounds
The Vosges mountains in eastern France were selected for their challenging profiles, beauty and lack of black top roads. The fact we went to Alsace, known for its great wines, is still under investigation, there is strong evidence that Mike, Jim and Gernot did plot an intended wrong turn on our itinerary to force us to cross the wine region! (turns out it was worth it)
The plan
Fairly simple really: after a leisurely stroll in the vineyards near Riquewhir, see the castle of Haut-Koenigsbourg, ride the Route des Crêtes, climb the Grand Ballon, the highest peak in the area, and while there ascend the Petit Ballon as well.
Maps
Having had our share of problems with Italian maps, it was a relief to have good French maps (IGN 1/25,000) as well as a guide for the mountain bike crossing of the Vosges (Traversée du Massif Vosgien, Wissembourg to Thann, published by Ligue d’Alsace de Cyclotourisme, with maps at 1/50,000). The trail was indicated by markers, a great help.
The trip
With Mike arriving by train from Avignon with his bike, Jim from Los Angeles via London, Gernot coming by train from Strasbourg with his bike and I driving from Italy with my bike, we agreed to meet in Munster for the start of the trip. Why Munster? it was the only place where we could rent a bike for Jim!
After enjoying the luxurious hospitality of Gernot and his family in Strasbourg, and visiting the Schlumpf car museum (the largest Bugatti collection in the world) in Mulhouse, I met Mike in Colmar (hôtel des têtes, 19 rue des Têtes - 68000 Colmar - Tél : 03 8924 4343, recommended and rightly so, by Gernot).
Day 1: Munster to Riquewihr (37 km - up 738 m)
We were joined the next morning by Gernot who rode his bike to Munster while we drove. We met Jim at the Munster train station and rushed him in selecting his gear and loading it on his rented bike. Started off at 13:00 after getting basic supplies for a picnic at the closing market.
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| Out of Munster |
Immediately at the exit of Munster solid climb through Haslach where we noticed some problems with Jim’s derailleur and where I broke my chain. Had a picnic by Horodberg where we met two Canadian girls also biking, but in opposite direction. Reached Trois-Epis, Kientzheim, Bennwihr and finally Riquewihr. We did see an automatic grapes picking machine, all it required was a driver and a helper instead of the usual full team of pickers, it did a thorough job and we were told it saves time and money for the growers.
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| Wine "on the hoof"! |
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| Mechanized grape harvesting |
In Riquewihr all hotels were full; by luck a receptionist at hotel "le Riquewihr" (3 Route Ribeauvillé , 68340 Riquewihr, tel:03 8986 0300) let us have two rooms reserved by guest who did not show up, a relief since we were not looking forward to more biking at the end of the day. After being kicked out of a restaurant for asking how long it would take to be served we had our first Alsatian meal duly watered down with local wines!
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| Riquewihr |
Day 2: Riquewihr to Saverne (27 km – up 372 m)
Sunny with blue skies the next morning for our ride through the vineyards, but no place to have lunch in Selestat, so had lunch on the platform while waiting for the train to Saverne via Strasbourg. The first train was in fact a single coach completely full without any hope to sneak our bikes in. The next train awhile later was OK and comfortable. Since we wanted to see a bike shop in Saverne to adjust Jim’s bike, Gernot left us in Strasbourg to spend the evening at home and we planned to meet the next morning in Saverne to start the hilly part of the trip.
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| Lock gate in Saverne |
Day 3: Saverne to Obersteigen (24 km – up 595 m)
No bike shops open on Monday; Gernot joined us and brought for me a spare chain as well as a new set of the excellent Ortlieb panniers. We could thus “cascade” down the panniers: my old ones Jim was using were abandoned, he inherited mine and I got the new ones! From then on we were following the trail of GTV (Grande Traversée des Vosges) with markers. Cloudy skies but pleasant temperature which soon enough turned to solid rain. The ground was sandy which made for tough going (tires sank) at the beginning; it improved somewhat with the rain, but rain became quite insistent and we reached Obersteigen completely soaked. I gave in to the majority who wanted to stop NOW and we found a hotel with garage, (hostellerie Bellevue, route du Dabo, Obersteigen, tel 03 8887 3239) sandwiches and hot showers, but not before hosing down bikes and bikers. The conditions were tough on the bikes: my disk brake pads which still had over 1 mm of braking material two days ago were completely worn out (they would have lasted 2-3 months at home!). I was also very glad to have the new panniers which were completely waterproof.
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| Jim's rig to hold panniers |
In spite of the conditions we did appreciate having markers to indicate the trail and a guidebook giving instructions as well as address (and phone number) of hotels, restaurants and bike repair shops. One could call in advance and make reservations.
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| Wet cyclists |
Day 4: Obersteigen to Ottrott (63 km – up 1139 m)
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| Ready to go |
Much improved weather to-day and good biking conditions. After passing through Oberhaslach and Grendelbruch we reached Ottrott. We met the president of the biking league who was also a founding father of the track we are following. The hotel he suggested being full we ended up in a marginal hotel with poor and slow service. Gernot, the only working man in the team, had to go back to work the next morning and left us to bike home. He arrived after 21:00 having pedaled over 100 km for the day!!!!
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| Gernot |
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| Typical village view |
Day 5: Ottrott to Chatenois (60 km – up 1400 m)
Breakfast in the hotel was a confused affair with a busload of Romanian all over the place, smoking and emptying the buffet as soon as it was refilled!
With Jim’s bike getting worse we went to Obernai where Pascal Minni, owner of Cycl’Hop (101 rue du Général Gouraud, Obernai, tel: 03 8848 3444, cell 06 0941 7327, rent mountain bikes) adjusted as much as he could Jim’s derailleur and changed the brake pads on Mike’s bike. We could see Mont Saint Odile way up in the forest at the top of the mountain and we did reach it through a dirt track which could have been avoided, that cost me some flak from Jim (I did not notice there was an easy way to the top, sorry Jim!).
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| On the way to Ste Odile |
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| Ste Odile |
After St Odile, we crossed le Hohwald and stopped in Chatenois, where we arrived at dusk. Jim had a flat, and could not tighten up the axle of the rear wheel; we thus had to ride quite carefully (read slowly!) over what would have been great fun at full speed. The hotel was old but full of charm and with excellent food (Hôtel Restaurant Beysang, 36 rue du Maréchal Foch, 67730 Chatenois, Tél : 03 8858 3858). To celebrate this long day we had a bottle of Gewurtzstramminer for cocktail followed by a good Riesling during the meal. The good life!
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| Chatenois |
Day 6: Chatenois to Aubure (60 km – up 1315 m)
Cloudy morning with drizzle, out come the rain gears. Quick check on Jim’s bike problem, it need a minor adjustment, irritating for Jim realizing he could have fixed it last time and had the fun downhill ride he had pedaled so hard for! Chatenois’ church (13th century) has an interesting steeple with colored tiles and small lateral towers, quite unusual and pretty.
We reached Haut-Koenisgbourg in early afternoon after a circuitous route and enjoyed a decent lunch and large beer.
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| Entrance to Haut-Koenisgbourg |
Jim decided he had had it with gravel tracks always going uphill and decided to miss the challenging part of the trip and to go back to wine (read FLAT) country, where girls are pretty and plentiful! Mike and I took off rapidly since we still had a long ride in front of us. The end of the track was a logging road, muddy and littered with branches and pieces of trunks and we used the parallel asphalt road. We reached the gite d’étape in Aubure where we had made reservations (M. Rudy et Isabelle Decottignies, Refuge Les Brimbelles, 9 route de Ste-Marie-aux-Mines, 68150 Aubure, tel: 03 89739 104) The owner was an ex-Belgian banker, missing a few teeth, and quite friendly. The place was empty and we each had our own room, they were in fact dormitories and the heating was moderate (to be polite!), the 3 or 4 blankets on each bed came in quite handy during the night. Decent dinner in this small village which used to be a health station in the early 1900’s which explained the large houses all over the village, used as residence for the patients.
Day 7: Aubure to le Markstein (41 km – up 1155 m)
After a brief “war council” we decided to attempt to complete our original program riding to-day on asphalt roads on the route des crêtes to reach le Markstein to-night to be ready to-morrow to tackle le Grand Ballon (highest point around: 1424m) and go down to Munster through le Petit Ballon.
Temperatures told us unequivocally we were in higher country but with the effort it was a pleasant ride.
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| Mike pedaling |
From Aubure, we reached le cold du Bonhomme, le col du Calvaire where hwe ad lunch and met a bunch of street bikers from Fréjus (they were doing it the right way with a support van for luggage, tired riders and mechanical assistance!). Fog started getting denser and we did not see anything from the route des crêtes (one of the most scenic roads in France!) all the way to col de la Schlucht and to le Markstein. Again thanks to the guide we could reserve rooms in le Markstein (hotel restaurant Wolf, route des cretes, Markstein, tel: 03 8982 6436) and did not worry about late arrival. Fortunately they had TV in the rooms and we could watch the French rugby team being wiped out by the Argentinians, not a pretty sight!).
Day 8: Markstein to Munster (60 km – up 869 m)
Sunny morning with some residual fog, but we could at least enjoy the views from the road. We left the bags in the hotel, to be picked up on our return passage and attacked le Grand Ballon, altitude 1424m. We rode/pushed our bikes to the very top in dense fog without seeing much of anything except the big dome protecting some transmission equipment.
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| Foggy summit |
We did see many classic old cars participating in a rally organized by BMW Germany. As soon as we were back at the hotel to pick our bags and sandwiches, the fog on top of the Grand Ballon lifted, but no going back! On dirt track and asphalt roads we rode/pushed our way to le Petit Ballon (altitude 1267) before rushing downhill to Munster where we met Jim and had celebratory beer and dinner. We stayed in hotel la cigogne, 4 place du marché, munster, tel: 03 8977 3227. We could see the storks and their nest all over the roofs in the village; Mike told us they clip their wings so they do not migrate to Morocco where they are killed and eaten! The village has a feeding station for them.
Day 9: Munster to Colmar by car (0 km – up 0 m!!!)
Last morning was spent organizing gear and fitting it all (bikes, gear, and riders!) in the Yaris for the ride to Colmar where Jim and Mike where catching their trains, Mike to Avignon, Jim to ……. (he had not decided yet where he was going!).
Final words: (total 360 km – up 7600 m)
It was a good trip made more interesting by the diversity of landscapes (flat wine country and mountains) and by the guidebook making direction-finding much easier and emphasizing dirt tracks over asphalt roads. I thought hotels and meals were better than in previous trips.
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