Wonderful hike through the high parts of the Vosges Mountains. The hike begins with a hefty climb, but once at the top the route remains fairly flat. The trails pass through mountain meadows and beech forests and it passes ski resort Le Markstein. Nice views of Le Grand Ballon. With clear weather, the peaks of the Alps can be seen in the distance.
By now the weather has cleared up and the legs are rested, so today we walk another stage.
At the beginning of the trail we hike back a bit on an asphalt road. Good as a warm-up, because there soon follows a tough climb of about 7km in which we ascend about 700 meters. It is the only real climb today, the rest of the route will remain fairly flat.
We walk up through the forest. The climb is steep, but we are occasionally treated to woodland strawberries growing here and there along the route. At the top, the trail follows out of the woods and the landscape changes to vast mountain meadows with lots of flowers and blueberry bushes. The berries are already visible, but it will take a while before they are ripe. In a meadow we pause at the remains of an old barn and let our shirts dry in the sun.
On top of the highest point, we see clouds on the horizon toward the south. Or… after a second look it turns out to be something other than clouds. Far in the distance, above the peaks of the Jura, tower the snow-covered peaks of the Alps. Oh, how magnificent! And incredible, because Mont Blanc is 200 kilometers away. We catch a glimpse of where we will be walking in 4 weeks.
But for now, the route mostly follows the Route de Crêtes, a road that runs along the highest peaks of the Vosges Mountains and that we once followed by car on a round trip years ago.
We continue up to a ski resort, Le Markstein, to have a cup of coffee. But beforehand, Malou goes to see if we can fill our bottles of drinking water somewhere, since tonight we will spend the night in an abri where there’s no drinking water.
We drop off our backpacks at a little wall and while Mark watches the stuff, Malou walks back and forth down the street to see if she can find anything. Too bad, no drinking water, so we’ll ask at the little restaurant. But on the way back, things go wrong. Accidents usually happen when you don’t expect them; after 850 kilometers on small footpaths, Malou overlooks a leg of a barrier at the edge of the road and goes down on the asphalt. Aiii … with bloodied hands and scraped knees she arrives at Mark’s. Fortunately, we still have enough water and bandages to wash out the pebbles and bandage the wounds. Mark’s First Aid lessons come in handy after all.
Fortunately, an hour later, with two bandaged hands, sore muscles and recovered from the shock, we can still go out for a cup of coffee on the terrace. We check if we can spend the night in the area, we call some hotels nearby, but according to French custom a lot is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays (even hotels!?). So we decide to walk to the unmanned hut 5 kilometers away.
A beautiful log cabin with stove, in the middle of the forest, a little off the path. A very nice place to spend the night, but we still don’t have enough water to cook and drink.
We see on the map that there is a spring 2.2km from the cabin. We have a purification system with us and enough gas to boil the water, so that shouldn’t be a problem. With a bag of empty bottles, Mark sets out to find the spring. Once he arrives at the spring, it turns out to be completely dry. Fortunately, he had seen another spring on the way there, which is closer to farmland, so less suitable for drinking. But necessity knows no law, after an hour Mark is back with 3 bottles of water which, after purification and boiling, turn out to be perfectly suitable for drinking.
We have a wonderful evening and a good meal from the last provisions we have with us. What a nice and quiet place this is! Just after sunset we prepare the hut to sleep in. Fortunately, we can lock the door, which always feels a little safer. So we enjoy a good night after a tumultuous day.
