Wander 'Black Forest and Vosges' October 5th to 12th 2014

Richard

Once you have your routes sorted out for the 6th (the ride to the Schwarzwald) I will see where/if I can meet up with you or whether to just head to the hotel. Likewise, on the 9th, it would be nice to see if I can ride some of the route with you before heading north into the Vosges
 
A word to the wise...

If northern Germany's Harz mountains are anything to go by, autumn has definitely arrived. We have gone from 25 C to about 12 C and dropping to 8 C.

'Distinctly fresh' sums it up, particularly in the morning and after 18.00 or in the shade for long periods.

Whilst the weather can just about be anything, I will be packing some autumn layers.
 
Its not exactly tropical here either Richard, warm layers it is then. Thanks for the heads up, handlebar muffs going on this weekend too.
 
Now back from the Harz mountains and a weekend at the aged p's....

On the case with the suggested routes.

I have clients in at work Monday thro' Tuesday evening, so plan to get the routes out sometime on Wednesday night.
 
Any places available on this jaunt or is it all finalised?
 
I'm off on my annual pilgrimage to Touratech and the Schwarzwald 19-25th October aswell as the Ardennes............Hope the weather is as good as it was last year!
 

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Heads-up - Hotels, routes and bits'n'bobs

(A) Hotels

I have today reconfirmed our bookings:

St Omer - 5 single rooms

St Menehould - 5 single rooms

Black Forest - 6 single rooms (to add in Paul)

Avallon - 5 single rooms

Soissons - 5 single rooms

Routes

Here are our suggested routes down to the Black Forest and back, along with a suggested full day out (180 miles) when we are in Avallon / Morvan region.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14126843/Black Forest.GPX.zip

They are hosted on Dropbox in a zipped folder. They are built in BaseCamp using map version 2015.2. When you download the zipped folder it may well open straight up in BaseCamp or Mapsource. If it doesn't, save the file to your desktop, start up baseCamp or Mapsource and open it up from there.

NOTE:


(a) Each of the days are reasonably long, mostly on non-motorway N and D roads, with no deliberate goat track excursions. I have sometimes put in some motorway (payage fee of a few euro) and / or some dual carriageway sections where it is sensible to do so. For instance, on our final run-in to St Menehould (where the main road has very little to commend it) and to skirt around Nancy, which is a real grind to get through.

(b) It's not a race from A to D via B and C. That being said, 250 to 270 miles a day on regular roads with five / six bikes is still a reasonable stretch, so we will need to keep an eye on the time as we go along, keeping up a decent pace. For those that have been with me before, you'll know that it's best to get going; stopping for a tea break mid-morning, lunch and a break again in the afternoon, chopping the day into near enough thirds. I am a firm believer that an hour saved in the morning, always translates into two hours saved in the afternoon. If we can tie-up petrol and cigarrette stops with the tea and lunch stops, so much the better. I have no real idea where we might stop after day one but nobody has starved yet.

(c) If everyone can fill up please as they arrive in St Omer, that would be great. That way we can all start from one common point, which makes things easier for everyone. There are lots of fuel stations (open 24/7) in St Omer, that's for sure.

(d) I have lots of potential routes for the Black Forest. I don't think it's worth posting them up here as we can probably decide what to do when we are there. Anything from the B500 onwards really. Switzerland and the Rhine Falls are definitely within a day's return ride, if anyone is interested. I will bring my assorted maps and Macbook anyway and will happily load up / shape routes for all and anyone with a Garmin.

(e) As suggested in (d) bods are perfectly welcome to do their own thing on all, some or any of the days. I have just booked the hotels; how you get there and what you do when you are there is fine with me.

(f) I am still booked on the train out on Saturday evening. I know that some of you are planning on going over earlier, which is great. Can bods do me a favour and post up here what they are doing, so we'll know where everyone is and fellows can look out for one another. Dependong on what time I arrive at the terminal, I'll probably grab a coffee and a sandwich before boarding. Much of St Omer will be shut by the time I get there, so you earlier crossers go out and get your food, probably on the town square.

(g) Don't forget on the first night in St Omer we are booked in the cheaper Ibis, NOT the one we usually use. It's still fairly central and only a bit of a walk to the main square. I suspect all the rooms are booked in my name (Richard Nash) grab a key on arrival. Similarly, the other hotels are books in my name too, secured on my credit card.

(h) Don't forget your waterproofs, some autumn riding gear, dark glasses / visor, your Holiday and Breakdown insurance, your passport, driving licence (both parts), insurance certificate, V5, a basic lock / chain and a spare key for your bike. I will bring a basic tool kit and a puncture repair gizmo.

(i) I have PM'd three of you for your email and mobile numbers. Apologies if I have have had before and mislaid them. I will circulate everyone with the full list, when I have them.

I think that's it.

Any problems, questions, comments, worries or concerns PM or ping 'em up here. I am out tomorrow night (Thursday) with a client but will be around at work on Friday and in all day Saturday up to about lunchtime.

Cheers,

Richard
 
UPDATED..... Update: Added in the Black Forest and some more Morvan routes

I had a few minutes, so I cut out some routes around the Black Forest and Morvan. As an added bonus I lobbed in the Cote d'Or, too.

Once again, it's a zipped folder, hosted on Dropbox. I created these routes over a number of years, so they will be in all sorts of map variants. Best to trace over them if anyone wants to use them.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14126843/Black Forest, Alsace, Vosges, Morvan, Cote d'Or.GPX.zip

I also did some digging around in some old save favourites and reminded myself of the excellent German 'Biker Atlas' site, with it's first class downloadable routes.

http://www.bikeratlas.de/tour/show/ba13_13480/

I found one or two that might suite us, of which this may well be the best.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14126843/ba13_13480-Gpx11Format.GPX.zip

It's created as a track which we'll need to convert, which is easy enough when we are there. It brings in many of the areas favourites, so it may well be worth a go.
 
Richard

Thanks for this

What is the name of the hotel in the Black Forest as I assume we will meet there.

And can you confirm the dates when you will be in the Black Forest hotel? From what you write above, it seems that you will get there on the Monday 6th. I would hate to get there a day too late!!!

I intend to come down on the Sunday and probably go via the Vosges and find an overnight hotel there, and then meet with you in Haslach. But I will check your routes and see if meeting you early on the Monday is viable
 
Hi Paul,

I was planning on circulating all the hotel contact details to everyone, along with the contact details etc.

It's the: http://www.hotel-storchen.de

The town looks OK. I have probably been through it a few times but never stayed.

image.php


We will arrive on Monday.

It will be tricky to meet up en-route as I am not quite sure where we'll be at any one moment. I would hope we'd be arriving at the hotel around 18:30?? Let's stay in touch by text etc during the day.


PS A friend of mine and his wife are in France at the moment. He tried three hotels that we usually use, just turning up at the door.... ALL FULL... His wife is not that impressed.
 
Do we need to download both Dropbox files? or does the 2nd supercede the first?
 
All prepped and ready. Only one more day at work to get through.
 
National Unity Day here tomorrow (friday 3rd) so everyone making the most of the last Public Holiday before Christmas. And it was 21 degC here today
 
Spreadsheet of contact no's and hotel details sent to everyone by email, except Timeandtide whose details I do not appear to have.

Richard
 


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