First Hike in 2022

Sunday, the 2nd of January, saw us out on our first hike of the year. We were lucky in that the weather was not as wet as we‘d feared, and at 12C it was rather warm for the time of year.

We had packed our usual array of food and water in our rucksacks, plus extra bits of warm clothing (which we did not need).

I love it when we start straight from the cottage front door, without driving first, although I also enjoy those drives past typical Black Forest farms and villages to reach the starting point of a particular circuit. It is just that I can‘t help seeing the contradiction of wanting to enjoy clean air and nature, but using the worst kind of transport to get there.

Back to our hike: We walked on familiar paths, and I name the various stations along our route more for the sake of my own memory than for you - most of my readers will not know those places anyway.

Leaving the village by way of the Hohlweg and passing through the small communal wood (called Hohhölzle), we walked downhill and crossed the road towards Nächstenbach, a parking lot meant for walkers, with information boards and maps.

From there, it was uphill (not too strenuously) for a while until we reached the Sägereck hut, where we sat down for a few minutes to have a sip of water.

I know I have posted picture of this particular place before, and even of the inside of the hut. You should be able to find it by typing Sägereck in the search bar in the top left corner of my blog.

From there, we walked on the ridge of the chain of hills, on the path fittingly named Kammweg (meaning ridge way) to the next hut called Barack. A large group of people were alredy gathered there, lighting a fire and having a noisy BBQ. Good for them, but we chose a bench and table away from the crowd and sat down for our packed lunch. Just as we started to eat, a former colleague of O.K.‘s (now retired) and his wife came walking up the path. Of course they stopped for a chat, which was nice, but it made our break much longer than expected, and by the time they left and we finished eating, we were both very ready to move on; even at 12C, when you just sit there and the relative strong wind blows about you, it does get rather chilly.

Next along our route we passed the third and last hut, called Handwerker-Hütte. No stop there, as it was full of families with children, and we wanted to keep walking anyway.

From there, a gentle downhill path leads out of the woods and to the edge of Diersburg, a village next to O.K.‘s which I have frequently mentioned on here.

We just skirted the last row of houses on our way across the road, then over fields and through orchards, before reaching Hofweier again.

The last of these pictures was taken just after 4:00 pm - time to go home before it was going to be too dark to walk the unlit paths. Also, by this time, we were looking forward to mugs of coffee.

All in all, we were out for about three hours. A good start into another year with hopefully many more walks and hikes.