2010-07-15 48 9

Location

A dense forest at Hechingen

Participants

Ekorren

Expedition

This wasn't too far, and temperatures for the day temporarily should be temperate. That is, staying below 30°C. Promised to be a convenient bike ride.

Started in the afternoon on a beaten track up the Steinlach valley, modifying the route slightly behind Ofterdingen to add a few more agricultural and forest tracks to OSM. Halfway between Ofterdingen and Hechingen, I turned into the forest, didn't actually like the steepness, took a few wrong turns, mapped tracks I never had intended to use, and finally found the intersection anyway where the topographic map showed a track which should come close to the hash for just a few metres and then continue down into the Starzel valley.

It didn't. Neither it continued into the Starzel valley, nor it really came close to the hash. Instead it just ended in the middle of the forest, about 80 m from the hash - sideways, so at that point it was almost 100 m off what the map showed. Ok, that's not too far, but significantly more than the expected number of not more than 20m. Even more as it was very dense forest and rather steep terrain. Not too dense or too steep to keep me off, though, so I bushwhacked my way down to the landfill. Luckily, the hash was located a few metres before the fence and not behind it.

Coordinates reached.

Since the way did not continue down, I had to go back up anyway, and decided to go even further up to the tiny village of Beuren. The road down from there to Mössingen is always a fun ride, even more so since it's been closed after being seriously damaged in a landslide - but a bike always finds a way as long as there are no bridges missing, doesn't it?

Gallery

Creating arftificial hills for bicyclists, to make car driving more attractive.
You can't visit Hechingen without shooting a view to Castle Hohenzollern.
Random tree
The way ends here...
... at two boxes, of which one...
... contains corn, the other is closed and...
... carries a device that looks like a clock behind an almost blind window in the lid. WTF?
Coordinates reached
The actual hashpoint
10 m from the hashpoint a fence blocks off the way into...
... a landfill which is now mostly abandoned.
After it got law that waste has to be processed and burned rather than stored in landfills, most of them got closed and are being recultivated.
View from near Beuren to the Dreifürstenstein - highest peak in the Tübingen district
No through way to Mössingen - after a recent landslide the road is still under repair.
A bike always finds a way, though. This is certainly good enough.