Epic Hikes of the World ( PDFDrive )

solid weeks of moderately challenging, high-altitude hiking. But boy are the blisters
worth it. The waymarked trail heads to off-the-radar viewpoints and cascading
waterfalls, half-timbered hamlets, post-glacial lakes and mountaintops that peer
across to the not-so-distant Alps – and, natürlich, deep into those necks of the
woods that are inaccessible to cars. This is a hike through a forest straight from the
pages of a Grimm bedtime story, steeped in legends of lake nymphs, witches and
paths easily strayed from.
The Westweg takes in the best of the Black Forest’s crochet of tightly woven
valleys and sharply rising hills, allowing moments of quiet contemplation in among
the spruces, where moss grows thick like the plushest of carpets. Some might find
the loneliness disconcerting, but I’ve always found solace in its darkest depths.
John Muir once said that ‘the clearest way into the universe is through a forest
wilderness’ and he had a point. In the protective embrace of the trees, it is easy to
unplug from the world and get that bit closer to nature. As my hike begins, I feel a
near-meditative sense of calm. Everything becomes more intuitive: the gentle
stirring of trees, the profile of a startled deer, the play of light as day turns to dusk,
the rhythm of my own stride.
© Juergen Wackenhut | Shutterstock
strolling on the Westweg