Alex Outdoors

The last of long hikes during my trip to Germany, but also perhaps the most spectacular. The terrain was mostly steep and rocky, the trail took us mostly through dense forest and along wide meadows at the end. The weather was iffy at first but held up just fine, we lost the trail but found it again, and we topped it all off with a solid German meal at a nearby restaurant at the end. My good friend Kirsten met me for this hike in the northern Black Forest…..click below so I can take you there:

I consider myself very lucky. Lucky to be in good health & able to afford these explorations. Also, in this case, lucky to have family in an area rich with hiking opportunities within easy driving distance. Like this one, just about an hour and fifteen minutes south of my mom’s house in southern Germany. What more can one ask for? The sun was shining (until the end of the hike) and I again had the trails all to myself! 

Time is always limited whenever I fly to Germany to visit family. Some trips are 8 – 10 days long if I’m lucky, but most are restricted to a week or less, like this one. I’m always torn between spending time at home with my mom versus roaming the country in search of spectacular hiking routes, so on this trip I managed to do both: rising with the sun I drove about and hour or so to a nearby trail to hike, returning early afternoon to hang with the fam. Out of the 5 long hikes I had planned I managed only three, plus two long walks in a nearby forest. I guess I’ll have to go back to finish the other hikes still left unchecked on my list……Also, check out the oh-so-cool Game of Thrones castle I discovered during my outing:

Unfortunately for me it’s the time of year that the big spiders return to spinning their webs across the trails. We had a nice break from them during winter but there is no escaping them now. I took a few web-hits to the head, and was able to move some out of the way with my hiking pole, but in another month or so they will be EVERYWHERE and GINORMOUS!  A fun hike though, and a trail that’s apparently not very popular – we met ZERO hikers this morning!

Of all the loops you can hike at the Croom trails, loop C is my absolute favorite, hands-down.  We hiked this portion once before during a weekend camp-out , but this time we turned it into a day hike and it was absolutely fantastic!

“Mental Health Day” The last time I hiked in this park we were up to our thighs in water.  Read more about that here . This time around the trails were pleasantly dry and aside from a few feral pigs I saw only one fellow hiker. Along with 100% sunshine that’s what I call a perfect hiking experience!

I used to hesitate taking my inexperienced friends hiking, but I will consider it if said friends agree to adhere to my rules: be on time, come prepared, follow directions, listen and pay attention. Also, don’t talk my head off. If rules are followed all is well, if not then we won’t hike together again. Capice?  My BFF Janna followed my rules and we’ve hiked together a few times now. This day we ventured to a familiar location in Thonotosassa- I have hiked here several times but it was a new trail for J. We prepped with food, water, and our maps and set off around 8 a.m. For the most part we had the wilderness trails ALL to ourselves. Check it out!