From Hell to Paradise in the Black Forest.
Not all runs have to be serious or have an end goal – sometimes the journey is the goal, as the cliché goes. Sometimes the goal is just to have fun with a group of close friends and throw in some good food.
Last Saturday we kicked off our very first Kuchenlauf (trail running from Black Forest cake shop to the next) on the Querweg (a long distance hiking trail that connects Lake Constance and Freiburg) – which also happens to run parallel to the Jakobsweg: the pilgrim’s route to France and Spain.
We started in Hinterzarten and our goal was Himmelreich. In between we ran across Ravenna gorge and down into Höllental (Hell’s valley). Eventually we made it to Posthalde, before getting a bit lost. As nobody had a map or GPS, and the trail we thought we should have taken, looked like it hadn’t been used for a long time, we didn’t know where to go. In the end we hiked back up to Hinterzarten.
I often took the train through Höllental to meet Cordula for our weekly English lesson. This time I got to see and experience it in a whole new way – with spectacular on-the-ground scenery, good friends, and lots of cake.
We hope to make the Kuchenlauf an annual event.