Titisee (lake from town) - Dressed for the heat
6/25/98. Spriegelsbacher Höhe. On a bench with a view to farms below and mountains in the distance, including the Feldberg. Warm day with no clouds. We both put on hankerchiefs down over our necks; Jacob already has sunburn from yesterday. Not too sore today, just a few blisters on my left foot.
We had breakfast at 7:30 today with Hans, a biker with whom we shared our room last night. Got started at 8:15 walking through the town of Titisee (very touristy). Short day planned for today, only 14 km to Thurner, where we hope to get a hotel room. Thurner is one of the "official" stops on the Westweg, hotels which have agreed through the Schwarzwaldverein (The Black Forest Society, the organization which maintains the trail) to be way stations on the trail. The benefit of staying at these hotels (other than that they are all of high quality) is that (for a small fee) they will ship your luggage on to the next hotel. This means you can hike with no backpack, or with just a minimal daypack. It also means, of course, that you need to know where it is you are going to be at the end of the day, so that you can rejoin your luggage. A list of the participating hotels in the "Wandern ohne Gepäck" (Hiking without luggage) program is available from the Schwarzwaldverein.
I havn't been able to find my reading book (Pickwick Papers) since Paris, must have left it there somewhere. [More lost items - umbrella case in Salzburg, sweater in Vienna, Newton pen in Graz.] So started reading "King Solomon's Mines" (Haggard), a great simplistic adventure book I read last time Jacob and I went backpacking, in 1992 on the Appalachian Trail. I downloaded that book and a number of others (including a slew of Sherlock Holmes stories) to Newt before we started.
12:00, Fahrenhalde. Stopping here for lunch. Nice overlook with view of fields, forest and mountains. We were both ready to stop after 4 hours almost all uphill. I've got a big blister on my left foot that's killing me.
2:00. Taking a break at a bench at the edge of the woods, overlooking a farm. I've changed to sandals, which feel much better. Fortunately, the path here is not nearly as rocky as it's been most of the way. We just passed two through-hikers going the other way, the first we've seen. There have been other folks on the paths, but all local hikers. Most hikers follow the Westweg southwards (starting at Pforzheim) because that is how the guide books describing the trail are written. If you travel north, as we are doing, the trail guides aren't quite as useful.
6:00. Thurner Wirtshaus. Arrived here at 3:00 and got a room (45DM), did the laundry and then watched the socceer game between Holland and Mexico. We had to take an unmarked path off the Westweg to get here (a cross-country ski path) but found our way o.k. It's great to have the detailed maps (scaled 1 to 30,000) we bought in Freiburg. We're having Wiener Schnitzel for supper (18 DM).
