Thursday May 19:
On the third day of our hike, we continued another 350 height meters up from Titisee, then gradually descended down into the Wutach gorge. The interwebs say the Wutachschlucht is the longest gorge in Germany; it is sometimes called "the Grand Canyon of the Schwarzwald"--bless its heart. Other German Grand Canyons include the Bastei rock formations near Dresden ("the Grand Canyon of Germany") and the upper Danube valley (Obere Donautal, "the Swabian Grand Canyon"). (To be fair, there are numerous Grand Canyons of [insert state name here] in the U.S., including the Grand Canyon of North Carolina [Linville Gorge]. Bless its heart too.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. We had to go up before we went down. From a paragliding launch field, we had a great view down towards Titisee:
As we crested the peak and began our descent toward Kappel, we were reminded that borderlands tend to have bloody histories:
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| To the memory of the Austrian and French soldiers who perished on 4 April 1799 |
Komoot led us along the neatly mowed edge of a farm field...
...that ended abruptly with an electric fence and a herd of grazing cows...
...so we found an alternative road into Kappel. Kappel is one of those small German ghost towns where people have lived for centuries (documented since 1275), but hardly a soul is to be seen on the streets during the day. (I know, people work during the day--but Kappel was eerily quiet.)
The church in Kappel had the same weathered-shingle aesthetic as those I'd seen in the Allgaue on my Bayern hike:
We found a bench to sit on for lunch on the eastern edge of town, across from a field of wildflowers.
We suspect Kappel is much livelier when tourist season kicks in, as it's the gateway to the Wutachschlucht. As we headed out of town...
...the Querweg blaze was joined by the Viaduct-and-Gorge-Tour blaze.
The Haslach and Gutach rivers both drain into the Wutach.
The trail descended down switchbacks into the gorge, then continued up and down the cliff walls along the Wutach river...
All of the bridges this day and the next received the Acrophobe's Seal of Approval:
The covered bridge shown below is only about 95 years old, and has been renovated multiple times--but written records of a bridge at this location date back as far as 1254 CE.
Vinca minor in its native habitat is much more robust than as an invasive species in the U.S.:
Our stop for the night was the Schattenmuehle, which is situated right on the Querweg. It's a little grungy and overpriced, but stopping here meant we could say we had traveled our entire trek by foot.
The Schattenmuehle's napkins feature a photo of the proprietor in very short lederhosen. Scheen dass 'er do sin! An Guata! = Schwaebisch for "Nice that you're here! Guten Appetit!"
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