chriswoody
Legendary Member
- Location
- Northern Germany
My son has been quite keen to have a go at bike packing himself, ever since seeing the photos of my adventures. So we have been busy planning and plotting a micro adventure in the forests to the North of me. The first hurdle was trying to work out how to convert his bike to carry luggage, I tried bike packing style bags, followed by several different rear racks that I have in the cellar, until we finally found a rack that would fit the small frame. Then we fitted a set of old Ortleib panniers and took a few rides around the neighbourhood forests to check it would work. Once we had the logistics sorted, with the weather set fair this last weekend we made a plan.
Day One
Setting out in the warm sunshine, we were soon out of town and onto the quiet country lanes, passing fields of tall corn ready for harvest. A nice gentle start for 5km before plunging into the first gravel road.
The gravel road then crosses the glider school runway and we wait patiently for the runway controller to beckon us across. The track bisects the middle of the runway and we rode over the steel cables that are lying ready to launch some more gliders into the skies. After clearing the runway we rested the bikes up against a tree and turned to watch the gliders launch, much to the joy of my son.
After a couple more kilometres of quiet roads we leave the roads again and plunge into the forest. It's slow going at first as the path is rough and muddy in places. As is typical here, the surface is constantly changing over the next kilometres, from hard packed mud, to gravel, to sand. At times it's so soft that we are reduced to pushing the laden bikes as we sink too far into the ground to gain traction. We stop often for snacks and rest to pace ourselves and just enjoy being out here in the solitude of the forest.
Nearly 20km in, we reach Anglesteichbeck and stop by the lake shore. We're on the edge of the Hiede, a large area of heather moorland, which is currently in full bloom and as such, teeming with hundreds of people out walking and enjoying the late summer sun. We soon head back onto the bikes and up onto the Teifental, then onwards, heading ever further North. After the Teifental the number of people drops off considerably and we are back on our own. As we hit 30km my son really starts to dip, he's put in a monumental effort and the track has started to get really rough. Distance is an abstract concept still and he can't see an end to the day, we slow to a crawl, just over 8km an hour. There's no where to pitch up in the tight forest and we increase the frequency of the breaks as I do my best to keep his spirits up. Slowly the kilometres tick by and eventually at 35km we arrive by the lake I'd been pondering wild camping by. We collapse down in happiness on the shore and take a breather, sadly though, it really is not good ground for a tent, no bother though, a short walk away is another lake and this one has a wonderful patch of ground by the lake.
First job is to break out the cooker and cook a large bowl of food to bring our energy levels back up. We then spend a contented evening next to the lake relaxing and enjoying the solitude before throwing the tent up in the last of the evening light. As the moon rises we crawl into our sleeping bags and collapse into a deep sleep.
Day One
Setting out in the warm sunshine, we were soon out of town and onto the quiet country lanes, passing fields of tall corn ready for harvest. A nice gentle start for 5km before plunging into the first gravel road.
The gravel road then crosses the glider school runway and we wait patiently for the runway controller to beckon us across. The track bisects the middle of the runway and we rode over the steel cables that are lying ready to launch some more gliders into the skies. After clearing the runway we rested the bikes up against a tree and turned to watch the gliders launch, much to the joy of my son.
After a couple more kilometres of quiet roads we leave the roads again and plunge into the forest. It's slow going at first as the path is rough and muddy in places. As is typical here, the surface is constantly changing over the next kilometres, from hard packed mud, to gravel, to sand. At times it's so soft that we are reduced to pushing the laden bikes as we sink too far into the ground to gain traction. We stop often for snacks and rest to pace ourselves and just enjoy being out here in the solitude of the forest.
Nearly 20km in, we reach Anglesteichbeck and stop by the lake shore. We're on the edge of the Hiede, a large area of heather moorland, which is currently in full bloom and as such, teeming with hundreds of people out walking and enjoying the late summer sun. We soon head back onto the bikes and up onto the Teifental, then onwards, heading ever further North. After the Teifental the number of people drops off considerably and we are back on our own. As we hit 30km my son really starts to dip, he's put in a monumental effort and the track has started to get really rough. Distance is an abstract concept still and he can't see an end to the day, we slow to a crawl, just over 8km an hour. There's no where to pitch up in the tight forest and we increase the frequency of the breaks as I do my best to keep his spirits up. Slowly the kilometres tick by and eventually at 35km we arrive by the lake I'd been pondering wild camping by. We collapse down in happiness on the shore and take a breather, sadly though, it really is not good ground for a tent, no bother though, a short walk away is another lake and this one has a wonderful patch of ground by the lake.
First job is to break out the cooker and cook a large bowl of food to bring our energy levels back up. We then spend a contented evening next to the lake relaxing and enjoying the solitude before throwing the tent up in the last of the evening light. As the moon rises we crawl into our sleeping bags and collapse into a deep sleep.
Last edited:
