before & beyond

Even better #greentunnel pic from the same trip a couple weeks ago. #backpacking #hiking #westvirginia (hier: West Virginia) https://www.instagram.com/walking_it_off/p/BxSfGaKlJuj/?igshid=62nblsdbv7n1

From our last overnight up on the mountain: #greentunnel #westvirginia #backpacking #camping #rhododendron (hier: West Virginia) https://www.instagram.com/walking_it_off/p/BxSetg1l21M/?igshid=6nxxhuxp4x3x

Sometimes I just like hanging out in a field of flowers and then wonder why I get bit by ticks. Thanks for the picture @maik_van_hike #backpacking #flowers #blackforest #westweg #Blauenimschwarzwald

Cowboy camping with a view: Sun set over the Rhine valley. One of the last night's on the Westweg, the oldest long-distance trail in the Black Forest, Germany. #backpacking #cowboycamping #westweg #schwarzwald #fernwanderweg #optoutside #hikingadventures

Da Westweg Crew @sodahikes, @maik_van_hike and myself. We met Maik on the morning of our fourth hiking day of the #westweg. Soda instantly spotted his #myog backpack which started a conversation that lasted to the very last day of our hike :). #backpacking #hikingcrew #outside #outdoors #withfriends

What a Motley Crew to finish the hike with! The bus driver who took the pic was certain that pictures always turn out better if they are tilted...should keep that in mind huh. Thanks 'German Rob' aka @maik_van_hike for hanging with me and @sodahikes. It was a pleasure and so much fun. Getting to know you on the trail certainly made this hike feel like a little #thruhike. #westweg #alleshateinendenurdiewursthatzwei #blackforesthike #schwarzwald #basel #wanderlust (at Basel Badischer Bahnhof)

The #blackforest how it is supposed to look according to most people's imagination, right?! Yesterday we finished the 285km hike in Basel, Switzerland. It was a fun hike and surprising. Unfortunately it put me directly to bed with bronchitis and light fever 🤒. More pics will be following once I am more awake. #westweg #forest #scgwarzwald #bawü #naturepreserve #hiking #wanderlust

#halfwaypoint of the #westweg. It's been fun so far, curious about the rest. #fernwanderweg #wanderlust #germany🇩🇪

Happy, go lucky 😊 #westweg #wandern #wanderlust #outdoors #glücksklee🍀 #happy

Someone's happy to have made it to the end of section 7 on the #westweg @maik_van_hike ;). #hiking #schwarzwald #germany🇩🇪 #hikingadventure #backpacking #ulbackpacking (at Schonach im Schwarzwald)

Heat, humidity, rain, steep climbs, rocks and roots, berries and a new trail family. All of that in just 142km. It's been magical so far. #hikinglife #thruhike #getoutaide #wanderlust #blackforest #westweg

@sodahikes and I went hiking today, our first day on the 285km long #westweg (established in 1900, the oldest long-distance route in the #blackforest). We started off in Pforzheim, the northern terminus, on this warm summer morning here in Germany. Besides the hot burning sun, we couldn't have asked for better hiking conditions, way different to the ice-cold temperatures I was facing back in 2016 when I hiked the first sections of this trail end of November 😨. After all that biking the legs feel pretty strong, endurance is not an issue at all, but the feet kinda hurt getting adjusted to so much pounding again. I'm enjoying and looking forward to this last #visiteurope adventure of Soda and me before we part ways again for another minute. P.s. Definitely, need to do some stretches tonight. #hiking #backpacking #blackforest #schwarzwald #wanderlust #backpackinggermany #trekkingtour #westway

#lakeconstanze at its best. Not a bad place to get a couple of days of proper rest before heading on to the last push across the #blackforest. Can't wait to clean the bike and give it a little rest too. #biketrip #biketouring #cycling #bodensee #sunset #zeroday #alpenblick (at Lake Constance)

#schweiz🇨🇭 #solisviaduct #cycling #cyclepath #velo #longdistancecycling #alps #alpen (at Solis Viaduct)

Climbing above tree line on a bicycle is certainly nothing I've ever imagined to be fun. I wouldn't like to climb this pass again anytime soon but that feeling making it up there was for sure indescribably awesome. The best though, there were marmots 😍 running around up there on #albulapass. #biketouring #alps #alpen #schweiz🇨🇭 #swissalps #biking #travelonbike #roamingeurope (at Albula Pass)

Slow and steady...and with stops at the side of the road here and there we made it up higher than Reschenpass 1,500m) a couple days earlier. As always we only realized shortly before, what we got ourselves into. Fueled with an Ovomaltine/Ovaltine drink we started a roughly 9km (5.6miles) ascent of around 600m (2,000ft). We struggled, we yelled, we had fun too. Every km was worth the fees and the endorphin shot into my veins up there. Definitely the highest and one of the high points of this bike travel. #albulapass #swissalps #alps #schweiz🇨🇭 #biketouring #biking #travelonbike #swiss (at Albula Pass)

Crossed over into #Swiss today and climbed up even more and higher than the day before, ayayay caramba. To tackle all this climbing and soak up the scenery that we got provided a second lunch was needed. We are now back on the #Innradweg along the Inn river. #Alpen #schweiz🇨🇭 #swissalps #radtour #biketouring #radwandern #getoutside #outdoors #takelessdomore (at Switzerland)