Day one we followed the border with France (now closed), taking Andrea's super efficient route through Basel and up onto the hill above Allschwil, through Biel-Benken to Flüh (most recently done on our full moon hike), nice break on the bench on the ridge there, and then into territory we haven't done before.
Up onto the ridge north of Mariastein, continuing along the border, again picking up a piece of the trail from the full moon hike between Rodersdorf and Burg - another nice break on the bench above Metzerlen we stopped at on that trip, through Burg and back up onto the ridge with nice views into Alsace, continuing on a really nice stretch along the drop off, a longer lunch and rest break just past Remelspitz with its little tower, onwards always following the border to the Roti Flue and then descending, past the cave (not as cool as we had hoped) to meet the Lützel at Klösterli.
A bit of a strategy discussion here since we're a bit earlier than we thought we'd be, but we opt to pump some water here and have an early dinner in a nice field beside the Lützel. After a more than decent meal of pulled pork and rice (surprisingly good!) we continue along the trail towards Kleinlützel, picking up a bit of greg's running route from Delemont to Basel. In Kleinlützel we look for a fountain to get water for the evening and next morning, end up finding one that's not officially drinking water, then dumping that out when we later discover another one near the graveyard. Up, up
the hill to the pass towards Liesberg, then off to the right until we find a nice spot for our bivvy.
Hang out for a bit enjoying the views until the sun goes down, then set up the bivvy bags and retire for the night. It's nice a quiet, but the mostly full moon is like a spotlight, so there aren't really any stars.
We do a quick food break just sitting on the path before losing the sun, then continue to the valley bottom, across the stream, and start back up the other side. Steeply up to the Mätteberg, past the nice viewpoint at the end (people already there) until we find a good spot to sit, have a warm beverages break (Z'nuni!) and enjoy the views. Onwards along the ridge to the end, some discussion about what/how to do the traverse of the Baflue (unfortunately the hikr admins have shut down access to trip reports, so though we know that there's a T4 route along the ridge, we can't read any descriptions of it), and then we start up along the obvious trail. This steepens and becomes like a pretty typical climbing traverse (less-used paths leaving along the way, there's probably climbing on the Baflue), but it leads us easily to a saddle on the ridge. Clear traces leads us up along the ridge a bit until we get to a point where it's not clear whether we should continue along the ridge (clear traces there) or head around the rocks to the left (also clear traces there). We opt to try the "straight ahead" approach and scramble to a high-point (always making sure that whatever we can do is down-scrambleable). The way forward from here doesn't look good, so we scramble back to the fork and take the route around the rock.
This is steep and covered in plenty of leaves, but easy enough. Eventually we end up back on the ridge, cross to the other side, through a little tunnel, and then a break on the other side. Note to ourselves: once things normalize it might be worth investigating whether or not there's a good traverse across the top of that bit of ridge, it's not super long, but looks like it could be fun. Onward along the ridge, and then down, down to the edge of Büsserach before starting up towards the Burgruine Neu Thierstein and then steeply up onto the ridge. This is a really nice (and popular!) trail along the long ridge.
Nice break with views along the way (it's hot!), and then down into Meltingen. Here we pump some water at the fountain (sign there that it's not drinking water), cool our hands and faces, and then head gently up out of town, around Zullwil, and then onwards towards the Burgruine Gilgenberg (we walked past this years ago). Instead of taking a path up to the Portiflue and the ridge there, we continue further up the valley (greg has had enough sun for the moment) until we get to a couple picnic tables at Chalberweidli. Here we do our dinner break (reindeer stew, which isn't much in the way of texture, but tasted quite nice), including a nice foot wash in the stream. Then up through the gorge with the Ibachfälle (really, really nice trail!) and onwards through the forest to Nunningenberg (way too many cars here!), contouring through the fields, and then up to the saddle with the road down to Nunningen. We check out the potential bivvy spot a bit further along from here and decide it's good. Some time enjoying the last of the sun and views (including the Hirnichopf and another ridge or two from our hike a couple weekends ago) from the bench down on the road. When the sun goes down we set up the bivvy bags and retire to watch the stars come out. Fun here to spot a cluster of Starlink satellites passing overhead.
We've got a distance to cover today in order to get home, so the focus is more on efficiency (while staying on nice paths!) than doing ridges or heading over peaks like we would normally do. Past the horse farm at Dietel, then down through the woods and further along to Seewen (we really start to see cherry trees on this stretch) before heading up again towards Hochwald. We take the (unmarked but very popular) path through the woods that follows the edge, have a break along the way, head down a bit, and then re-climb to the lovely open Gempen plateau. Onward through the sun, skirting town, and then we descend to Stollenhäuser. Here the combination of the views, the cherry trees, and the dandelions in the fields is just out of control, so we have a nice break to appreciate them (this has changed so much from a few weeks ago).
Then onwards and downwards... it's the final push! Past Schönmatt and then along the familiar route down into Münchenstein.
We pick up a bit more water and cool our hands at the fountain where greg always grabs water on long runs, then through the upper bits of town (hot! sunny!) and up onto the hill of the Bruderholz. One last quick break in the shade, then along across the Bruderholz, past St Margarethen, into Basel, past the Schützenmattpark, a bit of weaving around to find a shop that's open and selling beer, and then finally home....
Stats:
- Day 1: 33.4 km, 8:45 (+1:20 paused), 1370m up, 970m down
- Day 2: 28.1 km, 9:30 (+1:10 paused), 1490m up, 1250m down
- Day 3: 33.8 km, 8:40, 790m up, 1470m down
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