A friend and I decided to hike from Grellingen to Meltingen, following a stream through the valley between the hills. We were greeted with wind and misty rain as we stepped off the train in Grellingen, but set off with our hoods up. Within about 10 minutes the rain had blown away and the sun was peeking through the clouds. It remained cloudy with occasional glimpses of sun for most of the hike, and thankfully the rain did not return. The temperature was a little chilly, but very comfortable for a hike.
The trail wound back and forth across the stream with many sturdy moss covered bridges along the way. The ground was covered with
bärlauch (bear's leek- seen carpeting the ground along the right side of the trail in the first photo). This is a garlic flavored green that can be used in salads (like chives) or cooking (I had bärlauch ravioli once), and the air smelled faintly of garlic where it grew thickest, and when the sun shone on it. There were also numerous little white and yellow spring flowers dotting the ground, though the trees are just barely budding. Moss coated everything, and ferns and vines of ivy draped many of the old stonework and trees, a testament to the eternal dampness of the valley.
We wandered along the trail snapping many photographs - it was such a pretty day for it! We even got to explore a little cave we saw along the way. It didn't go back very far, but we thought it might have been a good cave to stay in if you didn't have a house, though it was a bit damp. There was a raised area in back that would have worked for a sleeping platform, and an area off to the side in the front that would have been perfect for a fire. Across the stream there was another cave for your friends, which you can see in the photo, though we didn't explore that one. The stream was a bit too high at that point to try getting across, and there was no convenient bridge.
Somewhere along the way we lost the trail to Meltingen, and with some help from my friend's GPS, we eventually ended up in Waldeck, where we caught a Post bus back to Grellingen with only a few minutes wait for the train back to Basel. We'd like to try this hike again, and figure out where we made the wrong turn off the trail to Meltingen!
A friend and I decided to hike from Grellingen to Meltingen, following a stream through the valley between the hills. We were greeted with wind and misty rain as we stepped off the train in Grellingen, but set off with our hoods up. Within about 10 minutes the rain had blown away and the sun was peeking through the clouds. It remained cloudy with occasional glimpses of sun for most of the hike, and thankfully the rain did not return. The temperature was a little chilly, but very comfortable for a hike.
The trail wound back and forth across the stream with many sturdy moss covered bridges along the way. The ground was covered with bärlauch (bear's leek- seen carpeting the ground along the right side of the trail in the first photo). This is a garlic flavored green that can be used in salads (like chives) or cooking (I had bärlauch ravioli once), and the air smelled faintly of garlic where it grew thickest, and when the sun shone on it. There were also numerous little white and yellow spring flowers dotting the ground, though the trees are just barely budding. Moss coated everything, and ferns and vines of ivy draped many of the old stonework and trees, a testament to the eternal dampness of the valley.
We wandered along the trail snapping many photographs - it was such a pretty day for it! We even got to explore a little cave we saw along the way. It didn't go back very far, but we thought it might have been a good cave to stay in if you didn't have a house, though it was a bit damp. There was a raised area in back that would have worked for a sleeping platform, and an area off to the side in the front that would have been perfect for a fire. Across the stream there was another cave for your friends, which you can see in the photo, though we didn't explore that one. The stream was a bit too high at that point to try getting across, and there was no convenient bridge.
Somewhere along the way we lost the trail to Meltingen, and with some help from my friend's GPS, we eventually ended up in Waldeck, where we caught a Post bus back to Grellingen with only a few minutes wait for the train back to Basel. We'd like to try this hike again, and figure out where we made the wrong turn off the trail to Meltingen!
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