Why this ride
From Schelklingen it runs 292 km to Schelklingen; allow about 4 h 38 of riding. On the way it passes Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch, Lone Valley and back through Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ach Valley and Lone Valley
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 292 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 38
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Ach Valley
Below the village of Schelklingen the Swabian Jura gives up some of the oldest art in the world. In the caves of the Ach and Lone valleys, early modern humans carved ivory and bone about forty thousand years ago, among them a small female figure found in the Hohle Fels cave in 2008, which is among the oldest known sculptures of the human form. Flutes made from bird bone and mammoth ivory turned up too. UNESCO listed six of these caves in 2017 under the title of Caves and Ice Age Art of the Swabian Jura, and a museum in nearby Blaubeuren tells the story well.
Read the complete Ach Valley write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Ach Valley is where the day begins. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch.
2. Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch
Lorch, in the Rems valley east of Stuttgart, sits on a historic seam. Just outside town, the Upper German Limes, which ran as a palisade and ditch from the Rhine, met the Raetian Limes, the stone wall running east to the Danube, and the Romans built a fort here to watch over that junction and the valley road. The fort lay beneath what is now the old town centre, and its outline, together with traces of the civilian settlement that grew around it, is marked in places in the streets. It is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site, and a reconstructed watchtower stands on a hill nearby.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch comes up about 66 km into the recorded legs. Next is Lone Valley.
3. Lone Valley
The Lone is a small river in the Swabian Jura, east of Ulm, that often vanishes underground in dry weather, slipping into the limestone and leaving its bed empty. Its quiet valley, flanked by wooded slopes and limestone cliffs, holds caves where some of the oldest figurative art in the world was found. In the Hohlenstein-Stadel cave, fragments of a figure carved from mammoth ivory were pieced together into the Lion Man, a being with a human body and a lion's head, around forty thousand years old. In the Vogelherd cave, tiny ivory animals, a horse, a mammoth, a cave lion, emerged from the sediment.
Read the complete Lone Valley write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 145 km into the recorded legs you reach Lone Valley. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch.
4. back through Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch, late in the day. Next is Ach Valley.
5. Ach Valley
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ach Valley write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Ach Valley. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Ach Valley to Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch
Ach Valley → Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch to Lone Valley
Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch → Lone Valley is 79 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lone Valley to back through Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch
Lone Valley → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch is 78 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch to Ach Valley
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch → Ach Valley is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.