CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
From Butzbach it runs 170 km to Butzbach; allow about 2 h 53 of riding. The stops in between: Fortlet Lochmühle, Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP, Fortlet Adolfseck and back through Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
This part of the ride is 27 km of Civil settlement of Butzbach → Fortlet Lochmühle.
Butzbach is the sort of town that gets overlooked because it sits beside the motorway and the Frankfurt sprawl, and that is a pity, because the old centre is a proper half-timbered market town with a square worth a coffee. About a kilometre from the middle, the Romans once had a fort on the Limes, and the civil settlement, the vicus, grew up beside it. That is the story behind the label: soldiers first, then traders, wives, craftsmen and innkeepers who followed the pay.
Read the complete Civil settlement of Butzbach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Civil settlement of Butzbach is where the day begins. Next is Fortlet Lochmühle.
The Lochmühle is a small fortlet on the Limes in the Taunus, near Wehrheim and the famous Saalburg, and it guarded a spot where the frontier crossed the valley of the Erlenbach stream. Fortlets like this were small outposts, housing a handful of soldiers who watched the border and controlled traffic, and they formed a link between the watchtowers and the larger forts. Its remains are modest, but the location, in a quiet valley surrounded by forest, has a peaceful charm. The name comes from a nearby mill, now a popular leisure park for families with play areas and farm animals.
Read the complete Fortlet Lochmühle write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fortlet Lochmühle comes up about 27 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP.
On the western side of the Taunus, the hills are lower and the forest gives way more often to farmland, with villages in the folds of the valleys. Idstein, a small town with a remarkable old centre, sits on this side, with Waldems and Glashütten nearby. Through the woods above them ran the Roman frontier, and the stretch of watchtowers numbered WP 3/24 to 3/40 followed the ridges here, part of the Upper Germanic Limes and of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire site.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 60 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP. Next is Fortlet Adolfseck.
The Aar is a small river that winds north from the Taunus towards the Lahn, through a narrow, wooded valley that has served as a route through the hills since ancient times. Where the Roman frontier crossed the valley near Adolfseck, today a district of Bad Schwalbach, the Romans built a fortlet to control the crossing, a small, square fortification with a garrison of a few dozen soldiers. The remains have been excavated and are marked on the ground, and the stretch of frontier nearby is part of the World Heritage frontiers of the Roman Empire. Above the valley, the ruins of a medieval castle, also called Adolfseck, add another layer of history.
Read the complete Fortlet Adolfseck write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fortlet Adolfseck, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP sits at 103 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fortlet Lochmühle.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fortlet Lochmühle write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fortlet Lochmühle comes up about 142 km into the recorded legs. Next is Civil settlement of Butzbach.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Civil settlement of Butzbach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Civil settlement of Butzbach closes the day.
Civil settlement of Butzbach → Fortlet Lochmühle is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fortlet Lochmühle → Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP → Fortlet Adolfseck is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fortlet Adolfseck → back through Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP → back through Fortlet Lochmühle is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fortlet Lochmühle → Civil settlement of Butzbach is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.