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.
112 km from Alfter to Alfter, about 2 h 34 of riding. On the way it passes Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof, Watchtowers WP 1/1 to 1/2 and back through Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
In the Kottenforst, a Maar is not a volcano's crater, as it would be in the nearby Eifel, but a small pond or wet hollow in the forest floor, and the Pfaffenmaar, the priests' pond, is a good example. The word has been used locally for centuries for any round, water-filled depression, and these hollows give the forest a dotted pattern of reeds, alders and dark water. The reason is the heavy clay under the thin soil, which holds rainwater and keeps parts of the woods boggy for much of the year.
Read the complete Kottenforst Nord | Pfaffenmaar 1 and 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kottenforst Nord | Pfaffenmaar 1 and 2 is where the day begins. Next is Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof.
There is very little to see at first glance here, which is exactly what makes the place oddly moving. South of Bonn, in the edge of the Kottenforst near the Heiderhof quarter of Bad Godesberg and the town of Wachtberg, the forest floor hides the faint outlines of Roman practice camps. Legionaries stationed at the fortress of Bonna on the Rhine marched out here to train at the hard, boring work that won the empire its wars: digging ditches, throwing up earth ramparts and laying out a camp to the standard plan in a few hours. A handful of these training camps in the Kottenforst are part of the Lower German Limes, the Roman frontier along the Rhine recognised by UNESCO in 2021.
Read the complete Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof comes up about 26 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/1 to 1/2.
This is where it all begins, or ends, depending on which way you are walking. At Rheinbrohl, on the east bank of the Rhine between Bonn and Koblenz, the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes left the river and struck out across country, running more than five hundred kilometres to the Danube near Regensburg. The first watchtowers, numbered 1/1 and 1/2, stood here near the river, and the line can be followed into the hills from the edge of the village. The whole frontier is part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire, and Rheinbrohl has a modern museum, the RömerWelt, which brings the frontier to life with reconstructions, exhibits and hands-on activities.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/1 to 1/2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 55 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 1/1 to 1/2. Next is back through Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof, late in the day. Next is Kottenforst Nord | Pfaffenmaar 1 and 2.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kottenforst Nord | Pfaffenmaar 1 and 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Kottenforst Nord | Pfaffenmaar 1 and 2. That is the ride.
Kottenforst Nord | Pfaffenmaar 1 and 2 → Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof → Watchtowers WP 1/1 to 1/2 is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 1/1 to 1/2 → back through Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof → Kottenforst Nord | Pfaffenmaar 1 and 2 is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.