Why this ride
A 290 km round trip from Wachtberg - roughly 3 h 52 in the saddle. It goes by way of Watchtower WP 1/65, Watchtower SP 3/5* and back through Watchtower WP 1/65.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof and Watchtower SP 3/5*
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 290 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 52
- 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. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof is where the day begins. Next is Watchtower WP 1/65.
2. Watchtower WP 1/65
Höhr-Grenzhausen is the capital of the Kannenbäckerland, the jug-bakers' land, a corner of the Westerwald where the clay is so good that people have been making pots from it for five hundred years. The grey stoneware, fired at high temperature and decorated in cobalt blue, was exported across Europe in the form of jugs, tankards and bottles, and the workshops and kilns still fill the town. The German Ceramics Museum in Höhr-Grenzhausen is one of the best of its kind, with objects from medieval jugs to modern art.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/65 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Watchtower WP 1/65 comes up about 75 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtower SP 3/5*.
3. Watchtower SP 3/5*
Taunusstein did not exist as a town until 1971, when ten villages on the high plateau north of Wiesbaden were merged into one municipality, and so it has no old centre, just a cluster of former villages, each with its church, its half-timbered houses and its fields. One of them, Wehen, gave its name to the football club SV Wehen Wiesbaden, which started here before moving to the city. The Roman frontier ran along the edge of this plateau, and watchtower SP 3/5, close to the line, is one of the many small sites that mark it in the forest between Taunusstein and Idstein.
Read the complete Watchtower SP 3/5* 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 Watchtower SP 3/5*. Next is back through Watchtower WP 1/65.
4. back through Watchtower WP 1/65
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/65 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Watchtower WP 1/65, late in the day. Next is Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof.
5. Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof to Watchtower WP 1/65
Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof → Watchtower WP 1/65 is 75 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 1/65 to Watchtower SP 3/5*
Watchtower WP 1/65 → Watchtower SP 3/5* is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower SP 3/5* to back through Watchtower WP 1/65
Watchtower SP 3/5* → back through Watchtower WP 1/65 is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 1/65 to Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof
back through Watchtower WP 1/65 → Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof is 74 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.