Hiking around Merten

Winter is coming and going these days. This week, it looks like it’s gone, and it looks like it’s gonna come back again. Well, I guess we can still be happy because at least it’s not raining today, even though the weather forecast was saying it was going to.

Anyway, for some reason quite some people signed up for today’s hike, despite the weather, and despite the early train schedule again – our train was leaving before 9am. I was about to miss it.

We have been to Merten a few times before. It’s one of those train stations along the Sieg with virtually nothing nearby. I don’t quite understand why there are stations like this, but for us hikers it’s a great stop, as right from the train station the hike starts.

The weather has been quite unstable these days, so was also the ground. I was happy that I took my hiking shoes today. Some people seemed to have a bit more difficulties.

It was a round trip today, but somehow Rohith did it in the direction to have the break in the first third or so, which basically resulted in having lunch even before noon. The majority decided to vote against it and we kept walking. To be fair, the place where Rohith had planned a break was a really nice place with a great view over the surrounding area, with a hut. It’s a pity that he didn’t do it in the opposite direction.

There were multiple places with a nice view today. That’s a typical thing along this area, as the river Sieg makes a valley. Also on the other side we had nice views every now and then. It was still quite cloudy, but given the fact that weather forecast was predicting rain, I think it was pretty nice.

By the time we had passed about the half, we realized that there was nowhere to have a break (well, Rohith was saying so when we left the place where he had planned a break). Giulia and Rahul apparently looked up a good place to have a break, which was somewhat off the track, but there was a nice hut where we could all sit. That was a nice move, since everything was wet today, so otherwise we would have all been standing during the break.

We then followed the track again. It was a massive forestal area today, just like many places around this area. Also a good place for a hike in the winter, as the nature is not too wild here. There was this one place that Komoot was saying would be too complicated. It wasn’t. We also have been there twice before, and we never had the feeling that it was complicated. Sometimes Komoot says really weird things…