A Fall Ride (on the Rothaarsteig)
Lukas and Sven set out to bikepack the Rothaarsteig, a multi-day singletrack route near their home in Germany. They returned with some great film footage to document the trip. Watch it here, plus find an additional video about their gear selection and more on the route…
PUBLISHED Nov 22, 2017
This past fall, friends Lukas and Sven completed the Rothaarsteig, a remote singletrack hiking route from Bilon to Dillenburg, Germany. They took four days to complete the track and made this nice short film along the way. Find a few photos and a second video about their choice of gear below. Further down find a map of the route with a few details about the Rothaarsteig.
This time, we made a short video about our gear as well:
- Frame Bags: Ortlieb Frame-Pack M & Frame-Pack Toptube
- Seat pack: Ortlieb Seat-pack & Seat-pack M
- Handlebar bag: Handlebar Pack, Accessory-Pack
- Shelter: Exped Solo Tarp
- Sleeping Pad: Therm-A-Rest NeoAir XLite
- Sleeping Bag: Sea To Summit Spark I
- Jacket: Mountain Equipment Compressor Hooded Jacket / Arete Hooded Jacket
- Rain Shell: Outdoor Research Helium II Jacket
- Stove: Trangia Mini
- Flask: Vargo Titanium Funnel Flask
- Spork: Snow Peak Titanium Spork
- Mug: Simple Metal Mug
- Water reservoirs: Camelbaks, 2 litre Platypus Soft Bottle
- Headlamp: Black Diamond Spot
- Pump: Crank Brothers Klic hV
- GPS: Garmin eTrex 20x
Bikepacking Rothaarsteig (Rothaar trail)
The Rothaarsteig is a ~155 kilometer hiking trail along the crest of the Rothaargebirge mountain range in Germany’s border region between the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse. For average riders, the Rothaarsteig, from Brilon to Dillenbirg, should take three days to complete (as long as you are not filming). There are some parts that are not rideable, especially within the first section on day one. When divided into three stages, I would recommend spending the first night somewhere around Winterberg. After Winterberg, there’s no resupply point, apart from a few guest houses. We we’re expecting to ride through a town with shops afterwards, so we had to take a detour as we ran out of food. There are plenty of places to refill water though.
The Rothaarsteig is first and foremost a hiking trail, but cycling it is permitted. However, please respect those hiking on it and give right of way.
Getting there is easy by taking the train.
Please keep the conversation civil, constructive, and inclusive, or your comment will be removed.
We're independent
and member-supported.
Join the Bikepacking Collective to make our work possible: