Grand Ballon - Col Amic - Goldbach

I was working in Basel on Wednesday, and so I had an extended lunch break and went to the Vosges for a couple of hours. As it was such a nice day, I thought it would be a shame to stay low and in the woods only, so I drove up towards the Grand Ballon to see how the snow level was doing out in the open, along the Route des Cretes.



I ended up being able to ride down from as high as the Ferme Auberge du Grand Ballon; everything above here was foot-deep snow (partially helped by a couple of snow machines, I might add). I took the GR5 from here to the Col Amic, this was at first quite flat and snowy...



... and then got better and better - what a great trail; rolly, snakey, pumpy... classic Vosges.



The fun continued on an albeit slightly damper (less sun exposed) trail below the Col Amic, down towards Goldbach.



Instead of dropping into Goldbach itself I cut uphill (quite steep) to the Sapinière Auberge/Lama farm place. I then ascended back up to the Firstacker clearing on road, and from here enjoyed a fast mix of open grass and rock singletrack (very reminiscent of something in Northern England) down into Goldbach.



The climb back to the car took a little while but was most enjoyable under the virtually cloudless sky.