Yesterday I went on a half marathon long hike through the hills of Germany.

I was hiking on the red trail that winds around the hills of Jena, Germany. In the picture above you can see that I am 2.5 km from Lobeda West where I started and 18.5 km from Lobdeburg which was my destination. This equals up to 21 km. A half marathon is 21.1 km, but with little detours on the trail I more than surpassed this distance.

Much of the trail was narrow and followed the curve of the hills. It had rained for several days so the trail was not always in the best of shape. However, it was a beautiful hike.

There were also some beautiful vistas like this view down the Saale River valley.

I walked through many different types of woods, including sections like this with beautiful tall trees. Even walking through a relatively flat section like this was sometimes treacherous because of roots across the path.

Of course, since it is fall the woods had a lot of beautiful color. Sections of trail like this really slowed me down as I just had to stop and take pictures.

The 13+ mile hike took a little more than 5 hours to complete because of the rugged terrain and taking time to stop and take 100’s of pictures.

Here I am almost at my destination. You can see that there are several trails that come together at this spot.

Over the last 15 years I have made a complete circuit around Jena on the red trail. The total trail length is 100 km. Each year they have a special event where people attempt to complete the entire trail in 24 hours.

See: Lankstreckenwanderung

I have written two other blog posts about my adventures on the red trail. One section of the trail was completed after a heavy snow storm. See: Wandering in the Snow

Last year the section I completed was chronicled in A Long Walk in the German Countryside.

At the end of the trail at Lobdeburg I was greeted with a beautiful sunset.

I then walked a bit further down the trail to the Lobdeburgklause for a nice dinner to celebrate the completion of a long journey.

Of course, my hike was not yet over. I then had to walk almost another mile to the nearest Straßenbahn station.

Overall I took more than 33,000 steps yesterday.

My legs are a bit sore today 🙂

Steven