Extratrail Series #1: Stoumont

 

My oldest son, Florian, used his time during lockdown this year to start trail running.  We've already been to one race with him in the Belgian Ardennes as his support team, and while he was running we got a short hike in, making sure we were back at the finish line around the time we thought he was going to come in.  It was a great day and the three of us really enjoyed spending time together as well as running and hiking.

Recently, looking for trails to run to train for some upcoming races, he discovered a really cool concept around the city of Spa: Extratrail.  In Spa and each of six neighboring towns, there are four trails of increasing distance and difficult that start and end at a common central location.  All the trails are really well marked and easy to follow and are intended for trail runners, nordic walkers and hikers.  Additionally, there are linking trails that connect the trails in one town with the trails in the next town and it is even possible to do an entire loop of 157 km!

Florian asked us if we'd be interested in joining him for the trails in Stoumont this past weekend.  Stefaan and I decided to give it a go and try out hiking the green route (7 km), while Florian would run the blue route (14 km) figuring that our times would be similar enough that whoever got in first wouldn't have to wait too long at the car.  

The drive out to Stoumont on a Sunday morning took about an hour and was relaxed.  The weather report was good.  We found the Tourist Office in Stoumont easily and parked the car.  The Tourist Office here is closed on Sunday but there was a little bakery/café open just down the road in case we needed the loo or a hot drink.  It was cold to start out so we were eager to get moving and warm up - Florian was off pretty quickly and Stefaan and I followed, at our much slower pace and directly uphill and into a forest, as we passed a big group of people who were out on a mushroom picking tour! 

 

The route was varied and at times challenging (forest, field, ravine, steep inclines and declines, including some pulling ourselves up on rocks which reminded me of our hikes in Norway) and really pretty with the fall sunlight coming through the trees.  There were several points where we crossed over or walked along little gurgling streams and baby waterfalls, which was wonderful to listen to.  The end of the hike wound us back up from the Amblève River valley into the village of Stoumont, another steep climb but with this breathtaking view as a reward at the end:

It took us about 2 hours to hike the green route and Florian finished the blue one about 15 minutes before us.  An bonus to the way the trails were laid out, was that we bumped into Florian twice along the way - once when his trail crossed ours, which was totally unexpected - we stopped for a minute or two and compared notes about how it was going so far - and a second time towards the end, where all the trails have merged again on the same path, when he caught up to and passed us.  When we got back to the car, he was waiting for us and had already freshened up!

We were all really happy with our first experience of Extratrail hiking/running and on the way back we decided we'd like to try the other six towns' trails as well - and I immediately thought it would be fun to blog about the series. So this is the first in hopefully a series of seven.