This teen backpacking adventure in France started long before the trail, as three friends planned everything themselves – from the route and equipment to food, water, and transportation.
Pictured below: a beautiful corner of Alsace discovered during this trip:
Through 15 questions, our 17-year-old takes us through the story from his perspective.
Artem’s Backpacking Journey
1. Previous experience and how it started
Before this backpacking trip, had you already traveled without adults with your friends?
– Yes, I traveled with a group of friends to a one of our friends cottage about 80km from Strasbourg. We went by train and bikes.
How did the idea of this trip come up?
– One of my friends invited us to go with him once our exams ended, in the beginning of July. He’s been going backpacking frequently for more than a year.
What made you want to do a real backpacking trip instead of just a day hike?
– I’ve always wanted to go backpacking ever since we moved to Seattle, WA.
3. Planning and preparing
Tell us how did you guys prepare:
Tents?
– We bought tents at Decathlon that were reliable and cheap, and also fit relatively well as a carry on.
Food?
– We bought all of it at a supermarket, there wasn’t anything special that we needed.
Water?
– We bought 9 liters of bottled water and divided it between us, 3 liters each. We then refilled the empty bottles at natural springs along the hike, marked with an “Eau potable” (“drinking water”) sign.
Maps/apps?
– We mostly used Organic Maps, because its good for finding trails and mapping out a trip:
Pictured below: just stepped out of the train and ready for a 2-day backpacking trip:
Route?
– My friend who does backpacking found the trail through Organic Maps.
How heavy were your backpacks at the beginning?
– They were heavy but the weight was bareable, if I had a better hiking backpack with proper back support it would have been even better. Our backpacks got significantly lighter as we drank our water, because it was by far the heaviest out of the everything we had to carry on us.
4. Getting there and setting off
How did you get to your starting point?
– We took two trains, each ride being about 40 minutes. The layover between the trains was quick, about 5 minutes:
5. Choosing when to go
What were the biggest things you had to think about before leaving?
– The biggest was the weather, as it made it difficult to decide what day to go because it was being unpredictable: the chances of rain kept going up and down, and we didn’t want to go backpacking in rain.
Pictured below: setting up for the night. The summit called “Kastelberg” and above the tents you can the see ski lift of La Bresse-Hohneck ski resort:
6. The hike
What was the hardest moment?
– The hardest was definitely hiking up the steep parts because they were long and we had a lot of weight on us.
Pictured below: trail marking:
The trail was diverse and scenic: mountains, lakes, evergreen trees:
At some points it reminded of WA: moss, fern and water:
Pictured below: an example of the High Vosges mountains (they are massively older than the nearby Alps, 350 million y.o. vs 50 million y.o.):
One of the many lakes along the way:
7. Little discoveries
What was your favorite meal?
– Definitely the blueberry pie I tried at the mountaintop restaurant. It was really flavourful and the berries were handpicked from the region we were at, which made it special:
Pictured below: another mountain restaurant, which you can only reach by foot:
On the video below: a moment that surprised us – a shepherd dog on duty:
8. Looking back
Would you do another backpacking trip? Where?
– Yes! I would like to do a backpacking trip around a lake, like a long loop-trail with lake views allover.
Pictured below: sunset before the night at the summit of Kastelberg mountain (1360m):
9. Personal favorites
Best purchase before the trip?
– Definitely the cheap decathlon tent (30 euro)! its easy to set pack up too. Its also not very heavy, it ended up being lighter than I expected:
P.S.
– Thinking about the location, it’s funny that we didn’t realize at the time that we were camping right on the border between Alsace (Haut-Rhin) and neighboring Lorraine (Vosges).
Thanks, Artem, and thanks for reading, friends!
*Next post will be about “Visiting Dubai – a teen’s perspective” or “One-week relaxing family beach vacation near Barcelona” 🤔😉
