Kaiserslautern, Germany

Well, I scrapped the Interlacken trip because the ice is horrible. With daily temps in the 30's even nights in the low-teens can't maintain decent water ice. So with climbing out of the picture I opted to save the cash I would have blown in Switzerland and either try and get there in the next few weeks if the temps drop or just add it to my big fund for May.

I did get out in the pfalzwalds in Hohenecken and Quiedersbach for a few days though.
I left Saturday afternoon and set up camp behind Hohenecken right off the Barbarossa Wanderweg. Had a nice night and stayed warm. The next morning I hiked up to the castle ruins in a very light snow.

Then I ended up hooking up with my neighbor who was headed out camping for the night in Quiedersbach so I tagged along. The night was quite nice with a decent snow coming down and the forcast of 4 inches by morning. After some 12-year single malt and a few cups of mock-espresso I retired to my bivy with dreams of waking to a bed of white. My dreams were dashed however as I listened to the ever-increasing heaviness of the snowflakes hitting the roof of my bivy until there was no question that all traces of snow were gone... it was now pure rain.
Despite the turn of the weather I stayed warm and dry and awoke in the morning with the fresh air of the outdoors pumping through my veins. I decided to call it a day though and returned home to finish up some errands before I have to return to work next week.
I may try and get out a night or two this weekend for one last natural jolt to my system before settling back into the daily grind.

More pics from the hike...