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East Cantons
Page created 19th September 2011, and last updated 12th April 2011
Sankt-Vith, Schönberg
The (German-speaking) East Cantons are situated in the Liège province of Belgium, in its southeasternmost corner, roughly in between the A27 highway (running south from the city of Vervies), and the German and Luxemburg border
Trail setup
Green is easy, yellow is average and orange is difficult.
A paper map is available, but the tourist office also provides everything electronically here, including GPS files! FANTASTIC!! Few communes are this generous!!
Most trails (each trail with its proper colour) are best seen on the www.mtbroutes.be site.
Notes
Bike Park Ferme Libert (Ovifat, Waimes).
The Spa-Francorchamps Formula 1 track is within driveable distance in the west, for the case that it decides to host another UCI event on its grounds ..
A one-way downhill trail starting from Baraque Michel (close to Belgium's highest point, Signal de Botrange) and ending in Malmedy.
Interconnecting trails
This trail crosses trail number 3 (red) and overlaps a lengthy distance with trail number 2 (blue) (in the opposite direction) of Malmedy.
Notes
A downhill trail, but with a hill factor of 24.2? It does not make sense to me. And, in the description in their brochure it says "especially suited for kids". Hmmm ...
Map and signage
See at the top of this page for maps. Signage on trail number 3 was in September 2011 very good!
Interconnecting trails
In the northwest, trail number 1 interconnects with trail number 3 (red) of Sankt-Vith.
Trail number 3, at its southmost point, goes through village of Ouren. From here it is only some 2 kilometres south to reach the northernmost part of trail number 2 of Lieler (country of Luxemburg).
Notes
I was here in September 2011, curious in particular about trail number 3. In the south the trail negotiates a narrow piece of Belgian land in between the countries of Luxemburg and Germany; it touches the border of the former, and enters the latter. Impressions? Nothing seriously technical; one or two steep climbs, but in between quite mellow (and wide) riding. While claimed to have a hill factor of 23.4 (750hm/32km), *my* gps only showed 30.51 kilometres and 587 height metres, and thus a disappointing hill factor of 19.2. See my full blog post here.
Here are a couple of pictures.
Blue trail loops all by itself in the north. Red trail loops south. Green trail looks like a short-short version of red trail; the two trails overlap half of the distance of green trail.
Interconnecting trails
Blue trail seems to loop very close to the easternmost part of the red trail of Malmedy. The part of green and red trail that overlap seems to run very close to blue trail of Ondenval. In the south, the trail system of Schönberg is within a (driveable) distance.
Trail number 1 goes south (anti-clockwise), blue north (anti-clockwise), red northeast (clockwise). They are maybe best featured on www.mtbroutes.be.
Official starting point is the same for all trails; they are easily combined with each other with hardly any overlappings. yehaw Trail number 3 crosses trail number 2 once, and in the north the two trails overlap for a lengthy distance (in opposite directions).
Interconnecting trails
Southeast of Malmedy you have the trail system of Ondenval within a possibly bikeable distance from the southeastern corner of trail number 3. The easternmost part of the trail number 3 seems to loop quite close to the blue loop of Bütgenbach. The downhill trail of Baraque-Michel crosses trail number 3 in the northeast, from which point it overlaps the first third of trail number 2 (in opposite directions).
Notes
Trail number 3 is described to have 500 meters of climbing in the first 16 km, but after that it is less dramatic. Hmm ... elevation profile looks great, but .. 70 per cent tarmac???
Trails start from the church of Ondenval. There is a big map.
Trail number 1 goes northwest (anticlockwise), trail number 2 northeast (clockwise), and trail number 3 southwest (turning back by the A27 highway) (anticlockwise).
The three trails overlap naturally around the starting point. Trails number 2 and 3 finish a lengthy section together.
Interconnecting trails
You have the Spa trail system just within a short (possibly driveable) distance, northwest of Malmedy. The easternmost part of trail number 2 (blue) seems to run very close to trails number 3 (red) and number 1 (green) of Bütgenbach. Trail number 3 seems to overlap in the southwest with trail number 3 (red) of Sankt-Vith.
Notes
I rode trail number 3 in August 2011. Lots of climbing, in places very steep. Plenty of rooty, bumpy and/or singletrack sections. The area around the highway in the southwest is mainly wide forest track and pretty boring. In overall, nevertheless, a quite strenuous loop: I found myself welcoming the little tarmac there was, for a quick breather.
Trail number 4 loop trails north, trail number 3 seems to start with a lengthy double-back section before looping in the south. Trail number 2 goes east, but at least one third of its distance around the starting point it takes turn on overlapping trails number 3 and 4. Trail number 1 overlaps at least one third of its distance with trail number 2, and also a large chunk with trail number 4.
Interconnecting trails
Trail number 4 seems to overlap in the northeast with trail number 3 (red) of Ondenval. In the south, the trail system of Burg-Reuland is within a (driveable) distance. Red trail might loop close to its green trail.
Official starting point is Wingerscheid 1, 4782 SchÖnberg.
Two trails. Green starts out with a double-back section. To the most part it seems to overlap a lot with the southernmost part of red trail.
