Walk in Saint-Nicolas

Date of your route : Mar 10, 2025
Reliability of the description : ★☆☆☆☆ Very disappointing
Ease of following the route : Not used / Not applicable
Route interest : ★☆☆☆☆ Very disappointing
Very busy route : No

Avoid!
From the so-called departure point at the forge museum, you have to search for the direction.
Very poorly signposted. The signs to follow are confusing, with red, yellow and blue rings and the fox logo. Everything is mixed up and intertwined.
Direction not indicated at elevation 530. It's very steep, far from easy. Lots of tarmac and paved roads.
The Baerenkopf farm is very difficult to find. Thank you to the locals for helping us!
Do not make the mistake of climbing to Tête le Moine, Au mont le Fayé.
You'll get lost there. It's a difficult hike that goes in all directions, and instead of doing 9.69 km, we did at least 16 km trying to find our way!
And yet we are experienced hikers!

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Date of your route : May 13, 2024
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★☆ Good
Route interest : ★★★★☆ Good
Very busy route : No

At the start of the hike on the road in bright sunshine, just a small downside: we encountered a llama, horses, cows and frogs 😀

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Date of your route : Apr 21, 2022
Reliability of the description : ★★★☆☆ Average
Ease of following the route : ★★★★☆ Good
Route interest : ★★★★☆ Good
Very busy route : Yes

A lovely, easy walk. In the morning, the ponds are magnificent with their reflections. With the map, it is easy to find the route, but the start of the walk would be even more pleasant if it were signposted.

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Date of your route : Feb 27, 2022
Reliability of the description : ★★★☆☆ Average
Ease of following the route : Not used / Not applicable
Route interest : ★★★★☆ Good
Very busy route : Yes

Hello,
Point 3: Turn left onto the D51.
Point 4: Do not take the forest path marked Vieux Château and Chapelle Ste Catherine, which goes around the quarry (there may be confusion between Chapelle de St Nicolas and Chapelle de Catherine). You will need to walk about 20 metres further to find the pretty path that runs parallel to the road.
Having set off with only the description and no map, we turned back after a good kilometre on the forest road.
Now I can take my group there.

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Date of your route : Jun 28, 2020
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★☆ Good
Very busy route : No

A nice little hike with the children 😊 Regarding the farm dogs, yes, they are let loose, but no, they are not aggressive! We walked past them without paying any attention to them and had no problems. They see lots of hikers passing by, so I think they're used to it! Let's stop stigmatising all dogs 🤔
It's a shame to have to be on the main road, but hey, it's only 700 metres, it didn't kill us.
For us, it was nice 😊

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Date of your route : May 17, 2020
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Ease of following the route : ★★★☆☆ Average
Route interest : ★★★★☆ Good
Very busy route : Yes

After the 530 mark towards BAERENKOPF, the path leads to a farm that you have to cross, but a huge red sign saying "beware of the dog" does not encourage you to go through the farm! However, a pretty shaded path
descends to the left into the forest 50 metres before this farm and passes well below it to reach the ponds indicated.
Furthermore, after the last pond and at the start of the tarmac road, a path on the left marked ST NICOLAS 700m allows you to avoid the road that leads to Rougemont le Chateau and climbs through the woods...
I set off without a map or GPS.
Apart from crossing Etueffont at the start, I didn't have to walk on any roads!

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Date of your route : Aug 25, 2019
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★☆ Good
Route interest : ★★★★☆ Good

Be careful at point 4... The grassy path running alongside the road is not very visible.
Do not take the stony path.
We ended up taking a long detour because we never crossed the road again. ...

I've just read the comments. ... I should have done that before setting off... we wouldn't have had to take that detour. ..

Still, it was a lovely walk. ... Thank you.

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Hello,

Thank you for taking the time to give your opinion.

By "route on map", we mean assessing how accurately the route shown on the map corresponds to the actual terrain.
Did the route cause any problems?
Did you follow the route with a GPS?
Was there any discrepancy between the route and the actual hike?

Kind regards

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Date of your route : Mar 28, 2019
Reliability of the description : ★★☆☆☆ Disappointing
Ease of following the route : ★★☆☆☆ Disappointing
Route interest : ★★★★☆ Good

Hello.
This beautiful walk is not signposted, which meant we took a few detours! At the start, it would make more sense to write that you should head towards Mont Bonnet or Rue de la Chayère rather than the place name.
At point 3, you should take the D51 for about 750 metres, not 300 metres.
At point 4, there's a problem! You must not head towards the Vieux Château site and turn right, because you will inevitably find yourself on a path, albeit a very pleasant one, that climbs up to the Chapelle Ste Catherine... In short, we ended up in Plainot, a long way from St Nicolas. So we went back down and simply followed the D51, which leads to St Nicolas! The result was that we walked 16 km instead of the planned 9.69 km! We were a little tired but nevertheless happy with this beautiful walk in the Vosges and with ourselves too!
See you next time for more adventures!

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Date of your route : Sep 24, 2018
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★☆ Good
Route interest : ★★★☆☆ Average

Too much tarmac. A bit boring.

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Date of your route : Jun 27, 2018
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★☆ Good
Route interest : ★★★☆☆ Average

Too many busy roads

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Date of your route : Apr 22, 2018
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good

A very pleasant hike through varied landscapes.

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This hike should really be considered a short but very pleasant walk at the end of winter. It is difficult to avoid the 'tarmac roads' in this area without significantly lengthening the route.

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At point 7 on the farm, there are indeed dogs. When I passed by, they were tied up or accompanied. But it is quite possible that this is not always the case... but what can you do? Unfortunately, this is a fairly common risk on many country walks.

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At point 4, there is a path on the right (not on the left) that runs almost parallel to the road, which climbs but then descends gently, allowing you to avoid about 1 km of tarmac.

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