Adventurous Westhertogenwald

We combine a wooded promenade with the banks of the Gileppe reservoir. Good for a part of adventure. Do not try to go through Verviers and the Gileppe dam (1) to the starting point. It's worth a detour, but keep that in mind later, because from there you'll be desperately stuck on closed roads. Drive to Eupen and choose the N68 towards St.-Vith, Malmedy and Baraque Michel. Seven kilometres further on, there is a right lane in a bend. A wooden sign will direct you to the Rendez-vous du Chêne de l'Arboretum. You take this job and leave the first parking spaces at the Artboretum (2) – with an extra t – for what they are, unless you want to take the 850-metre-long walking path along old trees and wooden artistic constructions. Drive another mile until you reach a five-pointer. There is the starting point, the Croix Grisard (V) (3) in Hestreux. Five hundred meters further, you can park your car in a small parking lot, to the right of the asphalt. • On the stone cross in honor of Theodore Grisard, a sign indicates that Theo was a forester in the service of the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa. Grisard was murdered here in 1750 by two disbelievers from Jalhay. A year later, the duo was unceremoniously rolled on the market square in Limburg. • With your back to the cross, cross the asphalt and take the wide pebble path in front of you, marked with a yellow rectangle. Beyond the barrier, the path descends gently among the conifers. Further on, the pebbles turn into a forest path and you descend steeper through a mixed forest. Cross the paved road and descend to the shore of Lake Gileppe along a narrow forest path. Left. • At high tide, you have to go up 200 meters further and follow the asphalt (full line on the map) to the bridge over the Gileppe. At low tide you can follow the shore on a long path (dotted line on the map), which is the most beautiful route. If you're lucky, just follow the trail of hikers and mountain bikers. You pass the rocks at Trou Malbrouck (4) near the water and walk all the way, passing in front of the lake water where, on the right, the Gileppe winds away from you. You will automatically arrive at a path that crosses a mixed riparian forest with beech, birch, oak and coniferous trees. Just before the asphalt you see a shelter (5), a few meters further right a bridge over the Gileppe. A sign says you can camp wild here for one night, if you leave everything tidy and watch out for the fire. • If you chose asphalt, walk left before the bridge. If you walk along the shore of the lake, you walk straight, uphill on the asphalt. To your right is still the Gileppe, but it soon disappears from view. Apart from a few mountain bikers, hikers and only one forester by car, it remains quiet here. After two kilometers of asphalt, the path goes up and down, you arrive at the Ruisseau des Huttes, a stream on the left of the road. Next to it is a tree with a brown plot plate W 115 Hertogenwald. Be careful now! 70 meters further, an almost dense cart track leads left into the forest near a tree with a gray-green W14 paint on the trunk. Take this path. Even if sometimes you don't recognize it anymore, keep walking straight. Do not deviate to the right, there it can become soggy. After 600 meters, you find yourself on a gravel path. You walk to the left. • In a right turn, you come to a T. Take the gravel road right to left. At a fork in the road, follow the main road to the right. It remains easy and flat to walk here. Only where the pebble turns into a narrower dirt forest road does it descend. To the left and right are funnels installed in the forest and nets of gauze. An experiment or facility for the study of forest and precipitation. • You arrive at a dirt road, the old Route de l'Asse Hé that you go up on the right. Just before the N68, turn abruptly left onto the asphalt of the Old Road of Trou Malbrouck. A little less than two kilometers further, you return to the cross of Théodore Grisard. • If you still have time, make a detour to the Gileppe Dam for a panorama of the lake and a tour of the dam.