Fall mountains

Sage and I picked Beth up at Schiphol airport on her way back from New York last Friday and headed down to the Ardennes Mountains in Belgium for a long weekend. The trip started out a little rough when we got stuck in massive traffic jam in Maastricht and then took a wrong turn in Luik and ended up downtown at the height of rush hour - what a nightmare! Luik (or Liege for you French speakers) is a rats nest of poorly signed tunnels and bridges and traffic circles. When I finally stopped and asked for directions, it took a French truck driver and a Belgium college student to figure out how to get where we needed to go. I spoke Dutch with her, she translated to French for the truck driver, then gave me his response back in Dutch. Yikes! But we made it…

It is amazing how quickly the congestion of civilization dissolves once you get outside of Luik. By the time that we were pulling into our holiday rental on the outskirts of the microscopic village of Harre, we were both smiling again. Here are some pictures from the trip.






We stayed in this old water mill that has been converted to a guesthouse. It’s right on the edge of a large forest and we could hike right out the back door.































A beautiful open hearth fireplace added to the ambiance. Dogs are allowed…but probably not up on the leather couch.



















The medieval village of Durbuy. A bit touristic, but worth a visit. You can see the float trip going down the river. Maybe we’ll bring the kayaks next time.





















The town of Stavelot is famous for some funky parade that they have every year where people dress up in white sheets and hoods and put on these gross long red noses. If you ask me, it looks a little creepy. The town is also the site of some of the worst Nazi atrocities during the Battle of the Buldge. The war memorial near the demolished monastery says that the US forces that fought here were from Fort Meade, Maryland. My uncle Joe was from Maryland and fought in the Battle of the Buldge. Does anyone from my family know if this is where he was stationed?






On the trail.















Wild Boars!










We had a pretty incredible experience out on the mountain one evening. We were walking off-trail along a small creek bed through a thick pine woods. It was getting a bit dark under the canopy when we heard a low rumble in the woods behind us. Sage went on full alert and Beth and I craned our necks expecting to see some deer.

It took me a minute to figure out what was ripping through the woods toward us. At first I thought that it was a pack of dogs, but as they got closer I recognized them. A herd of wild boar! Big, black, ugly fuckers. I don’t know much about these things, but I’ve heard stories of them killing dogs, so I grabbed Sage and we all stood as still and quietly as possible.

They must have caught wind of us because the main herd veered up the hill about 40 yards away from us. But a huge male, maybe a couple of hundred pounds, with big freaking tusks dropped below the rest of the herd and made what felt like a warning pass at us. He swung within 20 yards before bolting up the hill with the rest of them.

It was one of the coolest things that I have ever experienced out in the woods. Sage was completely freaked out and jumped at even the slightest sounds for the next three days.

We didn’t see them again for the rest of the trip, but we heard them every night out in the fields on the edge of the woods. It’s breeding season in the Ardennes and these things are horny little suckers. I had to wear earplugs one night it got so loud.




















We stumbled across this mud hole the next day. You can see the mud caked onto the sides of the trees where the boar rub after rolling in it.

Maybe next year I’ll come down when it’s open season…