Karlshöher via Friedrichweg

Beautiful climb through the Aachener Wald. Largely unpaved, which makes this climb not really suitable for road bikes, especially in wet conditions. In my opinion, the gravel bike was created for this climb. In the first forest section, beautiful views of Aachen.

Yes it is gravel but the vast majority is perfectly rideable (hard and quite fine-grained) and the climb winds through beautiful scenery. From the built-up area, it rises relaxed along the railway (with some flatter sections). Where the asphalt road turns left, go straight ahead into the gravel road where it immediately goes up nicely. Here the gravel is a bit coarser but doable although I wouldn't go into it fully with thin tyres. After the barrier, the excellent gravel comes as described and it stays that way until you reach asphalt again. The road swings quite a bit and there are lots of side roads but you just have to follow the "curve" to stay on the route. This section starts out flat (and sometimes even descending) but further on it goes up and keeps doing so until the summit. Every now and then bits of hollow road and parts along quite steep slopes. A beautiful route. A hairpin bend brings you back to asphalt and further on you turn sharp left to the summit.
Tip: If you go straight ahead at the last turn into the excellent and almost flat gravel road (after all, you've already ridden on gravel), you'll pass a tank barrier and a bit further on you'll enter Belgium (here the road gets a bit less but remains OK). At the next junction (with road cross) you can turn right, a slightly descending tarmac road to the Vaalserberg (just before the three countries point a few metres of bad road surface).

Initially gentle gradients over good tarmac, as you enter the forest the gradients become more difficult and the tarmac turns into a poor gravel path. In the flat section of the climb, however, the gravel path becomes very good. In the final section, you climb the last few metres on good asphalt. At the beginning, there are still a few views over the region, but by the middle section at the latest, it is only through a dense forest. Nevertheless, it is a very nice climb.

Due to a road closure, we were forced to discover this gravel climb, but very grateful for it. Wonderful cycling, even with only 25mm tyres. The road winds very nicely through a green and shady forest , highly recommended for anyone in this region who is not afraid of a bit of gravel.