Anyone who likes to go for a gravel ride at the Dortmund-Ems-Kanal should absolutely not do it on a weekend. The path along the water is just too narrow to share it with pedestrians, dog walker, fishermen, runners, other cyclists and still have fun while riding bicycles.
So it was just a logical decision to go for a ride on a wednesday noon and it paid off.
I almost got the entire path for myself and was able to ride flat out for miles and miles. The temperatures were lower than I thought, lower than the thermometer at home indicated, but once I showed up at the channel, it was too late to turn back anyway.

There was almost no wind at all on that day, which delivered an incredible view all along the channel. When there’s no wind, and no ships or boats cross your way, the water gets so quiet, that it works just like a mirror.
Everything at the side of the channel is shown upside down on the surface of the water. That was absolutely incredible.
I even came across a rather large group of geese, that couldn’t believe their eyes either…

The path along the channel is made for an easy gravel ride, but there are always things to be seen or discovered. It connects the harbor in Dortmund to the larger rivers and water higways in this area, so there’s a lot of industry along the channel, new and old ones, most of them rusted, some of them abandoned. This makes the path along the channel to a perfect place to get some decent pictures with a great setting.

I already planned a longer ride from Dortmund to the old floodgate in Henrichenburg and back along other rivers, which should be a cool ride. However, I’m definitely going to wait for temperatures above 5°C for sure …

-Dennis