Wooden shoes trail: Gerrit Achterberg trail – ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Wooden shoes trails are fun and always a surprise! This blog post contains a brief description of the trail (a trail shortcut 😉), a few photos and a simple sketch to illustrate. No need for a hiking map, the info on the website is clear enough.

This time, a report about the Gerrit Achterberg trail.

My experience

Usually, a wooden shoes trail is in a loop, but the Gerrit Achterberg trail is different; it is a linear trail, of about 11 kilometres. There is a trail shortcut and a trail extension, which means you can still turn it into a loop. Although, trail shortcut… The alternative trail turns out to be almost as long, which would make the loop more than 20 km. That’s too long for me, so I choose the linear hike, from Wijk bij Duurstede to Doorn.

The Gerrit Achterberg trail can be combined with another wooden shoes trail: the Overlangbroek trail, which is also a linear hike. The section in Wijk bij Duurstede to the Nieuweweg goes parallel to the Gerrit Achterberg trail.

In WbD, I start at the marina on the Nederrijn river. Here is also a transfer trail to the Engelroder trail on the other side of the Lek river. The Lek river is crossed by the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal at Wijk bij Duurstede and then becomes the Nederrijn river. I previously made a blog on the Engelroder trail.

First, I go towards to the beautiful windmill that stands on top of a city gate. What a lovely start, and I haven’t even started the trail yet. Then I walk towards Duurstede Castle and a bit through the park around the castle. Then straight through the city centre. On a wall, I come across the first mushrooms, see the sketch at the top of this blog.

The trail takes me to a park along the Kromme Rijn river, where there is a Ginkgo tree with beautiful golden yellow foliage. Then I walk along the towpath beside the Kromme Rijn river. I was hoping to find lots of mushrooms, but it’s a bit disappointing so far.

Trail guide about wooden shoe trails

I leave the Kromme Rijn river behind me and come accross the woodlands of Sandenburg Estate. Here I find all kinds of mushrooms. Every few metres I stop to take photos. You can see the most beautiful mushroom photos further on in this blog.

Then I cross the Overlangbroekseweg and walk across a small bridge and along a narrow path past the white Sandenburg Castle.

Another special feature of this path are the poems by Gerrit Achterberg. Here and there, signs along the path display a poem by this man. The path is, of course, named after him.

The last part goes along farm roads on the foothills of the Utrechtse Heuvelrug, with rows of beech and oak trees that show leaves in beautiful shades of yellow, orange and brown. I’ve been here before with the Migration birds trail when I took a wrong turn 🙈. The Migration birds trail has been modified later on and the trail now goes in the same direction. I was ahead of my time!

At the Buurtweg in Doorn, I conclude my hike by passing through a beautiful beech forest. At this point you can find a transfer trail to the Overlangbroek trail.

The photos

Final thoughts

More hikes through mushroom gems

It is so much fun to photograph mushrooms on a trail. You are guaranteed to find mushrooms in autumn on the following hikes.

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