Perlenbach valley and wild daffodils - Narzissen 30 km

This great hike through the Perlenbach and Schwalmbach valleys takes you along beautiful wild stream valleys, forests, pasture, Eifel views including the Matterhorn of the Eifel, and if you go in the first half of April, along endless fields of wild daffodils (Narzissen). Wild daffodils cover forest floors and pasture around meandering streams between March and May with peaks in April. See the website http://www.weisserstein.info/pgs/prog_narzissenbluete.php (in German) and http://www.trekkings.be/lentewandelingen.htm (in Dutch) for actual information on when the flowers are blossoming. Part of this hike is in Belgium and restricted on some days when there is military training. See https://www.mil.be/nl/eenheden/kamp-elsenborn (in Dutch, but also German and French in other places of the www.mil.be website) for detailed information on when the Belgian part of this hike is off-limits (dates and times). You enter the red zone of the Elsenborn military camp. Usually, the red zone is open in the weekend, but check the website or the big signs when entering the zone. The Perlenbach streams from the confluence of the Fokkesbach and the Schwalmbach below Bieley to where it streams into the Rur river at Dreistegen. You follow this entire stretch on this route plus part of the Schwalmbach, Fuhrtsbach and Krockesbach. There are no restaurants along the way. There used to be a restaurant at Höfener Mühle, but this seemed permanently closed. Apart from two steeper stretches near Bieley and Engelsley, the tracks are quite easy to follow. It can be quite busy when the daffodils are out upstream of Höfener Mühle, so it is recommended to start early
The hike starts at the Perlenbach reservoir dam, where there is parking along the road. You cross the dam, and walk along the reservoir and the river on a forest road to the Höfener Mühle at the Kalterherberg-Höfen road. You cross the road and walk on a small trail to a bridge on the Fuhrtsbach at Holländerhäuschen. Before the bridge you take the trail which follows the Fuhrtsbach valley and walk this trail to the Sprengbunker, part of the former Westwall. Here you cross the stream, and continue on the other side on a forest road, passing by several meadows with daffodils until you get to the Heistertweg. Here you climb slowly into the forest and the descend to Jägersief, where you find other meadows on the Belgian border. At the turn in the road marked with waypoint ‘Narzissenwiese 2’, the number of daffodils exploded. Shortly after you cross the border across a small stream. A large sign warns you for the military training area, and actual schedules are posted. You climb the Galgenberg and continue to the rocky outcrop ‘Bieley’, also labeled the Matterhorn of the Eifel. Although this is a stretch of the imagination, it is a great viewpoint, with the Perlenbach and Schwalmbach below between meadows full of daffodils. From here, there is a sharp descent to the valley floor, and you continue along the Schwalmbach, past the cross at Jajesnica-Kreuz, until you get to a paved forest road. Where the forest road crosses the bridge, there are severe signs warning you off Elsenborn shooting range. You do not cross this bridge, but follow the road up the hill, turn left and descend to the Krockesbach valley, which you follow back to the Jajesnica-Kreuz. Here you go back to the foot of Bieley and then on along the Perlenbach. Beavers have created a lake here, and there are a lot of daffodils in the meadows surrounding the river. You cross back into Germany, and then follow broad forest roads along the Perlenbach back to Holländerhäuschen, and then the trail back to Höfener Mühle. Here, you cross the river and climb to pasture above the woods ‘An der Schwalm’. A bit later you descend on a slowly disappearing forest track towards the Perlenbach reservoir which you follow to the Römerbach. Again you climb to higher pasture with Eifel views surrounding the farm Roderhof. A bit further you descend to Dreistegen, where the Perlenbach flows into the Rur. Close to Dreistegen you cross the Perlenbach and then steeply ascend to the rocky outcrop at Engelsley. You take a look at the other rocky outcrop Teufelsley, and then return and then walk towards Perlenau past another viewpoint. You descend quite steep towards the valley floor at the campsite and follow the Perlenbach to the reservoir dam, where you started.