Escapardenne Lee Trail in October: slippery slate, a storm and a safety net

Escapardenne Lee Trail place Luxembourg Ardennes, Luxembourg calendar_today 21–23 October 2026 schedule 3 days

Ray Kootstra

Founder of HikeLoad · long-distance hiker

Practical notes from the trail

Route: Planned stages: Ettelbruck to Buurschter-Millen (18 km), Buurschter-Millen to Goebelsmühle (14 km) and Goebelsmühle to Kautenbach (20.5 km). On day three I took the lower variant instead of the high pass, so that day ended up shorter. My plan continued to Clervaux; I stopped at Kautenbach.
Getting there: Trains within Luxembourg are free. I parked at Clervaux station, took the train to the start in Ettelbruck, and at the end took the train from Kautenbach back to my car. The trail runs roughly parallel to the railway, past quite a few villages with a station, so stopping early is easy.
Where I slept: Camping du Moulin in Buurschter-Millen (tent; the staff speak fluent Dutch), Camping du Nord in Goebelsmühle (upgraded to a heated log cabin) and Camping Kautenbach (upgraded to a wooden pod by email that morning).
Terrain: Steep climbs, with 500 m up and 500 m down at the end of day one, and paths about 30 cm wide along drops. Slate, leaves and mud made them really slippery.
Gear that mattered: Trekking poles: without them I think I would have given up. My rain gear and Meindl Island MFS Active Gore-Tex boots kept me bone dry underneath. The Helinox Ground Chair was dead weight: it got dark too early to use it.
When I went: 21–23 October 2026: rain and hard wind, worst of all on day three. My conclusion: do multi-day hikes like this between May and September.

I was supposed to walk this trail in May 2025. Instead, I was lying in a hospital bed.

An aggressive strep infection had got into my thumb, and part of it had to be amputated. So when I finally stood at the start in Ettelbruck on 21 October 2026, nearly a year and a half later than planned, there was mostly one feeling: I couldn't wait to get going.

Why the Escapardenne Lee Trail

At first, the choice was practical. Luxembourg is only a three-hour drive away, and trains within the country are free. That meant I could leave my car at the end of the route, at Clervaux station, and take the train to my start in Ettelbruck. The trail runs more or less parallel to the railway, and you pass quite a few villages with a station. If for whatever reason it stopped being fun, or stopped being doable, I could simply take the train back to my car halfway.

And I already knew I liked it there. I used to walk a lot around Echternach, and I loved that landscape: all those rocks, everything so green. So it was going to be Luxembourg, and the Escapardenne Lee Trail.

Want the route itself? I planned this hike day by day on HikeLoad — you can see my actual Escapardenne Lee Trail plan here, including my full gear list. It shows the whole plan, on to Clervaux. What actually happened is below.

Day one: a gentle start and a brutal finish

You start at the statue of General Patton in Ettelbruck. The first part isn't hard at all, which made it lovely, and the views were beautiful. Mostly, I was just really up for it.

Then, after about sixteen kilometres, came the sting in the tail: 500 metres up and 500 metres down.

It was killing. I was already pretty spent, and the climb was super steep and really slippery with leaves and mud. It was so hard that I had to stop and recover after every 50 metres of climbing. My heart rate hit 190, every single time. I genuinely thought I wasn't going to make it.

Quitting never crossed my mind, though. What kept me moving was the thought of lying in my tent soon, with all the time in the world to recover. It was only the first day, and I wanted to enjoy this. So I kept going.

To my surprise, the people at Camping du Moulin in Buurschter-Millen spoke fluent Dutch, and they were super friendly. I checked in, pitched my Durston X-Dome 1+, had a lovely shower and went to get myself a beer at the campsite bar.

I had also made a dumb mistake. I'd brought my Helinox Ground Chair to make myself comfortable at the tent, but it got dark so early that it was no use to me the entire trip. Dinner was a REAL Turmat kebab meal, and it was delicious. At 19:30 I was asleep. Completely done.

I slept well. Around five my legs ached for a while, but I drifted off again. At seven I got up, showered, had Upfront chocolate oats for breakfast, packed everything and started walking.

Day two: thirty centimetres of slate

Day two was calmer. But it had something in store that I hadn't expected at all.

High up on the mountainside, the paths cling to the slope, and they are only about 30 centimetres wide. The slate, the leaves and the mud made them really slippery, and right next to the path is the drop. Honestly, I found it pretty scary. I hadn't seen it coming.

My trekking poles got me through. Without them I think I would have given up. On this trail, in these conditions, you really need them. Sometimes I had to grab hold of a tree, and sometimes I just took my time.

Day two also brought a food discovery. Someone at Bever, the Dutch outdoor shop, had recommended a Tactical Foodpack Arrabiata Pasta with Chicken. I normally always go for REAL Turmat, but this was seriously tasty. I'd buy it more often.

The weather, though, had become miserable: rain and hard wind. I was so cold that I thought I would get properly ill otherwise, so at Camping du Nord in Goebelsmühle I upgraded my tent pitch to a log cabin with heating, a kitchen and a toilet. Parked outside reception was a Thai food cart, so I ordered Thai to eat that evening. That was a moment to savour.

Day three: the storm

Friday was the worst day of all for rain and wind. In the Netherlands, Belgium and France there was even a storm.

Before I set off that morning, I had already emailed Camping Kautenbach to ask whether I could upgrade to a cabin there too. The answer came quickly: upgraded. It turned out I needed it.

I skipped the high pass and took the lower variant. Narrow, slippery paths with that much rain and quite strong wind: I found the high route too dangerous, and I didn't want to risk sliding off the mountain. The lower route was still pretty tricky, but not as bad as the very high one.

Honestly, by the time I got to Kautenbach I was a bit done with it. I reached the campsite at 13:00, soaked on the outside and very cold. Check-in was normally at 15:00, but they let me straight into my wooden pod, which was wonderful. I showered right away and walked to the bistro for fries and a snack, a little energy and morale boost. It was heavenly.

One thing that worked brilliantly through all of it was my rain gear. Underneath it, my clothes stayed bone dry, and so did my Meindl Island MFS Active Gore-Tex boots. Everything I carried is in the gear list in my shared plan.

In three days I didn't meet a single other hiker on the trail itself. Only day-trippers, and not many of those either. The weather was bad.

Using my safety net

My plan went on to Clervaux. I didn't walk that part. I had enjoyed it, a bit, but with the terrible weather and the paths that were honestly quite dangerous, I was done sooner than I'd planned. My car was at Clervaux station anyway. So on Saturday morning I walked to Kautenbach station, took the train to Clervaux and drove home.

The failsafe I'd planned for, I actually used. Knowing I could stop safely, and earlier, was a really good feeling.

It was one of the reasons I had picked this trail in the first place.

What I took home

A week later, my conclusion is clear: I do multi-day hikes between May and September, and not outside that anymore. After that it's simply too wet and too cold.

But the area itself was really beautiful. Someday I'd like to go back in a better season and take the lower paths. The landscape was just superb.

I waited nearly a year and a half to walk this trail. I walked three of my five planned days, stopped safely when I'd had enough, and came home wanting to go back.