Hiking near Hagen!

It was some months ago that I found out that Hagen was actually inside the VRR region, which allowed me to create quite some hiking trails in that region. Today’s one was what I did when I had a monthly ticket, but by cycling. It wasn’t particularly warm at that time, but certainly warmer than today, because today, it was surprisingly just as cold as a couple of weeks ago when allegedly the wind from Siberia attacked Europe. Just as on that day, the weather was good (even if it was not perfectly sunny today), although it was snowing this morning.

Today, there were three people coming from my institute. All of them experimentalist. Indeed the hikes have always been meant to be couch surfing events, but I always hoped it would be also a place for my coworkers from different departments to meet, because there’s very little communication between the departments. Maybe this is going to be the beginning.

Hagen being not quite nearby, we had to travel for more than one hour to get to the starting point. Just as a couple of weeks ago when we were in Hagen for the first time, we changed trains at the central station and took the line that goes slowly towards the south. It’s one of those really local lines which usually only locals appreciate. We do, too.

Right after the train station, we climbed up a hill which couldn’t be seen in the Düsseldorf area. Even though it was just Hagen, it was a great view over the city from the top of the hill. The trail up to break was continuous up and down. It was visibly strenuous to those who were there for the first time.

Today, there were couple of people who did not manage to join us at the beginning due to transport delay, one of whom was Sebastian, who started joining us recently. Somehow he and some other people managed to overtake us and were waiting in the restaurant where we had a break. There I found out that Sebastian was planning a long hiking trip with Jan, who was there only once in Gevelsberg (cf. this article). It was also the first time for Sebastian and they met each other there. Apparently they understood each other so well on that day that they decided to plan a trip together. It’s always so mind boggling that people meet during the hikes and become really close friends.

The trail after the break was less hilly. Some people believed I did it intentionally. It’s not true at all since I don’t check the altitude beforehand and for this one I really didn’t know anymore what it was like when I was there last time.

After the hike, we went to the place called Die Spinne, which was essentially a bar. I had a long discussion about future hikes with Thomas, who comes from this region and is a fervent hiker. We talked about a possibility of kayaking in the Ruhr. So this is probably going to happen in the near future. Please look forward to it!

Today’s trail can be downloaded from this link (kml-format) or this link (gpx-format)