Feic, how I needed to get outside. But sometimes it´s hard to get your lame butt off the couch, as many of us know... so I was a bit late for a hike. So I originally had decided to cancel everything altogether and just call it a day, until I realized two things: I have a mountainbike, and I am an avid mountainbike rider. I tend to forget it these days, what with all the stress going on even for the simplest everyday things and a load of other stuff I am doing. I often forget to tend to myself over caring for others. So I had a laugh at my own stupidity and packed some water and grabbed some grub, and off I was for the hills, and the sun was shining oh so bright...
I brought my phone, of course. I always do. There´s a first aid pack in my backpack, and the cellphone sits right in there, for you can never know. And I know I SHOULD have turned it off, but with the organization of a big and cool event we are planning going on, I thought, yap, better safe than sorry, and left it on.
Bummer.
I received some 57 calls from people who wanted to attend the event we are organizing, and roundabout 30 of them were about who does not like whom and why this and that one deserve more attention than the other f***er who also wants to come. I don´t know what people are up to at the moment, but if I have to work as a children´s caretaker, I´d love to get paid as one. At least, but turns out, it´s more of a psychologist´s work, and I´d love to get paid THAT much.
And the rest of the calls were from people who wanted to know things they already knew but were too lazy to look them up in their email account. In fact, most of them told me they were too lazy, and that it would be my obligation to inform them, because they would want me to, for they were so important I could not do without them, implying the fact that I would not get them if I did not do the full-on-wellness-package. I had a not very polite and quite corny reply for them, and then I did the only thing that is sensible to do on a Snufkin day: I turned off the phone. There is a message hidden somewhere inside this rant, and I daresay one can find it quite easily... ;-)
That said and done, I was able to finish the lame ride on the lane to head to the hills, still on a road, but it was fair enough with very little traffic.
Roe deer were grazing calmly beside the road... and it was absolutely hilarious, what their expression was, when I took out the camera, just like "what´s that guy over up to? Girls, look pretty, he´s taking photos!". I simply smiled....
Beside the road there was the constant murmuring of creeks and tiny waterfalls even. Some few birds were singing, and apart from a rare occasion, when a car passed, there was no other sound than the gentle rustle of the wind in the trees...
Then I was passing the "Brenscheider Ölmühle", an old oil seed mill dating back to the 18th century and closed down in 1950 or so. It is a really cool place with a garden overflowing with the colours of wild flowers.
There also was a signpost with a plaque on it with a poem by Christian Morgenstern:
http://christian-morgenstern.de/dcma/index.php?title=Der_Mondberg-Uhu
But the trail led ever on and on, and I followed. I was fond of my body, in spite of my profound lack of training, did what it was supposed to do, and really enjoyed even the uphill. In fact, there was a lot of uphill that day... I rode from sea level to... we´ll see... ;-) further on.
The first ´shrooms were ´shrooming, in this case shaggy ink cap, coprinus comatus, in German: Schopftintling, which is edible when young. You should not take the one on the right, so to say, but could enjoy the ones on the left.
The trail was a wonderful garden of light and shadow, and while I was labouring along in my granny gear, I really enjoyed the radiant light that soothed my soul.
There´s a reward... on top of things, the shadows diffuse and you can see the clear, blue sky.
And further up I rode until I reached the ridge between the Mesekendahl and Großendrehscheid in the vicinity of Nachrodt-Wiblingwerde.
And further on I toodled, now over the gently rolling hillsides far above things.
This is the old coal and iron ore trade road I was on, and it was at an elevation of roundabout 520 m at the highest point.
Then I reached the Border of Hagen city, at roundabout 438 m over sea level. This was an important checkpoint in old times.
I loved to imagine the traders of that time, tinkers and carters, stopping by in an old wayside inn, and looking over the hills while their wagons were checked and having a sip of dark ale. It is quite safe to say that there was iron traded from the Siegerland region, and quite arguably also the famed Breckerfelder steel quality was taking this route into the world in the earliest of times. The earliest evidence of this route is a coin excavated, which dates back to Roman times.
This is home to me. Standing on top of a hill and looking over the hillsides. Far away from where this picture was taken, in the vicinity of that big white chimney you can see on the picture, there somewhere lies the house I live in; and yet I feel more comfortable on this hillside than in the clamorous, overpopulated cities.
Then it was time for the reward, and I was taking the technical singletrail down into the Volme valley.
Again there was the play of light and shadow swirling around me, and beside the trail the speedflowers bloom.
Then I reached the road and hauled home... but what remained was...
The light on a dust-ridden hilltop.
Oh, and the phone?
Sometimes you just have to switch it off. Try it. It works.
