2 day hike: Witches on the Rocks - advanced hike through the Harz; 15+25 km
Details
Let's do another two day hike through the Harz mountains!
Important info - please read it now:
- This is a non-commercial event. You are responsible by yourself to research and book your accommodation in the area. You are bearing the complete risk (bad weather, etc).
- After signing up for this event, please immediately research accommodation and book it. When you have booked accommodation, please send me a private message containing the place where you are staying. If I do not get a message within 36 hours of signing up, I need to presume that you are not coming. I will then need to remove you from the participants to make room for other interested people.
- We will stay at the village Schierke. At the moment, there are still a number of accomodation options, but accomodation is limited.
- For transportation, having a Deutschlandticket is certainly the most recommendable and most economical option.
- This is an advanced hike. You should wear proper hiking shoes and have a certain surefootedness. On day 1, we will walk between 15 and 20 km and have to manage an elevation gain of 820 meters. On day 2, we will walk between 21 and 24 km and have to manage an elevation gain of 750 meters. Expect that you need to climb over fallen trees and rocks. At some points, you might need to use your hands to stabilize your steps.
Itinerary
Day 1: Saturday, June, 13th
- 07:05 Departure with HBX train from Berlin Hauptbahnhof station (stops also at Ostbahnhof, Alexanderplatz, Friedrichstraße, Hauptbahnhof, Zoo, Wannsee, Potsdam)
- 10:17 Arrival at Wernigerode
- 10:40 Historic steam train from Wernigerode to Steinerne Renne
- 10:58 Start of our hike. We will see the Renneklippen, the Steinerne Renne waterfall, the Waldgasthaus Steinerne Renne, the Ottofels, the Leistenklippe and the Eulenstieg on that day. Optionally, at the end of our hike, if we did not already reach our personal Elendstal (valley of misery), we can walk through the geographical one.
- We will arrive at Schierke between 16:00 and 18:00.
Day 2: Sunday, June, 14th
- 9:30 Start of our hike at Schierke. We will walk up the Eckerlochstieg to the peak of the Brocken. At 1141 meters, this is the highest elevation in northern Germany. From there, we will descend north-wards. We will come by the small but many Ilse waterfalls.
- After around 21 km, we will reach Ilsenburg, where we can refresh and have dinner.
- Depending on our speed or mood, we will take the train back to Berlin at 18:30, 19:30 or 20:30. The train ride back to Berlin takes roughly 3.5 hours.
Accomodation
I cannot give any recommendations on good places to stay. Yet, to facilitate your research, here are a couple of possible places in Schierke:
There are certainly also more options which are not listed on Booking.com.
Feel free to use the comments to search for fellow hikers which might want to share apartments with you. However do not wait too long with booking, as options might go away.