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Coburg – It is the third dry summer in a row for the forest. Beeches and chestnuts have withered, the spruces are full of bark beetles. For the people, it’s the second lockdown this year. Your urge to move must be satisfied in the immediate vicinity. “There are more people in the forest today. That is understandable and absolutely positive,” says district manager Wolfgang Weiß.
Please be considerate!
Everyone is allowed to enter the forest in Bavaria – but at their own risk.
Cyclists have to stay on the paths.
Natural regeneration is taboo, regardless of whether it is fenced in or not.
Barriers during tree felling or driven hunts must be observed in any case.
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Everyone is allowed to enter the forest. It says so in the Bavarian Forest Act. However, at your own risk and with a few rules designed to ensure that forest owners, hunters and hikers get along well. Hubertus Prinz von Sachsen-Coburg and Gotha is a forest owner: “Areas with natural regeneration are taboo. They are necessary for a healthy forest, nobody should trample or drive them to death.”
Adrian Brasch has been cycling in the Callenberg Forest for ten years. He actually jumps and flies more, over jumps and obstacles that have been built in the old quarry for decades. “Das Loch” is a meeting place for bikers, it is on a fitness trail. Dog owners walk by and riders come along. “Many stop and watch us for a while,” observes Adrian. Like, for example, Rainer and Marika Gräf from Weidach, who have been walking by here for 40 years. At first without children, then with, now without again. “This is a wonderful run for the children,” says Marika Gräf. “It’s better to be outside than to sit and play on the computer or cell phone,” says Rainer Gräf. Adrian also sees it this way: “You also have to be fully committed to it, that trains concentration. And everyone can use that again at school.” Adrian and his team now drive races like the “111 miles” in Steinach. He knows when a ramp works and what a route should look like. The younger ones listen to the 23-year-old or ask him for tips when they want to buy a shovel with their pocket money at the hardware store and change the site.
“I’m happy when the young cyclists are there. I have three children myself,” says Hubertus von Coburg-Sachsen and Gotha. Other forest owners forbid routes, they might simply fill up the hole. “Everyone has to expect dangers typical of the forest,” he says. Marcel has been here on his bike for 15 years. Today he also brought his three-year-old daughter Yuna with him. In all these years he has not broken anything, “slit a leg”. He drives with a helmet and breastplate. Otherwise you have to be focused and deal with the dangers: “It’s just not chess.”
Wolfgang Weiß experiences this with children with whom he goes into the forest at an early age: “We are looking for the steepest slope on Bausenberg – and we then go up it together.” Of course someone slips or scares up a swarm of wild bees. “If this happens to you, you will remember it. We humans deal with dangers correctly intuitively.” Is that enough?
At the moment, so much damaged wood is being removed from the forest than seldom before. “Chainsaws are simply dangerous. For those who use them, but also for all those who do not obey the barriers,” says Weiß. More dry trees in the forest also mean that more branches can fall. “We’re in the forest. Something like that happens there. If you want it different, you have to go to the Hofgarten,” says Hubertus Prince of Coburg-Saxony and Gotha.
But the more official a path is, the higher the forest owner’s duty to maintain safety. The mushroom pickers’ beaten path needs less attention than a forest path. A signposted hiking trail sets even higher standards. And ski jumps built by children? “Everything can happily happen on my area,” says the prince. “But we need a solution so that this can happen safely.”
Adrian knows his way around solutions. At some point the rubbish got out of hand. Cans, bottles and empty bags lay in the forest. He then bought and set up a garbage can out of his own pocket, which he empties regularly himself. Hikers, dog owners and, of course, bikers use it.
The site looks clean. “Take your helmet, don’t always go full throttle, it’s about balance.” Adrian looks after the younger ones when he’s around. This is usually three to four times a week. Now it’s about more. “I would like to have two legalized routes, one difficult and one easy,” he says. With Luis and Marcel he has two colleagues. You would be in the process of founding an association right away.
We are looking for a form of organization for cyclists and an insurance company that assumes liability. Marika Gräf believes in resourceful lawyers: “If everyone wants that, there must be a way to clarify the question of liability.” The bikers have been building paths in the “hole” for decades, now they are looking for a way through the thicket of regulations and insurance. “I want to see this through until the beginning of the coming season. It’s good for the children,” says Adrian. As proof, three-year-old Yuna jumps over a root with her balance bike.
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