The project took over seven years to get off the ground, but the goal has now been achieved. The new trail network in the Franconian Rhön has been open since the end of April 2021. Last year, we invited those involved in the lighthouse project as part of our campaign LOVE TRAILS - RESPECT RULES and asked about the current status. Read the full-length report from BIKE 11/2020 here.
Nature conservation areas, a biosphere reserve, hiking tourism - it doesn't sound like bikers have too good a chance in the Rhön. However, a team of young people and open-minded representatives of the authorities are using their insight and perseverance to stake out a new biking area there.
Moritz's rear tyre is pretty bare, and his coach hasn't missed it. "Did you slow down or slow down?" Andreas Schubert asks his cheeky team rider with a raised eyebrow. And even at nine years old, Moritz knows what he has to say at this moment. "Slowed down, I think ..." he says, a little embarrassed. Slowed down would definitely be the wrong answer.
Andreas Schubert, head of department and coach of the Schwarze Berge junior team, didn't spend seven years promoting the sport of biking in the Rhön biosphere reserve in order to breed imposing brakes. After all, would they have managed to create the silky trail on whose brand new section Moritz is currently racing back and forth enthusiastically? Right next to the nature reserve - and not just with the forester's permission, but even with his active support?
At the end of years of planning, a few months ago, a heavy forestry vehicle cleared the last obstacles out of the way and the boys and girls from Team Schwarze Berge were able to set off with shovels and rakes, hoes and leaf blowers to carve five kilometres of single trails in the woods.
Seven years in the making, so five kilometres of trail don't sound very impressive - but they are. They symbolise the fact that bikers in the area are taken seriously and their wishes are accepted. "The current signposting was more for sending bikers onto forest roads where they could avoid hunters and hikers," says Andreas Schubert.
The many new, mostly short trail sections, on the other hand, are the "missing links" between existing paths. With their help, you can create meaningful, varied laps. If you know that, it becomes a really big shoe: 1000 kilometres of bike trails, spread over 30 laps, are the plan.
The fact that the just 35 members of the Teams Black Mountains The fact that they are not the swanky FC Bayern of cycling may even have helped the cause, as enthusiasm and good networking were more important than money - and that's where the youngsters can score points: In an area where organised leisure activities are football for the boys and gymnastics for the girls, parents are happy to get involved to get the kids on their bikes. And if you've lived in the village long enough, you know someone who knows someone who can help.
Tougher than brambles: the web of responsibilities and interests
It all starts with the club's training ground: the Geroda municipality's landfill site came in handy as a training ground. It is currently somewhat deranged, as corona has prevented any technical training. The rampant nature is increasingly attacking the small drops, seesaws and slalom courses. Andreas Schubert and his protégés first have to make their way through the stinging nettles and brambles to reach the windswept equipment hut.
They would have to swing a hoe for days on end to make the course fit again, but at the moment they prefer to put their energy into building the track out in the forest. It has taken five years to get anywhere, because the tangle of responsibilities and interests out in the forest is tougher than any bramble.
A short and incomplete list of those involved: the Rhön Club and district administration, nature park association and hunting tenants, forest owners, biosphere reserve and state forest, framed by federal and state laws. It's hard to believe that there's still room for a few bikers. But there is. Because not everywhere where the forest is concerned there are wooden heads standing around.
In the district of Bad Kissingen, in the south of the Bavarian Rhön, the "bikers against the rest of the world" front seems to be largely unknown. Jürgen Metz is the managing director of the district administration office there. Metz rides a mountain bike himself, has a son in the bike team and has a strategic view of trail building: "This is also about regional development and that on two levels," he says. "One aspect is the leisure offer - also for skilled workers who are supposed to move here. And, of course, it also develops tourism. It was time to adapt the routes to developments in the sport. Even touring cyclists are no longer satisfied if they can only cycle on gravel roads."
Simply cycling along the existing hiking trails is not an option everywhere. This is because the Rhön, a popular hiking region, advertises several premium hiking trails. And one of these is also characterised by the fact that no bikers ride on it. There are also a number of nature reserves, some of which have strict access rules.
Marking trails through here? Not a thought. Bikers and decision-makers agreed that they didn't want to build a bike park in the Rhön biosphere reserve anyway. "The region stands for gentle tourism, and the terrain is also not an area for enduro riders," explains Jürgen Metz. Handlebar-wide natural trails without built obstacles are the goal, as rough or as flowy as the ground allows. But where to go with these trails for low-conflict riding fun?
For the first time in Bavaria, the district administration has signed
When someone dials Joachim Urban's mobile phone number, the grey-headed woodpecker calls from his smartphone. Urban is the district forester in Oberbach and a knowledgeable nature lover. A third of his territory is a nature reserve. But Urban is also a mountain biker. A long section of trail leads through "his" forest to avoid a critical section of hiking trail.
He has ceded a so-called logging lane, an aisle for timber removal in the commercial forest, to the bikers in return. "There may be a bit of self-interest involved," he grins, "but ultimately it's about guiding users. It's better for us to do this than for someone to post something wildly and then things go crazy in the middle of a nature reserve. An association like Team Schwarze Berge is a good partner for us: on the one hand, it provides very positive behavioural training, and on the other, we also reach the older generation via the younger generation."
The parties involved had to get a few thick trees and a nasty legal problem out of the way: the question of liability in the context of the duty to maintain road safety. While responsibility for existing paths is clearly regulated, created trails are recreational facilities. It has to be negotiated who is liable if something happens. Joachim Urban sounds relieved: "I think we are breaking new ground here. At least for the first time in Bavaria, the district administration has signed the contract."
The markings are still missing and the trails are not yet marked on maps. But with the liability issue resolved, Andreas Schubert can optimistically send his boys and girls to the trail tools, the rake and the leaf blower in the wooden hut. Two kilometres of cleared forest floor are still missing.
The best care for a trail is to ride it
That's a lot of hours of work for Nils and Maria, Tilman, Samuel and the others from the team and the students from the bike club at Brückenau secondary school. Team leader Andreas agrees that a bit of hard work is part of the job: "If you create a trail yourself, you'll maintain it very differently to a commercial service," he says, looking at the slim line between the beech trees: "And the best way to maintain a trail is to ride it."
