Blade Trail (Stage 8)

The eighth stage begins on the Langhansstrasse road near the historical restaurant Engelsberger Hof ^[1] , in the park-game zone, bearing the same name. Behind a car park, tourists enter a conservation area called the Oligas Heath. It has the appearance of a northern swampy forest-tundra and at the same time a forest-steppe, where wide open spaces, overgrown with heather, alternate with small-leaved birch-aspen pegs . Very close to the soil surface is the level of groundwater enriched with iron oxides ( swamp ore ), which gives some local water sources a red-brown hue ^[2] .

The trail passes the Heide-Freibad swimming pool, open in summer, and goes onto Hermann-Löns-Weg (named after the great German writer, naturalist and local historian Hermann Löns ) who lived at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and with his works on nature similar to the Russian writer Mikhail Prishvin ). The Blade Trail runs alongside the small zoo ( Solinger Vogel- und Tierpark ) ^[3] and turns to the city blocks of Solingen at the Union Stadium ( Stadion am Hermann-Löns-Weg ).

On Naturpark Street, tourists walk through several half-timbered buildings, protected as architectural monuments, and end up in a small residential quarter called Brabant. By its name, it recalls the provinces of the same name in the Netherlands and Belgium , but has nothing to do with them. ^[4] . Inside the city, an underpass trail crosses the railway at the Vogelpark stop platform, then the busy Hildener Straße (aka L 85) and through Lübecker Straße go out into nature by the Lochbach stream . This is the catchment basin of Itter Creek ^[5] . Here the path goes around the sewage treatment plant at a high railway embankment . The path rises along the old wheeled road to the narrow asphalt road Wilzhauser Weg and along it leads to the residential village of Maubes, in which there is a group of beautiful half-timbered buildings of the old farm Wilshaus ^[6] .

Then, tourists cross the Cologne – Solingen – Wuppertal expressway protected by barriers and take a long descent to the historical castle Schloss Caspersbroich ^[7] , located on a high flood plain of Itter Creek. The castle remains on the left, and the Blade Trail follows up the Itter Valley with forest and field roads and trails. On the opposite side of Itter, former mills and grinding workshops remain Brucher Mühle ^[8] , Schaafenkotten ^[9] and Bridenmühle-Breidenkotten ^[10] . Crossing the Ittertalstraße Road The Blade Trail crosses the opposite side of Itter and the eighth stage ends at the picturesque Heidberger Mühle Restaurant ^[11] .

At the eighth stage, the climbs clearly prevail over the slopes. The stage leads from the lower terraces of the Rhine in the Wupper basin to the narrow valley of the Itter stream, along which a new rise begins in the low mountains of the Berg land . In general, the total climb is 131 meters, and the total descent is 95 meters. In terms of a kilometer of the way it gives 18.2 meters of ascent and 13.2 meters of descent. Such a vertical profile makes it difficult for non-physically prepared people to participate in the journey, including elderly and young children.

The stage is divided into three parts with different nature of the trail cover. The first third of the route passes through the low, partially swampy Oligskaya wasteland. Roads for tourists are covered with fine gravel, which requires travelers to have shoes with hard soles. The second third of the path passes through the city blocks of Solingen along the paved sidewalks. The last third of the path in the Itter Valley is complicated by several climbs, and the paths and roads are partially uncoated, so special hiking shoes are needed. In general, we pass the eighth stage at any time of the year and in any weather.

The quality of the marking of the route (the Latin letter "S" on a black background) allows you to go through it without a map, but requires constant attention to marking on the forks of roads and paths. Before going through the stage, you must familiarize yourself with the route map and print a copy. The route can also be traversed in the opposite direction of movement, since there is reverse marking (it can be used to correct the direction of movement).

The stage is diverse and attracts not only the beauties of nature, but also architectural monuments, among which Kasperbroich Castle stands out. The route is useful both as an opportunity to strengthen physical health, develop cognitive interests and aesthetic taste, and to develop applied orientation skills in unfamiliar areas.

• The eighth stage of the Blade Trail (German) .
• Map of the eighth stage of the Blade Trail
• Blade Trail: eighth stage (for lovers of Nordic walking (German)