Across borders - winding paths and princely forests

We start in a southerly direction at the hiking portal opposite the Langewiese tourist information office. At the Protestant church, we cross Langewieser Straße and follow the Rothaarsteig. Pass former farmhouses and turn left onto Heckenweg with L3. Past the Marienkapelle chapel to the end of the village. Now downhill into the valley, past the Bierloch lifts and the barbecue area with a view of the Bierloch, at the end of the forest towards Girkhausen and far into the Wittgensteiner Land. We turn left onto the L3 and reach Gehans Äcker. As soon as we turn right in the forest, we see deep tracks of the old trade route (now a ground monument) on the left. We continue through the Kleine Hesselbachtal valley, through beautiful beech and mixed forests and reach a little-used district road above the Schmelzhütte smelter. We leave the L3 here, cross the road to the right and walk left through the Buchenwald without any signposts. Keep right at the fork in the path. We now descend the Kleiner Saukopf. At the end of the Buchenwald, we turn left down an old hollow path to the road and after a few meters turn right again into the Hesselbach valley with the WHT. The Hesselbach valley is a beautiful sunny side valley of the Odeborn, whose valley floor narrows further and further until only a narrow gorge remains below the source. From the edge of the forest, we walk through meadows to Hoheleye past the Graberhof, today also a restaurant, until we reach a WW. Here we keep left up a drift, cross the road with the WHT and continue to Hoheleyeer Hof. The first original Rothaarsteig hiker's hut is located here. We continue along the Rothaarsteig, which runs along the old Grenzweg here. We pass a radio mast and a gas pipeline and find ourselves on the former border of the Wittgenstein district, to which the two hilltop villages of Hoheleye and Langewiese once belonged. The watershed of the Rhine and Weser rivers runs here, as well as a dialect and religious border. At the Barmer Hütte, which is not open to the public, we can enjoy a view of the Schmallenberger Land on the left. We soon reach the Wildererstein and after a few 100 meters the trail descends steeply at the Knäppchen. The descent continues to the foot of the former ski jump. Now briefly along the main road and left up the Höhweg, at the highest point (741 m) with a beautiful panoramic view. We approach our starting point in Langewiese again.Trail scouts: Elke and Helmut Otto© Hiking magazine