2014-07-18 51 14

Location

Today's location is on private property in Großröhrsdorf, near Radeberg.

Country: Germany; state: Sachsen (Saxony, EU:DE:SN); district: Bautzen

Expedition

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Because I had to work the late shift, I was able to do this expedition in the morning. During planning I considered taking the bus, but that would have included almost one hour of waiting for the return bus, so instead I decided to go by bike, which is superior in regard to price, flexibility and health anyway. I mapped a route on GM that omitted the major road for a large part and instead would lead me along a track going totally straight through the Dresdner Heide forest area. At around 10 a.m. I started and cycled across the famous Loschwitzer Brücke (Blaues Wunder). Two intersections later I noticed that I had already left the planned route and continuing would lead me to the well-travelled state road. Instead of going back I took a tiny path that branched off of the road and went uphill in a very steep incline, I had to push my bike. Oh, did I mention that it was already quite warm even without physical activity? As I had expected from my tiny (about 1:1000) map printout and the GPS unit's map, that path lead me to the Weißer Hirsch part of Dresden. I entered the Dresdner Heide in the firm belief that I was back on my planned route. I followed the forest track until I was at the start of the straight track leading towards Radeberg, then took that one. From the satellite image I had expected it to be a tarmacked track, but this was only a partly overgrown forest track. Well, I must have misinterpreted the satellite image, because the track was straight and leading in the correct direction, how could it not be the correct one, the A-Flügel? My bike isn't all-terrain-enabled, but following the track went okay since the tire tracks were smooth for the most part. The track went up and down small hills, sometimes as a sandy path, sometimes muddy, but with a little physical effort it went pretty well. After a while, a glance at the GPS map told me that while the direction was correct, my progress in kilometers (or "fraction of Dresdner Heide crossed") was lacking. When I next crossed a good track, I took that one, even though it went more to the north. Well, I would reach the Radeberger Landstraße road that way, which would be okay. I made much better progress after that and soon took a turn more in my original direction, on a track that I thought was parallel to the first track. While racing through the forest, I noticed that I was heading towards the sun, which would indicate a southerly direction, but I dismissed that as a fallacy due to daylight saving time, the season, the pre-noon time... Then I reached a large meadow with houses on its other side. Oh, am I already near the Radeberger Landstraße? This must be a tiny hamlet that isn't on my map. Whatever, I'll just go on. Then I reached that town and its main road. I wasn't too sure about my whereabouts, so instead of following the map printout, I took a look at my GPS unit. Oh, this is unexpected. I had reached Ullersdorf, on the southern edge of the Dresdner Heide, and the road that I had tried to avoid. Now that I was there, I stayed on that road which quickly lead me to Radeberg. There I made some other useless detours, but after a while I was on the road to Großröhrsdorf.

A little before noon I was near the hashpoint. The border of the property which I hadn't been able to identify from the satellite image turned out to be a wall. While standing next to it I came within 0.00007° of the correct coordinates, but not nearer. I walked along the wall multiple times, but it didn't get better. A little to the side I found gateposts without a gate and I could see the meadow where the hashpoint must be, but since I felt that this was private property I didn't dare to enter. After a while I turned my bike towards home and cycled back to Radeberg. On the way I visited a furniture shop and in Radeberg I stopped to get food and drink and to refill my bike's tires. Then I took the Radeberger Landstraße state road through the Dresdner Heide. This was much easier than the forest tracks, although I had to take care not to be run over by all those cars. At around 13:45 I was back in Dresden.

I cycled 48 km. As I found out, there are multiple parallel tracks through the Dresdner Heide and I wasn't on the correct one, on a larger map that was really easy to see. I could have given the correct track a try on 2014-07-22 because that hashpoint was just one town over, but that spot was in a field and wasn't really interesting.