2024-05-17 48 10

Location

In the forest near Pappenheim.

Participants

Expedition

A hash in the ~4% of 48,10 that belong to Middle Franconia? And reachable after work? Great! So depart work southbound, via Nuremberg and Trechtlingen to Pappenheim.

I feel like an unexpectedly large percentage of my hashes uses this railway out of Nuremberg: 2023-10-17_49_11 in Roth, 2023-10-05_49_11 in Oberheckenhofen, 2023-08-25_48_11 in Dollnstein and 2023-10-03_48_10 in Rain all used it. Since I don't use that train in my usual connections, by now, I am already conditioned to think of hashes when I enter that train (and to remember fondly the expeditions I did when their respective stations are annoucned).

Today's hash puts me on the exact same route I took for my third hash 2023-08-25 48 11 in Dollnstein, only that I leave the final train two stations early. Without issues or delays, I reach Pappenheim train station.

There are no good paths from the station to the hash. It's not far (600 meters), but the primary connection to it would include a street that is too busy to walk there, but probably without a usable footpath. After some back-and-forth, I decide to get a little bit closer to the hash on less used, residential streets, and look for any path through the forest for the last 500 meters.

As with Dollnstein, this plan underestimated the elevation changes. It's quite hilly here, and crossing into the forest sometimes includes quite significant in- or declines. I am happy where I can follow some unmarked paths, but my compass frequently tells me to leave the path and forge my own one towards the hash.

After a bit of trail-and-error, I arrive to the south (and quite significantly up in elevation) to both the hash and the street I wanted to avoid using. Now, one large (and quite steep) decline has to be the last part of my expedition, since the hash seems to be somewhere on it. Unclear if I will be able to walk down safely, I take the picture of it (you can see it in the gallery, but it looks less impressive there than I felt at the moment). If I don't make it to the hash, that'll be my closest distance to it.

While the decline is tricky -- and some sections of it are very loose -- , I slowly make my way down. I don't trust myself going up here again, so I will probably have to use the street back to the train station. Well, future me's problem right now. After a few steps, I stop to check my relative position to the hash. I really don't want to overshoot it and have to go back up. Once I am close enough, I record proof, and take a picture. I then continue to decent down to the street.

I already spotted a path parallel to the street during my decent. Now, after the hash, I continue to decent and walk on it back to Pappenheim. While it doesn't exist for all of the distance until the town starts, it is greatly appreaciated and reduces the time I need to spend walking on the road significantly.

Sadly, my hunt for the hash took longer than expected, mostly due to the unplanned for in- and declines. So I miss my train home and have to wait ~45 min for my next one.