I had a new tent and I was super keen to try it. So I planned an overnight hike in Brandenburg and invited some colleagues. We had a rough start and missed the train by 2 minutes. The tension was real, and so was the disappointed as the train left the station right in front of me. Meanwhile, one of our crew was already on the train, so we would have to catch up to her at some point. Via a different route we still made it to Grunow, where we were dropped off by the one-wagon train. We started walking enthusiastically, keeping a strong pace, trying to catch up. The trail entering the forest was quite wild, with long grasses that were a little flattened by the occasional walkers that passed through. Soon we entered the forest, with lots of forest roads. It was clearly planted, with neat rows of thin trees. I thought I saw a small shortcut at what seemed to be a big forest road. But as we braved the path I walked into a huge spider web. It was all over my face and arms! Looking ahead we saw dozens of them glitter and shine in the sun’s rays. We took a stick and slowly kept going. It wouldn’t be the last web we caught this trip! The shortcut of maybe 200 meters, probably set us back time-wise, as I cleaned the webs off my skin.
We saw wild berries and unsuccessfully tried to avoid touching the stinging nettle at the side of the trail. On the map it seemed like we would walk along the water, suggesting we’d have pretty views of ducks and water lilies. The forest was dense though, so the lake was hidden behind layers of branches and leaves. Just before Dammendorf we suddenly hit the main road. After not seeing anyone, this already came as a little shock to me. We climbed over the guardrails to get to the bike lane and followed it to the village. Then we saw someone walking ahead of us. Someone who seemed to have a big backpack. “Emily!” Indeed, we had reunited!
This weekend turned out to be a hot one with temperatures of 31 degrees. So even this early on in the trip, we had already drank most of our water. Dammendorf seemed to have a restaurant. Although the door was wide open, it was way too quiet inside. “Hallo?” I shouted. After a while an older lady came out. She served us cold drinks and let us fill up our water bottles. Refreshed, we were ready for the next leg. It was an adventure.
We walked past some farms and encountered a curious sign. The top had a wolf, the middle said 70 km/h and the bottom had a tractor, unicycle and horse with cart. We had already jokingly discussed serial killers and horror movies with hikers, so what’s the threat of an extra wolf? The new joke became: “I hate mosquitos” “Well, at least it’s not a wolf”. Despite the many layers of bug spray, the mosquitos still landed, although today was manageable. We could calmly enjoy a break in the forest, somewhere between the aggressively barking dogs at Jankemühle and festival set up at Klingemühle. “Do you know where you are going?”, someone asked. “Bremsdorf”. “Oh, you’re not with the festival!?”. Perhaps we could have gotten some free tickets by pretending to be part of the crew, but later google told us the festival wasn’t for another few days, so we didn’t miss anything there.
Around the Kieselwitzer Mühle we entered the official Schlaubetal path. It follows the Schlaube stream all the way to Müllrose. The path was a lot narrower and scenic. There were some curious things along it, like a random sign about space (which we found many more of the next day) and a shoe that was nailed to the tree. It kept us entertained as the fatigue crept up on us. So we were more than excited when we saw the entrance to our campground. There was a biergarten out front where we met the camping host. She guided us through the small terrain, all the way to the Treppelsee, a quiet lake with a small beach. We pitched our tents right at the edge of the beach. After dinner at the biergarten and a well-deserved drink, I had an evening swim in the lake. Later that night we watched the sun set before happily crawling in our sleeping bags.
The next morning I felt great. I’d surprised myself and had slept pretty well, until it got a bit colder early in the morning. Slowly the campground was coming back to life. I found a picnic bench, made a cup of tea and breakfast, and enjoyed the lakeside views. But the relaxing came to an end. We still had 25km to go today.
We continued to follow the S signs that would lead us all the way to Müllrose. Today we were a bit luckier with the views. We hugged the Großer Treppelsee for a long time, which turned out to be way bigger than it seemed from the campground. Then we followed the Schlaube and eventually saw the Müllroser See. This time we got plenty of views, but also plenty more mosquitos. At times it was a bit unpleasant, but at least they were not wolves right. There were much more picnic benches and shelters along the path, so we took a few breaks here and there. Yet we also hoped to get some food and drinks somewhere along the way. The Kupferhammer building was closed, but there was a big campground about 10-15 minutes walking off the trail. After some debating we decided to take the risk to see if they had a café. The big Schlaubetal Camping had an entrance fee, but if you just went to the Gaststätte for couple of hours, you’d get your money back. Unfortunately they said food would take a while since they didn’t have a lot of staff. So we satisfied ourselves with a drink and then hiked back to the trail.
A few kilometers further we saw the beautiful Ragower Mühle with a biergarten. In hindsight that would have been a great spot for a break, but we didn’t know. There had been many mills in this area in the past and we walked through several settlements where these mills used to stand. But most of them were no longer there or barely recognizable as a mill. This one was as I would picture it. The water in front was beautiful and covered in lily pads. Unfortunately we didn’t see the water lilies. We saw them in another part, but only further away in the water.
After another forest section, we crossed the train tracks. The same one-wagon train passed by, but we still had our finishing kilometers to go. We came to the south end of the Großer Müllroser See. It was quiet at first, but we passed several bathing spots that grew in popularity as we went north. Seeing the many people at the official beach was a bit shocking. But these signs of civilization also indicated we had soon reached our destination. And Müllrose was an “Erholungsort”, designed to make people relax. So we treated ourselves to an ice cream, which helped us with our last steps to the train station. Once there, we dropped to the floor. My aching feet were glad to get a break. It had been a great adventure, in nice company and with the right amount of challenge. But, oh how great was the bath afterwards and the comfort of my own bed.
