I had asked my friend Kyle if he wished to come hiking with me on the last weekend of October. He had answered we would join but that his girlfriend and some of his friends would also be joining. Ania on the other hand did not feel like coming. I had asked them if it was ok to leave early, but it seemed like they didn't want to wake up early and told me instead they would join me later directly at the forest. It was going to be sunny, and probably the last sunny and warm day of the year so I didn't want to waste it. I got up early and headed on to start hiking by myself before the others would join. I took a train from Berlin and reached the town of Angermünde at around 9am. From the station, I then started my hike by heading westwards following the main road and not long after reached the small village of Gehegemühle. From there I then decided to follow a marked trail, known as the Red Beech Leaf trail, marked with, you guessed it, a red beech leaf sign. It was the longest of all the marked trails around the forest, totaling about 21.5km. As I followed the trail it soon led me past some nice farmhouses surrounded by trees that had taken an insanely beautiful fall color: from bright reds to yellows passing through orange and with a few spruces of green and dark colors of the evergreen trees. I then continued on walking through the dense forest which now, with the colors and at this time of the year seemed really magical. The trail coasted the Wolletzsee for quite a bit, granting me some nice opportunities for taking some photographs. The lake was rather large, a good 5km in length, and interestingly on its shore, I managed to spot a whole array of what looked like some strange-looking types of shells. As I continued on the trail then veered away from the lake and back through the forest. The light was incredible, with the sunlight filtering through the colorful leaves of the trees. The forest, which is largely made up of beech trees, is in fact known as being part of the Unesco world heritage site, Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe. Once most of Europe was made up of these types of forests, however, with time, man interference, and other issues, most of the forests disappeared leaving only a few rather untouched and natural ones. The area around Berlin and Brandenburg as well consisted mostly of these deciduous forests but due to reforestation and cost, they were replaced by the now typical green pines. The area features cold winters and warm summers and a low altitude and thus pine forests wouldn't generally fit here, however now they seem to be the norm and are associated as normal for the place now. After a bit of walking through the forest and coming across the first two people of the day, I then came out into a large field. The trail followed its perimeter and after a little while led me to the village of Altkünkendorf. Here I finally met with Kyle and his friends who had taken the train to Angermünde and gotten a bus to reach this tiny village. It was already midday and I was happy to have started walking alone earlier otherwise I would have missed a great part of the day. After a few of them had taken a coffee or tea at the tourist office in the middle of the village, we were ready to head on along the trail. We followed it heading south of the village past some fields and back into the forest. Our goal, apart from hiking, was also to look for possible mushrooms to eat. One of them seemed to be knowledgeable on the topic, but eventually, by the end of the day, we hadn't managed to get anything. This was probably due to the fact that most of the mushrooms along the trail had already been picked and it would have made more sense to head deep into the forest if we had wished to find some. I talked with many of them along the way, at the same time leading the group as I was the only one who had researched the area and the trail. At one point we decided to take a break and eat lunch, which most of us had taken with us. We sat down on a grassy patch next to an open field and enjoyed the still rather warm rays of the sun. After the lunch break, we continued on along the trail, now heading slightly uphill through a low hill landscape. Walking then through more forest we passed through the tiny village of Luisenfelde, which consisted mostly of just a few houses scattered here and there, and then past two lakes the Großer and Kleiner Plunzsee. Finally, after passing yet another village, Zuchenberg, which was actually just a few large farms next to each other, we then reached the village of Gehegemühle, where I had started following the Red Beech Leaf trail in the morning. From here we were supposed to take a bus back but in the end, we just hiked a remaining couple of kilometers to Angermünde where we eventually took the train back to Berlin.
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