Die Zelt

More than two hundred years ago, the "Zelt" or the "Zeilt" used to be the main road between Kalterherberg and Monschau. Monschau had a flourishing cloth manufacturing business - owing to the 'soft' waters of the Rur that originated in the high mooreland (the Venn) and therefore had a very low lime content. 

Many impoverished people of Kalterherberg found some income in the Monschau factories, but had to walk down and up again on the 'Zelt', before and after long hours of work. The factory owners in Monschau claimed that they made Kalterherberg people rich (by giving them work), while the famous pastor Arnoldy of Kalterherberg put the record straight by stating that the factory owners of Monschau became rich through the hard and underpaid work of the people of Kalterherberg . 

Today, the Zelt is nothing but a footpath, or MTB trail. Our hike takes a roundtrip from Kalterherberg through the Rur Valley near Reichenstein, including a modest bushwhack on an abandoned connector trail, and returns via the Zelt. During the winter-months and in early spring, foot trails in the Rur valley can be extremely muddy. 

Before you return to Kalterherberg, you pass a self-service milk station, where a machine dispenses raw milk, cheese and eggs from the adjacent farm.

This trail is a variation of the 'Hasselbach trail', and parts of both can be interchanged depending on your preferences and energy levels.