One of the main hiking trails of the Sauerland Mountain Club (SGV) is named after Christine Koch. Not everyone is familiar with this lady, which is why we will first say a few words about the Sauerland nightingale. Christine Koch was born in Eslohe in 1869 and was first a teacher in Padberg, then in Borbeck, until she finally moved to what is now the Schmallenberg district of Bracht in 1905.
In Bracht in the Saalhauser mountains, Christine Koch wrote numerous poems in Sauerland dialect alongside her work as a housewife and mother. She published several volumes and was awarded the Klaus-Groth-Preis for German poetry and the Westphalian Literature Prize during her lifetime.
The Christine Koch Trail, marked as the main hiking trail X18, starts in Menden and leads 126 kilometres in a south-easterly direction through the Sauerland. You hike through the Balver Wald forest, pass the Hönnetal cathedral and enter the Plettenberger Land region via Affeln.
The Christine Koch Trail leads through the Lennebergland into the Saalhausen mountains and passes the small village of Bracht, where Christine Koch lived and worked for many years. After Saalhausen, the trail climbs up to the ridge of the Rothaargebirge. The X18 hiking trail leads over the ridge into the Wittgensteiner Land region and finally heads for its destination: the spa town of Bad Laasphe in the Lahntal valley.
