He doesn’t seem particularly aggressive. If only because the animal’s tusks are curved backwards. The boar looks almost faithful as he sits on his bicycle saddle complete with rubber boots and curly tail. Exemplarily, the boar has fixed bicycle lights at the front and rear. And then there’s something else: a forest acorn is tied to the cyclist’s luggage rack. This is subtly reminiscent of the saber-toothed squirrel “Scrat” in the film Ice Age, which reliably loses its forest acorn. The cycling boar obviously has a much better grip on his nutritious baggage.
The design of the cycling boar is the face of a new leisure offer: Two cycle routes that lead through the Ebersberg Forest – and are now drawn in detail on a foldable map. The cycling boar shows the way on the map and in the forest. Both tours are around 23 kilometers long, both lead past bodies of water – and the most prominent sights of the Ebersberg Forest.
Boards with QR codes for two interactive tours – on foot or by bike
Both routes were explored by Jochen Hoepner from Vaterstetten, who is a member of the Mobility Turnaround working group there. At a meeting in the Ebersberg Forest, he now presented the special feature of both routes: The “cycling adventure tours” should enable an interactive tour. Signs that are erected at four to six prominent waypoints per tour help with this. There are QR codes on the boards that lead directly to a website via smartphone. For example, younger cyclists can go on a scavenger hunt in the forest and add new puzzles themselves if necessary. How old is the forest house Diana? What is a charcoal burner? In which year was the Nonnenstein erected and why? The panels and QR codes should be up next year.
The new logo for the two cycle routes through the Ebersberger Forest, created by Poinger Neubert-Verlag, the copyright lies with Jochen Hoepner.
(Photo: Jochen Hoepner)
Anyone who has ever stayed in the Ebersberg Forest should know that there is a catch: the forest area is like a huge dead zone. There are isolated areas where you can be lucky, depending on the network provider. Most of the time, however, one moves in the Ebersberger Forst as if in flight mode. The Wasserburg forestry company recently announced that this situation should be improved across the board within the next two years with the help of transmission masts in the forest. Until then, explains project manager Hoepner, it is possible to download the content of the QR codes on the boards to a mobile phone in advance – i.e. before entering the forest – and then call them up offline at the stations.
The west tour runs between the foothills of the forest near Pöring, Eglharting and Obelfing near Anzing. On the map, your route resembles an upside-down seahorse and already gives an idea of the nautical influences of two bodies of water. It leads from the forest playground in Pöring past the “Kleinen Weiher” to the so-called Nonnenstein. Partial dissolution from above: The stone commemorates the years 1889 and 1892, when two thirds of the existing trees in the Ebersberg forest fell victim to a caterpillar invasion. Other stops on the round tour: The no less prominent and worth seeing Friedensbuche including the chapel, the “Himmelsweiher” and the “Eustachiusstein”.
The start is a two-day workshop in October – there are 15 places
Hoepner’s second tour, which formally suspiciously resembles a pirate hook hand, the second hook of this project – but a pleasant one. On the eastern route, Hoepner has mapped several standing waters as stations. For example the Froschweiher, the Egglburger See, the chain of ponds, again the Himmelsweiher and last but not least the Antoniweiher: a tranquil and beautiful place. Other stops worth staying at are: The “Gareisstein”, the forest climate station, the mystically entwined forester’s house Diana – and the forester’s house Hubertus near Ebersberg, where the forest beer garden is always open from Wednesday to Sunday in summer.
Both routes are also suitable for hiking. Due to the path structure in the Ebersberger Forest, it is easily possible to shorten the routes – which is an advantage if a 23-kilometer walk might seem too long.
The project will kick off with a two-day workshop on October 15th and 16th, with which the initiators want to address young people in particular. Up to 15 people aged 14 and over can register for this. The aim is for the participants to film personal impressions and highlights and use them creatively. The smartphone is the central tool for this. The participants will be accompanied by the professional media pedagogue Muki Emmer. After the project is completed, the results will be published on the Internet and fed into the “Outdooractive” mobile phone tour app. When the information boards are up, the film sequences should be available there using the QR codes.
The cycling boar and his predecessor – the “Boar Max”
The leisure map for the forest, which has now been updated with a cycling boar and routes, is now available from the Ebersberg district office. And maybe one or the other card reader can’t shake the feeling that a boar has ever cycled through the district. The memory does not deceive. The illustration is based on the former hiker and cyclist mascot “Eber Max”. The new version was penned by the Poinger Neubert publishing house – which published the eighth edition of the map – on behalf of the initiator Jochen Hoepner. The boar is a little stronger and more colorful than the original version. And one thing is completely new: the porter – and the luggage that has become world famous thanks to a saber-toothed squirrel.
The project is jointly supervised by the Ebersberg Beautification Association, the Wasserburg forestry company, the Ebersberg district youth council and the Round Table Tourism in the Ebersberg district office. The measure is funded by the “Partnership for Democracy”. Registration for the kick-off project for young people aged 14 and over by e-mail [email protected]. Additional information below www.demokratie-ebe.de