Karst Hiking Trail - Circular Route 19 around Pöhlde

You walk above, the water below. This route runs over several underground channels in the karst that form the outflow of the Oder and Sieber catchment area to the Rhume Spring. This largest karst spring in northern Germany gets the main part of its water from the sinkholes of the Harz rivers Oder and Sieber. These sink points are 50-60 m higher than the spring pot of the Rhume Spring. Rows of sinkholes indicate the underground course of the karst water on the earth's surface. Here, the karstified Zechstein layers are faulted against the Buntsandstein. At this fault, the water rises. Around 40,000 tons of gypsum and 17,000 tons of limestone dissolve annually through the spring from the South Harz and finally end up in the North Sea!

The further circular path leads over the wooded Bornberg (Born = spring) into a side valley with the nature reserve Gr. Butterloch and other partly swampy sinkholes, important biotopes for the fauna and flora of the wet habitats. Ascending, it goes up to the pass at the former Pöhlde brickyard, which forms the surface watershed between the South Harz and the Eichsfeld.

On the other side, it ascends to a circuit around the nature reserve Floating Island, a deep sinkhole whose bottom formed a plant community floating due to gas bubbles on a sinkhole pond, which has meanwhile largely silted up. This small round already reveals beautiful views of the further South Harz.

Those who wish can take a short detour from here to the medieval fortification "King Henry's Vogelherd". Otherwise, the path leads on the signposted Karst Hiking Trail over the old railway embankment paved as a bike and hiking path back towards the Rhume Spring. At a somewhat tricky point, we leave the embankment, cross the road, and reach back to the starting point Rhume Spring along some fish ponds and a lovely path in the deciduous forest above the state road.