Crossing Freiburg - Lake Constance: Engen - Mühlhausen

From Engen station, we set off in a westerly direction with a view of the first intermediate destination, the town's local mountain. From the platform, first go through the underpass, cross Hegaustraße at the traffic lights, turn right into Scheffelstraße and at the "Fuchsloch" signpost turn left onto Hewenstraße.

At the junction with "Ludwig-Finckh-Straße", the cross-path turns left. Together with the Schwarzwald - Jura - Bodensee cross-path, we reach the Engen district of "Anselfingen" and climb along the edge of the forest to the "Almenhütte (563 m)" with a barbecue and rest area. A signpost provides information about the route of the new Hewensteig premium hiking trail. The access to the actual starting point of the circular hike is also marked here: "Almen". From there, we walk uphill along the edge of the forest in the direction of the Hohenhewen and shortly afterwards reach the first rest bench with a view of the Hohenkrähen.

After 200 m through the Allmenwald forest, the view opens up again above the Hewenhof - this time to the west.

At the fork in the path "Hohenhewen/Herrenweg", we climb up the narrow road to the left to the "memorial cross" for the priest and local historian Josef Hoh, who died in an accident on Hohenhewen.

Following the left-hand bend, we continue up to the former outer bailey and enter the inner courtyard of the castle complex with barbecue area and rest area (844 m) through the well-preserved castle gate. We can climb up an iron spiral staircase to the viewing platform on the former north wall to enjoy the panoramic view of the Hegau Mountains.

On the descent from the castle, we pass the "memorial cross" again and turn left to the "Hohenhewen/Bartellen" signpost. At the edge of the forest, the trail continues to the left towards Welschingen, with great views. On the descent, we can relax on a lounger at the Gefällhof farm and enjoy the view of the Hohenkrähen, Mägdeberg, Hohentwiel and Hohenstoffeln mountains.

We then walk along the "Ludwig-Finckh-Weg" towards the Hohenstoffeln.

The path is named after the local poet Ludwig-Finckh, who in 1939 campaigned to stop basalt mining on the striking Hegauberg, thereby ensuring that two of the former three peaks were preserved. Until then, the three Hohenstoffeln ruins were also used as a quarry.

We continue via the "Lindenstüble (545 m)" to "Hinter den Reben" and descend into the village to the "Welschingen" signpost. At the next crossroads, we turn right and walk along the road to Weiterdingen to "Ertenhag". Here, too, environmentalists campaigned for the preservation of the approx. 150-hectare forest area that was to be sacrificed for gravel extraction. The modified route now leads to the right through the forest,"Am Binninger Ried" steeply uphill through open fields and back into the dense forest to the fork "Ob Wangen", where the former cross-path from Weiterdingen led uphill. In the further ascent, we bypass the summit of the Hohenstoffeln "Am Basaltbruch", initially on its eastern side to the "Eiche" fork. From here, we can take a detour to the two summits with their great views.

Back at the signpost, we follow the hiking trail to the south and turn left "Ob dem Sennhof". Keeping roughly the same direction, after a right and left bend at the edge of the forest we come to the "Roggensteig" viewpoint with views of the Mägdeberg and Hohentwiel. A pleasantly descending meadow path leads us down to the "Lochmühle".

Halfway there, at the next fork in the road, it is worth taking a detour to the right along Hilzinger Straße to the Heiliggrabkapelle chapel in Weiterdingen. In Roman times, an important trade route ran along today's connecting road between Weiterdingen and Hilzingen. Travelers liked to fill up their drinking water supplies here at the spring in the "Kapellenhof", which was still bubbling at the time. In 1694, Baron Karl Balthasar von Hornstein (1649-1723) donated a chapel here, which was named Heiliggrabkapelle at his request. It is a faithful replica of the Holy Sepulchre in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Such copies met the wishes of many believers who would not have been able to visit the original in Jerusalem.

After the "Lochmühle", we have to climb another 150 m over the "Sickerberg" and are rewarded with the distant view from the "Hegaukreuz". From here it is another 9 km to Singen am Hohentwiel, 200 m below. In the south-east, we can see the well-preserved remains of Mägdeberg Castle on a wooded hill. An unmarked turn-off leads back up to it in the forest on the left. A plaque at the end of the forest provides information about the history of the castle.

At the "Mägdeberger Hof" fork in the path, we finally have to decide whether to continue on the crossroads to Singen or descend straight on to Mühlhausen. To reach the regional train there, we follow the yellow diamond downhill via "DuchtlingerSteige" to Schlossstraße and then turn right into Bahnhofstraße (1.5 km).