Be an Organizer!
We consider ourselves not a normal group, but what is more important for us is to make a community of interested and open-minded people, where whoever has a nice idea for outdoor activities can share it with others and accept everyone with open hugs to his/her event. We are not officially an organization and do not get any money for what we are doing. So the only way that this beautiful community stays alive and not be dependent on few people is that more and more people engage in organizing events.
Why should I organize a hiking trip?
Organizing a hiking trip without previous experience seems to be scary. It is understandable, because accepting the responsibility of taking some strangers to the forest seems not a very good idea. However, it is a very nice experience because:
you can go to your favorite place without waiting for someone to organize it and without finding the time with your friends
it helps you to grow. You can practice your organizing experience, how to communicate to people, how to lead, and how to make mistakes and deal with them
it helps you to gain your self-confidence
Over all of these reasons, we need to keep the number of attendees in our events limited (due to Corona), so having more events organized by other people is a big help for us and will give the chance to more people to have a beautiful weekend.
Before the event
Decide what you want to do
The main part of organizing a new event is to decide what you want to do. There are some options:
Organize a Hike
You want to visit a specific point like a castle, a tower, a monument
You want to just walk freely in the forest without any destination
Organize another Outdoor Activity
You want to go for an activity like boating, skiing, fruit harvesting, grilling, swimming or playing games
For option number 1 you can find an interesting destination from our collection of attractions. You can also use tourist-websites and search for nice places and view points in the forests and hills. You can also check the map of places we have visited and our Gallery to find something interesting.
Our suggestion is that the people who are completely new in organizing trips, choose somewhere close to Jena rather than going far away since it sometimes requires more complicated organization.
If you just like to have the experience of organizing a trip and do not know where to go, just contact us and we will help you. We have a big list of interesting points and our open arms for you.
Choose the route
After deciding what you want to do, you should choose your way. For this, we recommend you our collection of routes or using some professional software like Komoot, OsmAnd. The professional software are better to use since they show tiny pathes, the profile of your chosen way and you can see the uphills and downhills and adjust your way.
The very important things to consider while choosing your way:
Meeting point and starting point are different. Meeting point should be a very clear and easy-to-find place like bus station or train station including the platform. Consider that not everyone is living in Jena for a long time.
Length of the track: From our experience around 8-15 km is considered as normal hiking. You can organize shorter or longer if you want, but you need to give a roughly correct estimation to the people.
Transportation: Consider that there are proper transportation to the starting point and from the ending point. Adjust your route accordingly.
Finalize the trip with us
Then you need to contact us and finalize your trip with us. We would really like to see new faces organizing events and we would support you.
The next step is to make the events. In this regard you should fill this form out. It is a very nice form and we spent a lot of time to make it easy-to-use. Using this form, you do not need anymore to think about many details as you will be asked for automatically. The only think you should prepare is a photo for advertising your event. This photo will be asked inside the form.
As soon as we receive the data of your event, we will put it in our website, Instagram, Facebook, and Telegram-Channel. So all members will be informed immediately.
During the event
Leading a hike and attending the hike as a participant are two completely different experiences. You need to consider some points.
Show up at the meeting point: If you organize an event, you need to go there punctually. It is so bad if you just do not show up as it will waste people's time and destroy the trust.
Check all the names: We will give you the list of registered people and you need to check people who show up. It is important for our statistics and since we need to give a list to authorities in case of corona cases.
Announce breaks and the rough route: In order to get to know to our stlye, it is helpful to share information with the participants in the beginning. Also they want to know when to eat and when to rest.
Take breaks: Usually there is one main break including having lunch together that is taken with us. It is recommended to have it at a nice view point. Also you can combine it with an introduction round.
Take photos: For our Gallery and our Social Media we want to have nice photos . Also for the participants it will be a great memory. Try always to take a group photo. Consider people who do not want to be in the photos.
Be patient and nice: Sometimes you might get nervous on the way since you are checking the map most of the time and are worried about getting lost. But it is a good practice to learn to be patient and nice to others.
Consider others: Not everyone is as strong as you, so consider breaks if you see some people are getting tired after a steep hill. We are not a professional hiking group which wants to make records. So there is no rush. The bigger the group is the slower we usually are.
Nobody should get lost: Especially in big groups there are usually sub-groups which walk seperatly. In order not to loose people on the way, you should sometimes wait for the slowest participant. It is recommended to have one person always in the end, that you trust and pushes the group sometimes. Do not loose people, which means if someone is going to the toilet, make sure he/she can find the group again.
Make group atmosphere: This is the most important thing. We are a group, so we need to have a friendly atmosphere. Think about some ice-breaking games and introduction games.
Be open to new cultures: As you might have already read on this website, our group is very international. So whereever you are from you are very welcome! Try to give this open-minded feeling to others as well: Accept cultural differences and try to be sensitive. You will also learn a lot about different countries!
After the event
Write text: We worked quite a lot on our Gallery and we would like to keep it complete and nice. If you appreciate our group and want to help us, it would be nice if you could write a text for about 3 paragraphs a short summary and about the interesting things which happened during the event.
Share photos: Please upload your best photos in the facebook-event.
We also share some selected photos in our gallery and you might help us to choose them if you want.