Lackenberg

The Lackenberg stands in the northern foothills of the Bayerischer Wald, its flat summit marking the frontier between Germany and the Czech Republic. At 1 337 metres it is one of the loftiest points in this borderland, yet it remains little visited. The Laka, the smallest and highest of the five glacial lakes in the Böhmerwald, lies on its northern slope. The Lackenberg offers no summit cross, no rocky outcrop, no panoramic view. Instead the highest point is a damp meadow where peat mosses grow. Walkers usually reach it either from Zwieslerwaldhaus via the long route through Ruckowitzschachten or along the former Iron Curtain line that once made the border dangerous. The Marchbach rises on the south-eastern flank near the Kanapee spring. The whole area belongs to the Nationalpark Bayerischer Wald, a protected landscape of forests and open moors. Few locals climb the Lackenberg because there is nothing to see but the quiet bog and the line of the frontier.