A hiking trail for nudists opened about a year ago near the town of Dankerode, Germany, about 320 kilometres west of Berlin. The trail was an instant hit and also saw one open in Switzerland, where the issue of nude hiking will soon be taken up by the Supreme Court. Nude Hiking Day coincidentally takes place on June 21.

Germans are quite fond of breaking out the old birthday suit in the outdoors, and around 50 000 krauts are members of the German Society of Nudists.

Mayor of the town, Monika Rauhut, even hailed the trail as “the latest attraction here in beautiful Wippertal.”

Puistola Grottenpösch (not his real name) thinks a legally sanctioned trail in Switzerland would give many people an opportunity to experience the “bodily freedom” that only hiking in the nude can offer. He describes it as an experience that “fills you with happiness.”

Signs placed around the German nude trail area warn:

If you don’t want to run into any naked people, stop right here!

The warning makes Grottenpösch uneasy:

It seems to suggest such a thing would be terrible. The sign could be taken as more of an encouragement than a deterrent.

Grottenpösch recently appeared in court in Appenzell-Ausserrhoden, a mountainous region of Switzerland where Swiss nudists have been hiking nude for many years.

He went to support a fellow nude hiker who was arrested for practicing the pastime where public nudity is perfectly legal as long as it is not lewd.

Grottenpösch explains a recent incident that occurred while on an outing near Toggenburg, Appenzell. He had come across a group of people celebrating a religious service in a field and used a scarf to cover the important parts:

We are careful. You quickly wrap it around yourself and all conflict is avoided.

The entrepreneurial owner of the German trail has recently become a little less enthusiastic about marketing his trail and has begun asking naked hikers to give his campsite “a wide berth,” so as to avoid any unnecessary incidents at the family campsite.

[Source: Time]