Johanniskreuz Tour

Varied mountain bike tour from Rodalben to Johanniskreuz with some very long trails. The ride through the Schwarzbach valley to Johanniskreuz is an experience.

Description

The tour begins in a relaxed manner with a ride through the town of Rodalben. But immediately after this roll-in on the road, the route heads straight into a long, hilly trail. This stretches along the slope on a sandy surface, interrupted by two forest road crossings. It then climbs uphill for a while before riding rapidly along a wide path to the L498 country road. We cross this road and conquer another long climb. After this, we are rewarded with a long, flowing downhill trail. The stones and rocks invite you to play, but can also be easily bypassed. Above the small village of Merzalben, we continue along a forest road. Here you not only have a beautiful view of Merzalben, but also of the nearby Gräfenstein Castle. We continue our varied ride on forest roads and short trails. The terrain becomes increasingly rocky and we cycle past some beautiful rock formations into the village of Leimen. Here there is also the option of shortening the tour and taking the direct loop back. If we ride the long loop, we cross the village and then turn off-road again. This is followed by a very challenging trail with lots of stone ledges and small rocks, which is also very steep, especially towards the end. To recover, we then head downhill on a long, wide forest path. Now we have a long flat stage ahead of us with only slight inclines through a side valley. This wide, easy-to-ride path leads us directly along the Schwarzbach stream, past the Falkensteigereck hut, the charcoal ovens marked with a sign and beautiful ponds and lakes, to Johanniskreuz.

In Johanniskreuz, there is the opportunity to take a longer break, for example in the House of Sustainability. We then cross the main road several times to ride along forest paths and trails and then up the steep climb to the Eschkopf tower. The view from the tower over the Palatinate Forest is gigantic. After this highlight, we ride back to Leimen after a short descent and forest road ride. After a short road section, we head off-road again. We ride through the middle of the forest on flowing trails to Clausen. After passing through the village, we take a steep forest road downhill. Be careful: there are some deep concrete water channels to negotiate here, which we shouldn't ride over too quickly. Once at the bottom, we take another steeper trail ascent to our final descent. We pass the Hilschberghaus, where we can take a final break or return directly to Rodalben, the starting point.

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