Red earth: The sandstone trails, which wind their way under gnarled pines around bizarre rocky outcrops and through thousand-year-old castle ruins down to the half-timbered winegrowing villages, make the Palatinate Forest an absolute top spot for bikers. The best thing is that every metre of the 900-kilometre network of designated trails in the Palatinate Forest Mountain Bike Park is legal, and the trails are dry again in a flash even after rain - whereas the après-bike in the villages at the German Wine Gate is more of a wet and cheerful affair...
The two-day tour through the south
The long tour through the southern Palatinate Forest starts in Vorderweidenthal and leads through a forest landscape characterised by red sandstone. Total route data: 68.8 kilometres and 2600 vertical metres. The trail sections almost always have a difficulty level of S1 and are therefore also suitable for beginners. However, you should expect occasional short S2/S3 passages (rock steps, ramps and roots).
Stage 1: Vorderweidenthal - Schweigen
- Length: 36.2 kilometres
- Uphill: 1250 metres in altitude
- Duration: 4 hours
Tour description
From the car park at the cemetery in Vorderweidenthal, the route heads straight up to the Lindelbrunn castle ruins with the Cramerhaus forest restaurant. You continue uphill to Vogelkopf, where the first riding technique highlight of the day awaits: a fine single trail that begins with a narrow rocky passage at Kellerfels and leads to Klingbach. Via the Silzer Linde, the route leads along secluded forest paths to Blankenborn, then down to Bad Bergzabern on a long and flowing singletrail. After a lunch break in the small spa town, you ride parallel to the road to Böllenborn and up to the Drei Eichen hikers' car park. Cycle around Farrenberg and Großberg on the best forest tracks down to Oberotterbach and through the vineyards to the wine-growing village of Schweigen-Rechtenbach. You can spend the night at the Hotel Schweigener Hof right next to the German Wine Gate. Accommodation information at www.schweigen-rechtenbach.de
You can download the GPS data for stage 1 here in the Delius Klasing tour portal:
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Stage 2: Schweigen - Vorderweidenthal
- Length: 32.6 kilometres
- Uphill: 1350 metres in altitude
- Duration: 4 hours
Tour description
Rollercoaster rides and tasty biking tips in the Bergzabern region: the second day of the tour begins with the Grenzgänger trail, which leads up and down past old border stones directly along the border with France to the Oberer Abtskopf. From up here, you ride rapidly along a wide forest path above St. Germanshof to the main road. The narrow trail now takes you uphill for a long time. The hairpin bends at the end are a challenge for experts. You cross the Mundatwald forest and reach the Stone Table. Here the route is very technical at first, then flows downhill to the Drei Eichen car park (see day 1). Then down to the main road and along secluded forest paths past the Hohlstein to Lauterschwan and finally over the Hirschberg back to the starting point in Vorderweidenthal.
You can download the GPS data for the 2nd stage of the tour from the Delius Klasing tour portal:
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Information about the MTB tour Pfälzerwald
Legal camping
There are 15 natural campsites between Guttenberg in the southern Palatinate and Kalmit in the north. The highlight: they are all secret. You book a night in the forest at www.trekking-pfalz.de, pay online and receive the exact GPS data on your smartphone. The nature campsites have toilets and fireplaces. Our idyllic overnight spot was in a clearing in the beech forest near the ruins of Guttenberg Castle. We were happy to put up with an extra ten minutes for this.
Guided tours & riding technique
Patrick Wiedemann is the caretaker of the Palatinate Forest. No one knows the area better than the head of the Trailrock riding school. He also rents out his Trailrock Lodge in Dahn with sleeping accommodation for up to ten bikers. Info: trailrock-lodge.com
The BIKE Report: Forest secret
The forest. A symbol of Mother Earth's peace of mind. A nightmare and playground for children of all ages. The forest has always had a very special attraction for me too. Calming on the one hand, but somehow also terrifying. The forest is deeply rooted in the human mind as a forbidden, desirable place. A realm of shadows and freedom at the same time. Here you can listen to the concert of birds, but also to the divine silence. "I go into the forest to lose my mind and find my soul", once said John Muir (1838-1914), one of the forefathers of nature conservation. Not such a bad idea, especially in these times. One that more and more mountain bikers are following. Including me. So I call my mate Patrick, who lives right next to what is probably Germany's biggest forest playground for bikers. It's hard to believe, but a third of the entire country is forested. And in the south-west of the country lies the sun-drenched Palatinate Forest: our largest oxygen power station in terms of area.
By trails here, we don't mean barren forest tracks
The Palatinate Forest-North Vosges biosphere reserve alone is almost as large as the Saarland. And the experience in this forest is particularly impressive when you spend a night there. That's exactly what I intend to do: Enjoying the sound of silence for a night under the dense canopy of beech leaves - were it not for the forest spirits who will play tricks on me in the dark of night. "900 kilometres for scouts." The marketing claim of the Pfälzerwald mountain bike park sounds promising. And anyone who has ever been here knows that trails really don't mean dull forest tracks. The Palatinate is criss-crossed by an almost endless network of the finest single trails. And unlike on the other side of the Rhine plain, in Baden-Württemberg, bikers here are not scourged by a two-metre rule. On the contrary. The people of the Palatinate are as cosy as they are biker-friendly. "It can happen here that a hiker says to you: 'Don't ride down here, there's a much better trail up ahead'," says Michèle. A downhill and enduro racer who is usually just called Mitch. She also teaches riding technique courses at Patrick's bike school, lives in Trier and actually has a normal office job - but can be found outside much more often. Of course, anyone who completes the GR20 in Corsica, one of the toughest long-distance trails in Europe, alone and in ten days can't spend much time at their desk. Her rather tough nickname is not for nothing.
At the start of our tour in the small village of Vorderweidenthal, Mitch immediately takes over the reins and checks my equipment: "Tent, sleeping bag, insulating mat?" Yes, I've got it with me. "Lighter?" Logo. "Cooking utensils and rubbish bag?" Sure! The fully packed rucksacks make the shock absorbers smack quietly as we try them out. Patrick first has to top up the pump. But then we finally set off. From the cemetery - hopefully not a bad omen - it's straight to the point without any preliminaries: up to Lindelbrunn Castle, visible from afar. And after a short breather at the Cramerhaus forest restaurant, continue uphill to the Vogelskopf. This is where the whimsical natural architecture of the Palatinate Forest becomes apparent for the first time: water, wind and weather have moulded the soft sandstone into extraordinary sculptures.
The Kellerfels on the Vogelskopf is one such structure. This natural archway is the appropriate starting point for one of these legendary and beautiful singletrail descents in the Palatinate Forest. Patrick and Mitch are completely in their element here, using natural ramps for small jumps and skilfully letting the rear wheels float around the serpentines in a high arc. Arriving at the bottom of the road by the Klingbach stream, we knock the dusty red earth off our trousers. A hint of Moab fuels our appetite for the adventure ahead. For two hours, we wind our way through the endless loops of singletrack until we finally reach our campsite.
Natural campsites in the middle of the forest
In the Palatinate Forest, it is actually officially permitted to spend a night under the stars and make a fire in keeping with your status. Legal trekking sites make it possible. Between Kalmit, the local mountain of Neustadt an der Weinstraße, and the Bergzaberner Land in the south of the Palatinate Forest, there are 15 such natural camping sites. Their exact location is kept top secret. So you don't feel like you're on Potsdamer Platz on a Saturday evening, but rather like you're on a desert island. "You book online," says Patrick. "And as soon as you have paid the 10 euro fee per person, you receive the GPS data for your bivouac site." Simple and ingenious! "The wealth of a man can be measured by the things he can do without without losing his good humour," says Mitch, quoting the pioneer of dropoutism Henry David Thoreau. Just as we realise that we still have to pitch our tent. 1900 extra grams that we could have done without. A sleeping bag and insulating mat are actually more than enough here under the old beech trees. But then Patrick tells us about a night of horror he once experienced, in which a line of ants stretched from one ear to the other - and that convinces Mitch of the need to pitch the tent after all.
We sit around the cosy crackling beechwood fire for a long time. And the certainty of good company and a relaxing shot of rum keep the dark thoughts out of my head for a few more hours. But as the campfire goes out, my sense of sight is switched off and my other senses come to life. I smell the slowly rotting plants in the humus, hear insects crawling. A rustling, a soft snorting, a smacking. Little hunters on the prowl. A little Hitchcock film is playing in my head. Is someone there? Hardly. Who would stalk through the dark forest for two hours on a Saturday evening to assassinate three innocent bikers? Unfortunately, my head cinema isn't showing a comedy today, only horror. Confused fantasies of the Palatinate haunt my mind half the night. A nightmare.
Along the border stones to France
At some point, I jerk out of my half-sleep. I have to go to the loo, but I don't feel like it. It's just too warm in my sleeping bag. It will probably be dawn soon anyway. My tiredness must have finally won out over the urge to urinate. In any case, I only really wake up when the sun is already peeking through the beech canopy. We had actually wanted to get back in the saddle and ride the Grenzgängerweg. A trail that winds along the border stones to France and leads up and down to the 420 metre high Oberer Abtskopf. A long climb on a beautiful single trail is also on the programme. You can't do that without mocha for breakfast, I think. Unfortunately, it's only accompanied by the power bars we nibbled on yesterday. True to the motto "Leave your bivouac site cleaner than you found it", we add a litter-picking session, stuff everything into our overstuffed rucksacks and leave the jays and sparrows back in their territory. When we finally roll off in the direction of civilisation, they cheer wildly after us - almost as if they are happy to finally have the forest to themselves again.
