Hikes in Heretsried

The Geological Landscape Trail at Staufenberg Staufenberg is known for its beaver ice age gravels, named after the Biberbach stream that springs just a few kilometers further east at its northern base. Their special significance lies in the fact that they are the oldest gravel deposits from glacial meltwater rivers in the entire northern Alpine foreland. The reason they can still be found today at such a high elevation on Staufenberg is partly due to the ongoing uplift of the Alpine foreland throughout the Ice Age and partly due to their resistance. The hike mostly leads through the forest, where there is much to experience. However, one should not set off too late because Bonstetten's local mountain is said to be haunted at night by the Kapelleberg Poodle – a large black, ghostly dog that has frightened numerous passersby and supposedly blocked their way...

​The starting and ending point of our loop hike is the Pfafferberg 1 hiking parking lot, located on the road connecting Affaltern and Lützelburg. The hiking trail signs—which are no longer entirely legible—point in the right direction: We follow the paved road southward. About 200 m past the “30 km/h” road signs, at the end of a former clearing, we turn right (sign: “Staatsforstbetrieb frei”).  The gravel path leads downhill. At a T-intersection near a hunting blind, we turn right and continue slightly downhill. At the Y-intersection, we keep to the left. From Mondorf, the sound of a rooster crowing drifts over to us. At the next intersection, we turn right and, at the edge of the forest, reach a junction with signpost 2. We are now in the Schlaue Valley. The sign “Lützelburg 4.7 km” shows us the way. We hike along the finely graveled path toward it. After a right-hand curve, we turn sharply left (signpost toward Gablingen and Heretsried). We walk briskly through a rather monotonous spruce forest to Lake Eglesee 3; once the lake comes into view, we follow the bike path markings to the left, which leads us to the information board about the Burgstall ruins on the Kirchberg. Eglesee is located in what was once a marshland area. It was used as a fish pond until the end of the last century; now it is intended to revert to a natural biotope. You can walk around Eglesee on a footpath. Kirchberg Castle is said to have once stood on the hill spur above the lake—please read the information board. From the information board, we follow the forest path eastward through the Bachtal valley for a short distance. At the first intersection, the bike path signs point to the left—but we take the path on the right uphill. On the flatter terrain, we keep to the left and soon emerge from the forest. We catch sight of Lützelburg with the tower of St. George’s parish church and the former water tower 4, toward which we walk: first along the edge of the forest, then left onto a paved road.  Near the Lützelburg town sign, we find an information board about the former clay pit 5 located behind it, which is designated as an FFH protected area and, unfortunately, may not be entered regularly even by nature lovers. Anyone who wants to experience the view from the Heidkopf (521 m) to the southeast 6, must first walk into the village and turn right onto Hafnerstraße. After passing the last houses, at the left-hand curve in the road, we then turn right and head up to the “summit,” which is more of a flat ridge. The view still stretches far across the countryside. We stroll back into the village along the familiar path and turn right until we reach the right-of-way sign. Across the street, we see the cemeterycemetery chapel 7. We walk along the cemetery wall to the left and note the Fatima Chapel on the other side of the street. At the corner of the cemetery wall, we turn right onto a footpath, cross a residential street, and, at house number 20, descend along another footpath to the sports fields.   We walk past the sports fields and the “Theaterheim” sports restaurant (a Greek restaurant; a place to stop for a bite to eat if desired; there’s also a café in town). Now we keep to the left onto Muttershofener Straße and, just past the town sign, take the dirt road in front of a small spruce grove. It curves left into the forest, where we come to the hidden St. Mary’s Chapel 8. At the chapel, we take the path on the left and, after descending into the valley, come to a slightly wider trail, which we follow close to the meadow. Before a fenced-in property at the edge of the forest, we keep to the right and continue along the edge of the forest. We emerge at a hiking parking lot and follow the sign to the Naturfreundehaus St. Klaus 9. You can stay overnight there; on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, you can sometimes buy drinks and snacks.  From the Naturfreundehaus, we continue along the gravel path and turn left at a T-intersection (red and green trail markers). We walk downhill and, in the valley, reach intersection 1 with Tour 27–j, recognizable by the red and green markings. From there, we turn left onto the meadow. There are more trail signs by the stream: We take the wide path toward Biberbach and Feigenhofen (red and green signs) and follow it to junction 2 with Tour 27–k. This junction isn’t easy to spot: There’s a row of larch trees near a lumber yard, and the familiar trail markers are also present. While on Tour 27 we’d continue straight ahead—that is, follow the trail signs—we’llwe now turn left and hike gradually uphill in a northwesterly direction. We ignore a marked trail branching off to the left. At the highest point, we head steeply downhill and then uphill again for a short distance to a T-intersection on the left. Here, we turn left and hurry back to the Pfafferberg 1 hiking parking lot.

The tour passes by all sculptures of the Lauschtour "LandArt Bonstetten", but is extended at some points. Therefore, it reaches a length of 8.4km. The length of the original Lauschtour is 5.6km. The link for this can be found further below. If you take the large round and run the Lauschtour app in parallel, you can listen to an audio file with explanations at all sculptures.

Tour south of Emersacker. First to the ice ponds, then through the forest to the Hubert Chapel, The Hubert Chapel is part of the "Seven Chapels" project by the Siegfried and Elfriede Denzel Foundation. https://7kapellen.de/die-kapellen/kapelle-emersacker-von-wilhelm-huber/

Landart sculptures by Hama Lohrmann. Audioguide download at www.bayerisch-schwaben.de/a-lauschtour-landart-bonstetten

​The municipality of Bonstetten, in collaboration with the Augsburger Land Community Foundation, the Augsburg Recreation Area Association, and the Westliche Wälder Nature Park Association—and with support from the Augsburg district—has created a geological nature trail, and we’ll explore its six stations on this hike. However, we’ll be taking a different route than originally planned, which will make for a more exciting hike. We’ll start in Bonstetten at Parking Lot 1 across from the Bräustüble restaurant. At the maypole, we’ll look at the information signs, walk to the village park, and turn left behind the red bookcase toward St. Stephan Parish Church 2. A wooden church likely stood on this site even before the first documentedmention of the village, and the area around the church may have been part of a castle complex in the 10th century. The wooden church was replaced by a stone church in the second half of the 12th century. Around 1500, the Romanesque structure was demolished and a late-Gothic choir was built; shortly after 1600, the Romanesque nave was also demolished and replaced with a new one. This building stood until 1980, when it had to be replaced due to disrepair. From the church, we walk along Kirchstraße—which cuts deep into the terrain—toward the cemetery. A few steps further on, we come to the Lourdes Chapel 3, built in 1885. Next to it are panels 2 and 3 of the “Staufenberg-Bonstetten Geological Trail,” which we study carefully. The hiking trail markers—blue, green, and red bars—all point to the right; nevertheless, we continue straight ahead on Kirchstraße. After passing the residential properties and gardens at the edge of the forest, we enter the woods. We stay on the widest path and ignore the side trails branching off to the left and right. About 600 m from the edge of the forest, at the first Y-intersection 4, the path to the left leads to the Ganghofer Spring (see Tour 37)—we continue on the wide main path, so we keep to the right! At the second Y-intersection 5, after about 400 m heading north, we turn right. Shortly before the Hutgraben, we spot the Nagelfluh in the old gravel pit 6. We’ve already learned how this “Herrgottsbeton” (God’s concrete) was formed at the Lourdes Chapel. We cross the Hutgraben and keep to the left, heading up to a forest road 7, which we follow to the right. After a good kilometer of hiking in a southeasterly direction—ignoring side trails—we come to a signposted intersection 8. We follow the sign toward Emersacker and Lauterbrunn (red bar) as well as the “Around Bonstetten” sign (green bar). We then walk about 600 m north—first uphill, then downhill into the upper valley of the Schweinsgraben 9. There, we turn sharply to the right. About 400 m further on, after a left-hand curve, we turn right again, thus remaining in the upper valley of the Schweinsgraben. The trail climbs out of the valley—we ignore the trails branching off to the left and right and reach the 550-meter-high Buchberg j—at the highest point there is a Y-intersection. We take the left forest trail, heading east. At the next opportunity, we turn left and walk north to the intersection by a small pond k. There, we take the trail to the right. We leave the forest and continue straight ahead along the forest edge to Station 5 of the nature trail l, where we learn about the landscape north of the Staufenberg. Afterward, we continue along the forest edge to the tree-lined gravel road m, where we turn right and head into the forest. About 1.3 km from the edge of the forest—staying on the wide gravel road the entire time—we reach the Telekom radio tower n. About 400 m further on, atop the 577 m high Staufenberg o, stands the Herrgottsruh Chapel. Next to it, we’ll find Sign 4 of the “Staufenberg-Bonstetten Geological Nature Trail.” Unfortunately, the Staufenberg offers no view. After a short break, we head back along the same path to the Telekom radio tower n and turn right at the end of the fence. We walk downhill to the edge of the forest and turn left there to visit Station 6 of the Geo-Trail p. After this detour, we continue walking slightly downhill toward the farm buildings and then straight ahead to the village. At the intersection of Birkenstraße and Hohe Straße q,we take a few steps to the left and then immediately turn right into the so-called sunken path, which leads through a green strip close to the main street. At the end of the sunken path, we turn right and then left, then follow the main street to the right until we reach Parking Lot 1.

From Achsheim to Adelsried through the western forests.

Aussichtsreiche Wanderung von Leitershofen nach Achsheim über Aystetten und Rettenbergen am 1. Februar 2025

Vom kleinen Achsheim gehts durch die Wälder zum Perterhof, wo man schön einkehren kann und dann wieder in einer Runde zurück.

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