Otterberg - Winter hike Schallbrunntal and Mehlinger Heide

The start of the hike is the parking lot at the Stadthalle in Otterberg.

We follow a short section of the "Hinkelsteinweg" to the east and continue along Lauterer Straße heading south until the town exit.

Between Beutlermühle 6 and Beutlermühle 7 (ruin) we turn left into Appental onto a wide forest path.

We continue hiking the valley on this path until we come across the "Blue-Yellow Bar" marking. At a bench, we turn left and immediately go right uphill, cross the Kohlplatte, and reach the Schallbrunntal with its beautifully situated pond, inviting for a rest.

We continue hiking the valley southwards and, after about 600 meters, see an art installation "The Animal", created by the artist Thomas Gerhards.

From here we follow the themed hiking trail "Hochfelsweg", one of the historic circular hiking trails of the project "Mysterious Time Signs".

First steeply up the stairs, then downhill into Meisental and further, somewhat laboriously uphill to Meisenberg, we reach Amseltal, the access road to ZAK.

At the sandstone sculpture with the wild boars, we keep right, hike downhill for a bit, go up the stairs at the bridge, and follow the marking further up to the height "Budel". We continue this path to Fröhnerhof on a paved road.

We turn left, leave the marking "Hochfelsweg", cross the highway bridge (A63) and now reach the Mehlinger Heide.

At the pavilion, we keep left, stroll through the extensive heath area to the forest, and turn left into the forest, following the sign "Exit / Forest path".

After the end of the path at an information board, we turn right until the marking "Hinkelsteinweg" and walk about 130 meters to the arrow signpost "Streifelsberg".

Here we leave the Hinkelsteinweg again and continue straight on the wide path northwest.

After about 1.6 kilometers, we see on the right trees with a snake-shaped marking. These are particularly preservable trees, pitch pines, from which resin for lamps was previously harvested.

Continuing along the wide path, we come across two markings, first the "Blue-Yellow Bar" and second the "Hinkelsteinweg".

We now follow the Hinkelsteinweg to the east, reach Otterberg into the street "Am Rotenberg" and continue to follow the marking over Johann-Roos-Straße, street "Am Sixmeisterwoog", tennis courts, Bachstade, Kneipp facility, and Lauterer Straße back to the starting point, the parking lot "An der Stadthalle" in Otterberg.