Small MTB tour in the Hunsrück

From the small parking lot in the town center of Hennweiler, briefly follow the road towards Bruschied. After about 300m, turn left onto Schulstrasse, and at the first opportunity turn right into a dead-end street (only for motor vehicles!) and follow it to the end. Now continue over a small path to the next opportunity to turn left. Follow the country road through a farm until you reach the beginning of a forest where there is a fork in the path. Take the left fork and follow the initially wide, well-accessible forest path into the forest. Stay on the path, which becomes increasingly difficult to traverse, muddier, and eventually turns into a single trail. This section leads through a small valley and ends at a country road (L182). Now follow the country road to the right until you reach the small hamlet of Rudolfshaus. After leaving the village, turn left at some isolated buildings and then immediately right onto another forest path. Follow this path until after about 1.8 km you reach a small country road on the right via a clearing.

Follow the road north briefly, then turn left onto a wide forest path and follow it with a moderate incline to its end on a clearing in a small valley basin. Turn right and follow the field and service road until you reach country road L180. Follow the road until shortly before the entrance to Sulzbach. Here turn left and first follow the path, later the road into the center of Sulzbach. Continue north on L180, passing the turn-off to Bollenbach, until you reach a junction with a rocky path. Turn right onto this path and follow it to the forest edge at the top beginning of a small valley. Now continue along the path, partly as a single trail, partly as a washed-out but somewhat wider forest path along the right hillside of the valley until you reach the main road of the village Rhaunen. Turn left and follow the main road about half a kilometer into the town center.

From the town center back to the forest path and now descend steeply on the Spatzenweg to the next country road. Follow this road along the Idarbach stream until about 1.5 km, where a driveway to a solitary house joins from the right. Turn right into the house's driveway and immediately after the building, a narrow unpaved forest path leads to the left. Take this path along the slope, past a shelter hut, until you can turn left toward Hausen. Follow the path to the country road, then turn right onto the country road and continue on it until after about 700m you reach a junction. Now turn right onto the wide unpaved field and forest path, following it until it ends at the stream (Blickersau). Crossing the stream is done over slippery rocks and along a wire rope. It is a tricky matter to cross the large and wet slabs, using one hand to hold onto the wire rope, and the other to push the bicycle through the stream.

Afterwards, you continue on a partly overgrown and quite muddy path until you reach a former slate quarry. Behind the quarry, a wide, steep path leads up to a viewpoint above the quarry. From here, a narrow single trail (initially with sections where you have to push the bike) descends steeply towards the valley bottom. The trail ends at a wide path, which you descend into the valley bottom to reach a boardwalk over the Hahnenbach. Cross this boardwalk to the other side of the stream and follow the wide forest path uphill to a saddle (from here you can hike up to the Hellkirch castle ruins - not suitable for bikes!)

From the saddle, take the first forest path (from the right), initially along the slope and later back down into the valley floor. After about 800m, you reach a small pond in the valley floor. Continue further in the valley floor in a southerly direction to the next pond and then always follow the wide path following the signposts for Schmidtburg (partly good, partly somewhat difficult to traverse) = also the water experience trail. In a corner of the valley, called Schleifmühle Götzenau, you leave the valley floor and follow the path, sometimes more, sometimes less steeply ascending, until you reach the east portal of the Schmidtburg on the mountain side.

From the Schmidtburg, follow the forest path about 150m eastwards until you can turn sharply right onto another forest path. Follow this until you leave the forest southwest of Schneppenbach. Continue a bit further and then turn right onto a narrow path. Follow this, crossing a small stream, to its end. Now turn left and immediately right again to reach the beginning of the village Bruscheid at the country road L184. Briefly follow the road, then turn right into a residential street, follow it to its end, and then the road becomes a field path. Continue following this until near the end of Bruscheid where you reach a bench. Turn left here and follow the path steeply uphill until you reach district road K5. Follow the district road to the right for about 1.3 km until a field path branches off into a small valley on the right. Follow this field path, sometimes keeping left, sometimes right, until you reach the farm at the beginning of the tour. From the farm, take the same path back to the parking lot as at the beginning of the tour.