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Length of full hike: 9.8 km
Difficulty: Medium
Trail marker: Black S5
Starting point: Parkplatz am Lustgarten, Neue Lustgartenstraβe, 64711 Erbach im Odenwald. You can also use the Schloss Erbach (aka Erbacher Schloss) as your destination in the GPS. It’s the parking lot right in front of the Schloss, Rathaus, restaurants, etc. You’re starting out in a Marktplatz.
Highlights: Brudergrund Wildpark (feeding the deer); open fields with views of the Odenwald.
Details:
As soon as you exit town, you hit hill. It’s a steady incline through thin forest, past an outdoor chapel, through a thickening forest, and on to a wildpark where you can feed deer. We purchased a box of feed for 1€ (the size of a box of Thin Mints, not a handful of seed from a bubble gum machine).
Note about hiking around Brudergrund with the kids: Feeding the deer is a draw for taking a kid on a hike, yes. HOWEVER, if your kid isn’t into hiking, this stop is very early on in a 9.8 km hike. There is a parking lot at the Brudergrund, skipping the incline, and you can hike as far as you want through wooded, maintained trails without taking the hike’s full loop. It’s nice if you want to take the kids on a shorter hike and feed the animals.
The trails were even and well-maintained.
The first 5 km were uphill, the second half downhill. As you’re approaching maybe the third kilometer, you come out of the woods into more open land, eventually hitting the top of the open hill and highest peak of your hike. This peak affords beautiful views of the Odenwald.
Now, as is not uncommon in Germany, the trails pass through farmland and, at times, what appears to be someone’s back yard. Fret not, it does not mean you have missed a turn. It means that the trail goes through someone’s back yard.
A short walk along the forest and you’re back into the thick of it until eventually you can see the town below.
Finally, you return to town and are following the trail through the narrow streets of Erbach until you hit the Parkplatz.
We had dinner waiting for us in the crock pot, so we weren’t able to enjoy any of the restaurants open in town (and it was a Sunday), but it’d be a great reward to sit at a Biergarten, Café, or Restaurant after finishing the hike.
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