Eibenwaldrunde - per Rad Neues auf alten Wegen entdecken

Please note that from Paterzell you have to drive on the narrow, busy district road for a while.

The starting point is the Ammerbrücke bridge on the state road in the direction of Wessobrunn. There are parking spaces nearby at the Hochlandhalle. When Weilheim was threatened by flooding, people used to make a pilgrimage to the Ammerbrücke bridge. They carried the Blessed Sacrament on the procession and the four Gospels were solemnly read at the Ammer Bridge. From the bridge, the route heads south along the western Ammerdamm. Willow bushes line the riverbank. This tree species, which is typical of floodplain locations, is often used to secure the banks.

For centuries, the Ammer was used as a transportation route to bring timber from the mountains to the more populated Alpine foothills. The tree trunks were thrown into the water one by one, which is known as drifting. In Weilheim, the logs, mainly spruce and fir, were taken out of the water and sold, used for construction or transported onwards. Rafting reached its peak in the 16th and 17th centuries. In 1611, a rafting yard with a collecting basin was built in Weilheim in the area of today's Holzhofstraße. With the advent of the railroad era, rafting declined more and more, but there is evidence of it on the Ammer until the beginning of the Second World War. However, the Ammer can also be dangerous for people. For centuries, there have been reports of floods occurring at irregular intervals, sometimes causing major damage and costing lives.

Examples include the floods of 1910, 1940, 1946 and 1999. At Whitsun 1999, the water level of the Ammer rose by 4.5 meters within 24 hours and flooded parts of Weilheim despite the sandbags used to raise the dams. Such floods can occur particularly in spring when snowmelt in the mountainous catchment area and heavy rainfall coincide.

You reach the rural village of Oderding via Weidachweg. At a typical farmhouse with a projecting roof and shutters, turn right into Unterdorfstraße. Some of the houses here are built from tuff, which was probably quarried in Polling.

Away from Oderding, the route climbs up a moraine wall that stretches from Peißenberg to Waitzacker. It represents the third and therefore most recent retreat stage of the Ammersee glacier 18,000 years ago. Cross the tracks and pass the hamlet of Schönau to reach the asphalt road Peißenberg - Paterzell. Here you turn right and reach the hamlet of Kugelsbühl. After cycling through the forest for a while, you can see the Rott valley and the glider airfield.

Always following the green cycle sign, the view opens up towards Zellsee with its reed beds and groups of birch trees. These accompany the route to Moosmühle. Zellsee - a paradise for water birds. At the beginning of the 15th century, the monks of Wessobrunn dammed up the Rott stream to create the Zellsee. Such ponds were of particular importance at the time, as they were used to breed edible fish, which served as food on the numerous fasting days. The southern part of the Zellsee, which is separated from the northern part used for intensive pond farming by the so-called Suppendamm (transverse dam), is a paradise for water birds in particular with its small bays, reed islands and large areas of reeds together with the adjacent unused small ponds. Birds of prey such as black and red kites, marsh harriers and tree falcons also find food here. The lake also serves as a resting place for migratory birds in spring and fall, and even rare species such as ospreys and great egrets can be observed here. The birds seem to have become accustomed to flying at the nearby Paterzell sports airfield.

At the Moosmühle mill, the path turns right before heading up to Paterzell. If you need refreshment in between, the "Zum Eibenwald" inn in Paterzell is open to you (not closed!), where you can also admire the yew trees.

The marked route continues on the road towards Zellsee-Wessobrunn to the official parking lot, which invites you to visit the Paterzell yew path. Here you should park your bike, pick up a leaflet and walk the approx. 1 km long nature trail. At 10 stations, you can learn about the yew tree and this "fairytale forest" in a very illustrative way.

The yew forest near Paterzell was first placed under protection in 1939 and designated a nature reserve in 1984. It is home to Germany's largest population of yew trees, of which around 800 are over 200 years old, which corresponds to almost 50% of the population. The oldest trees are even over 700 years old. However, this is not a pure stand, but a near-natural mixed forest with spruce, fir, beech and other tree species. These grow on tufa that is sometimes several meters thick. The latter is formed when very calcareous groundwater seeps out and lime is deposited in solid form. The tuff itself was quarried in the Eibenwald for many centuries and used for numerous buildings in the Pfaffenwinkel. As the slope is no longer flooded with lime-rich water due to water extraction, the formation of lime tufa can now only be observed in a few places.

The yew is the oldest native tree species, having been around for a good 150 million years. Apart from the red fruit, it is poisonous, which is one reason for the rare occurrence of this conifer species. The trees used to be removed because their branches posed a deadly danger to horses, which were sensitive to the poison taxine. In addition, yew wood was sought after for bows and crossbows. The Wessobrunn monastery used it for the window frames of the buildings and the branches were used to make wreaths. Current threats to the Paterzell yew forest include storms, bark beetle infestation and game browsing. Young yew shoots are often bitten by deer without causing any damage to the latter, as they only eat as much of it as they can tolerate.

The yew poses no danger to humans either; in fact, parts of it are used today to treat cancer. If you find the yew forest too messy and untidy, there is a good reason for this: in this nature reserve, the fallen dead trees are left lying around, as they provide a habitat for thousands of organisms such as beetles and fungi and are therefore of great importance for species conservation.

From the parking lot, the route continues along the road to the hamlet of Zellsee. This has been owned by the Wessobrunn monastery since 1419 and was bought by the municipality of Wessobrunn after secularization. After crossing the state road (underpass), keep right until the next junction, which leads left up to Lichtenau.

The hamlet of Weghaus lies opposite the junction. Since around 1460, this was the home of path makers who used to be responsible for maintaining the road between Weilheim and Wessobrunn, for which they collected tolls at the Rott bridge.

In addition to its own pastures, Wessobrunn Monastery also had the right to drive cattle in the Lichtenau. In this context, there were years of disputes with the Weilheimers before the boundaries were redefined in a settlement in 1711. The scattered settlement in Lichtenau is relatively young. It was not until the 1930s that a large settlement project was drawn up to create fifty farmsteads for new settlers, mainly Germans from South Tyrol. The ground-breaking ceremony took place in 1939, but due to the Second World War, only a few areas could be drained before it ended in 1945, only a small part of the planned paths were laid out and only three farms were built. However, the project was taken up again after the war, as numerous displaced persons and refugees had to be accommodated. As a result, estates were built in Lichtenau for new residents, but also for locals. Today, as everywhere in the foothills of the Alps, pasture and grassland use dominates here, which is ideal due to the soil conditions and the relatively high rainfall.

After the flat area (Würm ground moraine) of Lichtenau, the trail descends steeply through the forest into the former Ammersee basin. This step in the terrain was also created when the glacier melted.

On the asphalted Madenbergweg trail, the route now continues through the Weilheimer Moos. The once extensive silting moor, part of the moors in the area of the former Ammersee lake, is now a colorful mosaic. However, intensive agricultural use predominates. Only fragmented remnants of litter meadows, birch swamp forests and willow scrub remain. Interspersed with these are also peat extraction and water areas. This mosaic of habitats is of great importance as a breeding, resting and feeding area, especially for birds.

Waterfowl, meadow breeders and birds of prey are worth mentioning, while whinchats, reed warblers, corn buntings and reed buntings are particular treasures. According to the maintenance and development plan drawn up in 1999 for the Schwattachfilz, part of the Weilheimer Moos, the northern area may continue to be used intensively for agriculture, while the southern part is designated for nature conservation.

The Ammer is reached via a paved path at the renaturalized Unterhausen weir. From there, the route heads upstream back to the starting point. If you want to let the tour sink in a little longer, you can linger on one of the benches.