Rodachtal-Weg KC 11

At the northern end of the hospital parking lot, we cross the road at the Kronach bridge using the Kreuzberg Trail KC 13 markings and walk along the flood embankment past the last houses in the town to Biegenmühle. From time to time we recognize the terraced steps on the fortress slope, reminiscent of the sandstone quarrying. We walk along the Kronach, with its fortified and alder-lined banks. We pass a raft bridge, a ford and steps in the riverbed that slow down the flow.

At the height of the pond, we leave the path and keep left on the Wiesensteig path up the Kronachtal valley, which is covered in trees and bushes, to Dörfles with the neo-Gothic style Catholic chapel of St. Joseph, built in 1883. In and around the village there are numerous figures of saints (mostly statues of the Virgin Mary) in the gables of houses, crosses, wayside shrines and chapels. On the outskirts of the village, we come across the markings of the Frankenweg, which will now lead us to above Unterrodach. We follow this marking to the right, past the lime works through the forest and later in the open until we reach a meadow. We cross it uphill to the left, walk past the water reservoir and cross the road to the stump of the old Rennesberg lime tree, the young lime tree and the two marterns. The former natural monument fell victim to hurricane Kyrill in January 2007.

We briefly follow the road uphill and soon leave it at the edge of a meadow to the right, heading towards the forest. There, a comfortable path leads us through a beautiful hedgerow landscape with a view of the Kreuzberg area. We then continue straight ahead on the meadow path and finally reach the church, town hall and the rafting museum in Unterrodach via a steep local road. We take the Fischbachgrund path (blue "8") and first cross the bridge to Sachsenhausen, a district of Unterrodach, which the raftsmen named after Sachsenhausen in Frankfurt. We follow the Rodach, but soon we come to a narrow footpath on the left via Jahnstraße to the petrol station on the B 173. We cross the road (take care!) and walk past the sewage treatment plant on the edge of the village to the footpath and cycle path, which leads us through the now quite wide valley of the Rodach to Höfles.

In Höfles, we follow the Fischbachgrund path to the left until shortly before the Rodach bridge and then turn right onto a small path, which we follow along the Rodach along a pleasant meadow path to the main road. Here we cross under the Rodach bridge and reach the road via a staircase.

A short detour (200 m) to the village of Vogtendorf, the birthplace of Johann Caspar Zeuß, is worthwhile because of the historic town hall with its half-timbered upper floor and ridge turret.

Shortly after the bridge, however, our path leads us back to the left onto a meadow path that takes us to the Gänsmühle mill. We pass the estate on the right and cross a meadow to reach the Rußmühle mill. Now we continue along the Rodach on a paved path, past the weir, to the Detschramühle and finally, with a view of the fortress, to a road on the edge of the town of Kronach and on to the first set of traffic lights. There we turn right and walk to the next set of traffic lights on the B 173. We walk on the main road for about 50 meters to the right and turn left on the bridge and walk straight on through the town. When we come across the Fischbachgrund path and the Kreuzberg path KC 13 again, we are not far from our starting point near the hospital.