Watzmann-Hochkönig South-Loop: Stage 3: Golling – Ramsau/Hintersee

From the marketplace of Golling, we ride down to the train crossing, cross the Salzach bridge and on the left bank of the river Salzach continue along the Tauern Cycle Path, relatively flat to Hallein. After the Salzach bridge, continue straight and after the motorway underpass we keep right (facing the elevated St. Nikolai Church). At the next junction we keep to the left, past the Torrener Hof, and continue north. At the next settlement, switch at the underpass back onto the other side of the highway, ride past the sawmill and arrive at the Salzach bridge (connecting Kuchl). Our tour continues however straight on and crosses the highway at the next settlement, after a short climb. We then keep to the right. On a narrow paved road, it continues now to Hallein and past the Altarm with its sports facilities. At the clubhouse, we turn left into the Pingitzzerkai and continue along the river Salzach, over the bridge, into the centre (or over the town bridge to the Perner island with parking). Those who don't want to see the centre can continue the tour with a steep climb to Bad Dürrnberg up to the Zinkenkogel (approx. 840 m altitude) starting from the Pingitzzerkai. At the Pingitzzerkai, we turn left at the Neumayrplatz via the Dorrekstraße, Hallburgstrasse and Gamperstraße to the Winterstallstrasse (narrow steep paved road) and follow the MTB Route No. 18 Zinkenkogel. This leads past Winterstall, Schornhöhe, Hocheck (978 m) and Predigtstuhl and continues left, with a very steep rise along the chairlifts/T-bar lifts to the mountain station of Zinkenstüberl. At the last bend, about 250 m from the mountain station, we turn left onto the footpath, which later acts as a forest road leading down to the Rossfeldstraße. There we turn left, pass the toll station and ride about 11 km on the Rossfeldstrasse. Up to the parking lot at Ahornbüchsenkopf, with a beautiful view of the Salzach Valley, the route goes uphill and then downhill. Not quite 5 km after the parking lot, we turn left onto a forest road, cross the road after about 500 m, leading diagonally right from Obersalzberg to Kehlstein, and continue in the direction of Ligeretalm and Scharitzkehlalm. Relatively parallel we now ride, accompanied by a magnificent view of Berchtesgaden, down to the end of the valley "Endstal", where we stand in front of the gigantic rock walls of the Hohen Gölls (2,522 m). Over at the green covered Scharitzkehlalm, we turn left into the Scharitzkehlstraße. Up the Scharitzkehlstraße and then down the Vorderbrandstraße about 5 km, then right relatively steep down to Schwöb (impessive ice age moraine formations). In Schwöb, we turn left on the old Königsseer Straße, cross to the left the Königsseer main road down to the Königsseer Ache. Before the bridge, we turn onto the Königsseer Weg and ride upstream, shortly before the campsite, we continue under the Schornstrasse, and reach the power station, which we cross and keep left. After this we ride along the ice ring Königssee and at the beginning of the forest, turn right up along the toboggan run to Hofreit, where we turn left into the Zulehenweg. Now, the route takes us along the edge of the forest to Waldhäuser and Oberschönau, then left to Hinterschönau. After the houses at Stanzer, a very steep and rocky footpath leads down serpentine-like to the Ramsauer Ache. Past the Wimbach, continue right over the Ramsauer Ache and turn then left onto Berchtesgaden street, which we leave again after about 800 m turning left into the village of Ramsau. At the church, we turn towards Hintersee along the ache. Immediately after crossing the bridge, we turn right and climb the old road to the lake. At the Northern end of the Hintersee (lake) the route continues left and along the beautiful west shore (with hotels & boat rentals).