Distance: 14,10km
Difficulty: Medium
Max. Altitude: 1565m
This hike has been completed on 7th November, according to the directions on outooractive.com.
Jochberg is another of the classic autumn hikes in the Bavarian Prealps. The trailhead is just 45 minutes away from Munich, on the shores of the beautiful Kochelsee, in front of the Dorst Technology factory. We parked our car in the small parking lot (kostenlos!), and began our hike in the November fog.
The trail starts on a simple forest road, which can be cut at different stages, following the quickest path in the forest. Eventually we came back to the forest road at a hairpin turn, where the trail diverges and the ascent becomes more significant.
We passed aside the Kienstein rock, local climbing destination, turned left and followed the even more ascending trail towards the Sonnenspitz (1269m). We reached the peak after 40 minutes circa, being rewarded by the first look over the Jochberg and the spectral view of Kochelsee covered by the fog.
From the Sonnenspitz the trail descents of about 100m, emerging in a large meadow, just before starting our final ascent towards the Jochberg. The ascent here is sweeter, walking on an open field. There is a fence at this point, probably needed to keep the cows inside the field, which we climbed over, since there is no clear gate to continue on the trail.
Finally, we reached the Jochberg peak, with the famous view over the two lakes of Walchensee and Kochelsee. We stopped there for our deserved lunch, and, then, started our descent back to Kochel.
We first went down to Jochberg-Alm hut, where we made a hard turn on the right, and followed the trail into the forest. This is the most common path to access the Jochberg, therefore, we met a lot of people ascending on our way down.
The trail emerges eventually on the road at the Kesselbergpass, which we crossed to get into the footpath, connecting the two lakes. After about 30 minutes, we were back at Kochelsee, finally cleared by the fog and ready to be photographed by us.
