A bike ride around Boží Dar in Krušné hory became one of our favorite rides. In this very quiet area you will be riding through deep forests and lush meadows time to time touching borders of Germany. Passing other bike riders you would never know whether they would greet you “Ahoj” or “Guten tag”. Quite often you would be able to stop and read something on the information boards about the area, learn about the history and sometimes even visit the abandoned mines (“štoly”). This area was heavily used for mining precious metals (nearby town Jáchymov or in German Joachimsthal). The silver coins “joachimsthalers”, later called thalers or dollars, were minted here from 1518 and remained in circulation till 1908 in many places of the world. In 1930ies to 1960ies this area was the home of prisoner’s camps run by nazis and later by communists using the prisoners to work in uranium mines.
This ride starts at Boží Dar, small village full of pensions totally dedicated to tourists in the summer and skiers in the winter – Klínovec is famous for its ski slopes (and for bike slopes for the mountain bike dare devils). The ride we are recommending is far from “dare devil” class, and actually can be done with the cross bike. You can start at the small parking close to the square. First part of your ride follows so called “Ježíškova cesta” created for little kids to be entertained by some tasks to perform. Adults can actually appreciate the work of multiple wood carvers which decorated the path using the trees along the road.
Most of the ride to point 2 is downhill and will probably make you think about the long way back uphill. And you don’t have to wait long – up to the point 3 it will be all uphill. At the point 3 you can find the narrowest part of Germany – in one step you can cross from Czechia through Germany without even touching the German soil. At the point 4 you should stop and visit the small chapel. You will be impressed by immaculate state of this structure.
From the point 5 (after another downhill ride) you may decide to visit village Potůčky or even cross the border and visit the town Johangeorgenstadt. At point 6 you may look at the entrance to štola used for draining water from the mines above it. Just contemplate about the work it took to dig this tunnel…
After reaching “Rýžovna” called after place where the tin ore was being collected from the surface, or very shallow digs, you will have very pleasant flat ride all the way back to Boží Dar. Part of the bikepath is very new asfalt path dedicated to bikers and hikers.
If you are not totally exhausted after this ride, you may continue for the visit of the top of Klínovec and climb to the view tower to appreciate the mountain scenery.
For this ride you can use the link https://en.mapy.cz/s/mekufagobo . The total is 43.9 km with elevation climb 817 m. We have used about 70 % of our battery capacity (576 Wh). Or download GPX file.
