The old road began at the mouth of the
Kinzig. The modern hiking trail mostly follows the historic route (which in some places was not just a single path but several alternative routes) and crosses the
Spessart as a high route. It avoids the valleys and keeps to the peaks and ridges, as climbing up and down the slopes was difficult and arduous with horse- or ox-drawn wagons. At the same time, the route was much shorter than following the valley of the Main river in its great loop south to
Wertheim and
Miltenberg and back up to
Aschaffenburg and Hanau. The trail is maintained and signposted by the with a black "B" on white. The trail starts at the
Bundesstraße 8 not far from the , the remains of a small Roman fortification on the
Limes Germanicus, located in the forests near Hanau. It then heads east to the boundary between the states of
Hesse and
Bavaria and largely follows it past
Rodenbach, near the and
Freigericht before leaving the borderline to continue eastward. The trail then leads through the outskirts of
Geiselbach, the likely location of the birch copse that gave the road its name. At this point, several alternative routes met and continued onwards in a single direction. Heading north, the trail rejoins the Hessian–Bavarian border near
Linsengericht and turns east again. At the Dr.-Kihn-Platz (named after ), it joins another modern trail/historic route, the
Eselsweg, and the two routes continue east together to , an artificial lake, where the Birkenhainer Straße leaves the border. Near Flörsbach (
Flörsbachtal) it crosses the . Looping around the valley of Lohrhaupten (Flörsbachtal), it rejoins the border and continues along it southwards before entering Bavaria for good near the Bayrische Schanz (
sconce), an old border post. The trail then goes almost directly east, passes (
Lohr am Main) and the former location of (a
Premonstratensian monastery). Past the Zollberg, named after a toll station between the territories of the
Elector of Mainz and the
Bishopric of Würzburg, the trail finally leads down into the Main valley at
Langenprozelten and continues into Gemünden am Main where it terminates at the old town, east of the
Franconian Saale. ==Gallery==