Dassel is a small town on the western edge of the Solling, the broad wooded upland that fills the space between the Leine and the Weser. Its name is not much known outside the region, but one of its sons altered the map of Christian Europe. Rainald von Dassel, born into a local noble family, became archbishop of Cologne in the twelfth century and, in 1164, brought the relics of the Three Kings from Milan to Cologne, which is why Cologne's enormous cathedral exists in the form it does. Pilgrims came in their thousands, and the money paid for the cathedral. A statue of Rainald stands in the town, and the town is proud of the link.
The forest road itself is the real attraction. It leaves Dassel and climbs into the Solling through spruce and beech, a country of long, smooth, rolling hills with few villages. The surface is generally good, and the bends are wide and gentle, so you can ride at an even rhythm and look at the trees. In the morning the mist often sits in the low parts of the forest, and the sun comes through the trunks in slanting columns. It is a quiet, almost meditative bit of riding, with deer sometimes standing at the edge of the road at dawn or dusk.
Be a little careful in autumn, when leaves and wet needles make the surface slick on shaded corners, and in winter, when the higher stretches can hold ice well after the valley has thawed. Forestry trucks use some of these roads, particularly where timber is being removed after storms and beetle damage, and they leave mud on the tarmac.
Dassel has just over eleven thousand people in its municipal area, enough for a petrol station, supermarkets and a few bakeries and cafés, though not much more, so Einbeck, to the east, is the more sensible place for a full meal and fuel. Fill the tank before you commit to the Solling roads, because the forest has few services and villages are small. A bottle of water and a light jacket are the only extras you need.