Friday August 30th -- Final hike of our week-long hiking vacation (we really had lots of nice weather for this), and final hike of the month. This one was a tough one for me.
We chose to hike an approx. 14-km stretch of National Trail No.3, the Alpine Panorama Trail, in the eastern part of Switzerland at the foot of Mount Säntis and the Alpstein Massiv. This was marked as a 4-hour hike. The weather played along for the most part, and the first hour was great, but then the ascent started, and I realized I really need to do the ascents at the start, when I am still fresh. Especially long continuous ones. Plus we had done so much hiking this week...
The actual Trail no.3 climbs to the Risipass mostly on a paved road without shade, but luckily our map showed us an alternate though longer trail through the forest on the other side of the gorge. It was pretty muddy but better than the road and the shade from the trees was VERY welcome (you could tell not many people used that trail by the number of spider webs I collected on my legs). By the time we got to the pass, I was exhausted and could barely move my feet. A long rest and feet airing in a shady spot on the other side was a necessity this time, in order to finish the descent to the village of Stein. Still and all, the Toggenburg region is a very pretty pastoral landscape of rolling hills....
Side Note: Saturday was also nice weather, but I couldn't take another step. The weekend was for relaxing!
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| Every once in a while we run into these red frames at particularly popular sites around Switzerland. They are part of the advertising for the "Grand Tour" of Switzerland. If we find one, we take such a photo. Blanked out by the sun above my head is the weather station on the top of Mount Säntis |
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| I thought the sign for the bus stop was pretty cute. Behind it is the Alpstein Massif. |
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| At Schwägalp, which is an alpine pasture at the foot of Mount Säntis and from where the Säntis cable car ascends to the peak of the mountain, is a cheese dairy where you can observe the production of cheese. (We didn't wait to see the milk curdle). |
VIDEO: Milk being stirred for the manufacture of cheese
(Cool but not exciting)
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| Purchasing our cheese, something we do on almost every hike |
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| The cheese dairy at Schwägalp. This is still in Canton Appenzell, but after less than 100m we crossed into Canton St.Gallen. |
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| Säntis cable car heading up to the top of Mount Säntis to the alien-looking weather station |
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| We headed Southwest along the base of the Alpstein Massif, which was great for the first hour or so, but then we faced the 400m ascent to the Risipass which we chose to do on the muddier forest trail, took us over 90 minutes. The descent to Stein took 1 hour 20 minutes. Total was 4 hours of walking or more. |
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| (This cow looks like its legs are too short). Heading southwest, ahead of us we can see the Risipass that we are planning to cross (the saddle between the two hills) |
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| Looking back at the Alpstein Massif, we noticed that we were being observed... |
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| It's trails like this one that I really enjoy |
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| We just came across this interesting meadow strewn with boulders. Behind us in the Alpstein Massif. But now the uphill part starts. |
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| Instead of taking the paved road to the East of the Chatzenloch Gorge, we crossed the river and took the smaller, although very muddy trail through the forest on the West side. |
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| We feel that choosing to go up the West side of the Gorge also gave us some much nicer views over the entire area we had just covered. |
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| This mini suspension bridge was apparently the highlight of a round tour that includes both sides of the Gorge (one hour each way). |
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| After an hour we came to an alp called Langzimmer, where we had our picnic lunch next to a river. Fortunately other hikers informed us that the direct route we wanted to take to the pass was closed due to forest work (the sign was down) so we had no choice but to take the longer route, which took 40 minutes. |
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| Heading to the Risipass, but first we have to go back to Trail No.3 |
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| Zoomed view of the observatory on Mount Säntis |
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| The trail goes right through this farm on the way to the Risipass |
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| One last look to the North to Mount Kronberg on the left and Mount Säntis in the center, both in Canton Appenzell Innerrhoden |
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| On the other side of the pass are several farms. I really liked this barn |
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| And the Silver Thistles are beautiful right now. |
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| Usually a house with a built-up hill behind it like this means that this is an avalanche couloir |
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| These darling babies can only have been a couple of days old. They were still quite wobbly on their legs, but very curious. |
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| I love the baby cows |
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| Another pretty barn/stable |
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| Now it's all the way downhill to the town of Stein in the Thur Valley |
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| It was hot and my feet hurt and we knew we had some time till the next bus, so we stopped in the shade of the bushes ahead for a nice cool rest. |
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| These pastoral landscapes never get boring. The trail took us right through the courtyard in front of the farmhouse |
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| Another interesting farmhouse |
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| More pastoral landscape. This area is called the Toggenburg and it is very pretty. |
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| The Protestant church in Stein |
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| The Catholic church in Stein, on the river Thur. Near here was our bus stop. |
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| (This satellite image shows snow, but obviously we had no snow). This almost 14-km hike took us a good four hours to walk. |
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| We have done a lot of hiking in this area in the past 6 years. |
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