Local Hike along the Sihl River from Canton Zurich to Canton Zug

Saturday Sept. 28th -- We didn't prepare for a long trip for the weekend, so we decided short-notice based on where we could see blue sky from our balcony (in the direction of Lake Zurich) to do a hike along a local river called the Sihl, which is actual a major tributary of the Limmat River, flowing into the Limmat in downtown Zurich after first flowing IN BETWEEN two levels of Zurich's major train station (they had to freeze the rock beds around the river when tunneling for the lower level of the train station, to keep the river from sickering through the rock during operations!)

Even though it only took us one hour to get to our starting point of Schönenberg, soon after we started walking along the river the sky got overcast, but this did not matter much, as most of the 2.5-hour walk was through forests or tunnels with the pleasant sound of flowing waters, and was not bad for an afternoon walk. Plus we had plans for a long trip and strenuous hike for Sunday.

Landscape near Schönenberg in Canton Zurich

We don't often see white cows, and this looks especially unusual with a brown calf!

Attractive houses and lots of pasture land and rolling hills in this area

Pleasant landscapes

Heading down to the forest which marks where the Sihl River flows

Crossing the Sihl River

This little restaurant called Sihlmatt, tucked away between the river and the hills, boasts the best fish dishes, made with their own homegrown fish

Man-made tunnels carved out of the Molasse so that a trail could be built along the river

There is a small waterfall near here called "Sihlsprung". There was a big rock slide near here this Spring, and the trail was closed until just very recently.

A lot of the trail was through the forest. Often we also enjoy forest trails

Autumn Crocuses announce the arrival of Fall

Every once in a while we came across another farm

Covered bridge near Hintersennweid. I always find these wooden bridges very attractive

Two houses joined by a staircase

Crossing the bridge at Schiffli

Last stretch of forest before Sihlbrugg. It would have been magical if the sun had been shining

We have hiked other sections of the Sihl River before; there are a couple of "gaps" we need to close. Early this year in Spring we started in Sihlbrugg and walked along the river into the Zurich Wilderness Park.