Wednesday Oct.21 -- The highest mountain in Canton Zurich, Mount Schnebelhorn (1292m) lies in the Toggenburg region on the Canton border with St.Gallen (Eastern Switzerland). Weather forecast promised us sunshine, but I wonder if they are no longer able to predict the weather so well, now that fewer airplanes are flying....
The rolling hills of the Toggenburg are lovely for hiking, but rather hard for us to get into because there is not much access with public transport. The closest bus stop for us required switching to a smaller bus-van and paying a supplement. But no matter, as it was then only two hours and 15 minutes through mostly forest to reach the top of Mount Schnebelhorn (a popular destination even on a week-day). The forests were a wonderful pallette of autumn colours at the moment, but unfortunately the little sunshine we had at the start of our walk was gone by the time we got to the summit, so those colours just didn't shine as I'd hoped they would.
A Föhn window over the Alps at least gave us a sweeping view of the peaks, but the lighting just wasn't ideal for the type of camera I use.
After following the crest for a while, we descended to a tiny village called Libingen, which was the closest option for another bus. So with the goal of reaching the highest peak in Canton Zurich, the shortest stretch we can walk was 12 km and 4 hours. This, by the way, is along a section of the Toggenburger High Trail, of which we have done a couple of other stretches as well.
The lack of sunshine was a real disappointment, as you really can see far to the North to Lake Constance, to the East to Mount Säntis, to the South from the Glarner Alps to the Bernese Alps, and of course to the mountains near where we live, because this is only about 40 km from home (as the crow flies)...
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A regular bus takes us through the Toggenburg landscape to where we have to change to a small van-bus
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From here at Mühlrüti, a connecting bus takes you up a very narrow road (made narrower by construction work going on for two years already!). It's the same bus driver. We had to wait here for him while he "swapped" buses!
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There were four of us who wanted to go to the "end of the line" (Hulftegg). We had to pay a supplement, which is fine to save us some walking! The bus driver was stressed, though. He had to get back here to run the other bus down the hill again.
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More of the pretty Toggenburger landscape
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Starting at Hulftegg, it took 2 hrs 15 minutes to the top of Mt. Schnebelhorn. Then we walked down to the town of Libingen to catch the bus there. Total over four hours of walking
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Trail no. 48 is the "Toggenburger Höhenweg" and Trail no. 69 is the "Züri Oberland Höhenweg" (Toggenburger and Zurich Oberhand High Trails). We started at Hulftegg, walking to Schnebelhorn and Libingen
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At the start of our hike, we had some sunshine, so it was pleasant to walk.
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A lot of the trail was through forest, but it is nice when the sun shines and when there are lots of colours
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As we are not far from Central Switzerland here, we can see Mt. Rigi and Pilatus. The Tower is a look-out tower called Bachtel. Lake Zurich is in between
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Heading up to Mt. Schnebelhorn, although the peak is behind this hill, so the climb isn't finished yet!
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Beautiful forests, lovely colours
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This view is to the North. We could even see Lake Constance
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Looking back along the trail as we head up to Mt. Schnebelhorn. For at least half the hike we walked along the Canton border: Zurich to the West (left on this picture), St.Gallen to the East.
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Made it to the peak! There were about 20 other people up here, so we didn't stay long
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The highest peak in Canton Zurich: Mt. Schnebelhorn. This is actually also on the border of Canton St.Gallen.
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A view to the East to Mt. Säntis, the highest peak in the Alpstein Massif
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The sky was very overcast by the time we got to the peak of Mt. Schnebelhorn, but the Alps were very clearly visible
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Below you can just see Lake Zurich, and a Föhn window gives us a clear view of the Alps. Too bad the sky is so overcast.
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It is always a thrill to see the Bernese Alps, with the distinctive triangle of the Eiger North Face, and otherwise the highest peaks of the Bernese Alps.
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We took a detour off the official trail, which is below us, to walk along a crest.
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As we walk along the crest high above the official trail, we get some nice views across the landscape of the Zurich Oberland
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A view to the Glarner Alps in the Southeast (the colour seems to be missing from this photo!)
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Splendid colours in this forest. It would look so much better with sunshine!
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The colours were much more intense off-camera!
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Heading downhill now toward Libingen, a good place to have a coffee break and enjoy another view of Mt.Säntis.
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A large downhill section through the forest
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Up ahead is the little town of Libingen. That is the final bus stop for a different bus line. The closest bus stop for us after leaving Mt. Schnebelhorn
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Little town of Libingen in the Toggenburg Region, Canton St.Gallen
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End of our hike in Libingen, where we caught the bus and train back home (2 hrs 15 minutes to travel, so not too far).
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Here is what the trail looks like on Google Earth Maps
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