13-km Walk along the Thur River in the Toggenburg (Starkenbach to Krummenau)

Sunday September 4, 2022 -- It's becoming difficult again to plan according to weather forecast: It was supposed to be sunny in the East (Toggenburg and Appenzell/Alpstein Region), which it only partly was. But that is not the reason why we changed our plans of walking along the north side of the Churfirsten Mountains in Canton St.Gallen, but because we would have had to wait about 90 minutes just to ride the farmer's cargo car to the start of our hike! (A similar thing happened to us here in August 2020, but that was on a Wednesday! (Those photos are HERE).). Planning a Sunday hike and limiting it to good weather areas is difficult, because everyone else goes there as well...

We knew we were taking a risk going there on a Sunday, but we had prepared a Plan B if there were too many people (which there were, as this little cable car in Starkenbach has become something of an attraction in Eastern Switzerland, as it's the only one of this kind there!) and that was to walk along the Thur River for about three hours, along the local themed trail called "Thurweg". This region, by the way, is known as the Toggenburg, with its lovely rolling hills and pastures.

Even though I love the sound of the river, (and there was plenty of water this time), my feet reminded me that two hours is about the maximum I can manage of straight riverside walking! We ended up with sunshine (as opposed to our original plan.... there was a lot of cloud cover in the mountains), but being valley bottom also meant that it was very hot. So this day was either: "Sunshine and Heat", or "Mountains and No Sunshine"..... Much of the trail was a nice walking path, though. Not a lot of paved roads...

On the train ride from Wattwil to Neu-St.Johann, we can see the Churfirsten mountains up ahead where we want to start our hike. But even from here we can tell there is more cloud than we had expected (the hope was they would break up soon). We ended up coming back this way on foot along the river and railway track. In fact, we walked under that railway bridge...

Passing through the village of Stein on our way to Starkenbach. We passed through here again on our way along the Thur River. 

This is the little cable car at Starkenbach, which we had hoped to use to get up to the higher alpine pastures. I didn't think to take a photo this time, as we were scrambling to decide on what to do, based on the fact that there were 30 people ahead of us! (which would mean about 60-90 minutes to wait...). This photo is from August. 2020. The other photos from that excursion are HERE

So instead of taking the cable car from Starkenbach, we crossed to the Thurweg (Thur River Trail no.24) and walked for 13 km down-river. We had more sunshine than if we had decided to wait and go up the mountain. It did get hot, though. 

Crossing the Thur River, how idyllic

An old stone bridge

This narrow passage was barely 10 minutes further down-river from the first idyllic crossing!

The rolling hills of Toggenburg

Below us is the village of Stein. Back in August 2019 we hiked along the Alpine Panorama Trail starting at Schwägalp below Mt.Säntis to the East, and ended our hike here in Stein. (Those photos are HERE)

Cows in the back yard!

This signals an easy hiking trail. Part of the "Thur River Trail"

Always being observed by the cows

In the village of Stein, St.Gallen

VIDEO:

Ponies playing in the pasture (I'm not sure what this behaviour means!)

Even though I get more tired on river walks than mountain walks, there are always very interesting things to see, like this stone bridge....

... or some pretty wooden covered bridges

Another wild part of the river, in the sun-dappled forest

Heading back up out from the river bottom (ravine).

Here we passed a restaurant alled Gasthof Freihof (along the road across from a bus stop) where several of these sculptures were displayed (also some of people playing musical instruments or other sports) 

These are the Giessen Falls (the smaller ones) dropping from a reservoir lake at a small power station. Further upriver were larger falls but we missed them because they were in a ravine and hidden from view from the trail 

Before crossing the river again at Nesslau, we came upon some festivities and a paragliding competition

There is a little island in the river with a small chapel and picnic tables for families to enjoy a Sunday outdoor BBQ. We crossed over for a small break!

We took a break on the little island next to the chapel...

A view across the river at Neu St.Johann and the former monastery (on the left).

A look back again aat the Churfirsten mountains, where the clouds are low and there is little sunshine. Here downriver we had sunshine, but it got hot!

To the East, a look at Mt. Säntis. The clouds are low here as well, and a hike in the Alpstein Massif would not have been so great this day either. (That had also been an consideration)

Former monastery in Neu St.Johann

The water here flowed into some nice pools in the forest.

Railway bridge for the train crossing, near the end of our hike in Krummenau. 

Crossing the Thur River to Krummenau, where we caught a bus to Wattwil. We had read that the nicest part of the Thur River Trail were the next 5 km downriver, but it would have taken another 90 minutes to walk that, and it was simply too much for me.

In 2020 we rode the cable car up the north side of the Churfirsten mountains. We wanted to do this again, but walk eastward this time. Instead, we walked for 13 km along the Thur River.

Location of the Toggenburg Region of Switzerland