A Short Section along the Thur River from Krummenau to Ebnat-Kappel

Sunday December 17, 2023 -- After the beautiful early winter snow on the first weekend of December, there has once again been a thaw with lots and lots of rain, creating flooding and landslides and high risk of avalanches in the mountains. And not a bit of sunshine for any kind of pleasant walking.

And then from this Saturday onward for four days, there was pure sunshine in the forecast, but unfortunately for us in this region of many lakes in the lower elevations, that sunshine is blocked by thick layers of fog!!! Sure there is sunshine in the higher elevations, but the snow there isn't as pretty as before, and on a weekend you can expect a lot of people heading there for skiing, so it is tricky to find an elevation in between, where one can still do a nice walk out of the fog.

As Urs still cannot walk far, on this Sunday we made no firm plans until we had first checked the web cams, and discovered that the Toggenburg region east of Lake Zurich was fog-free (which seems to be the case quite often, as the mountains there prevent the fog from the lake to make its way there). Also, it only takes us less than two hours to get there, so on this sunny Sunday afternoon we did another short section of the "Thur River Trail", between Krummenau and Ebnat-Kappel. It was only a 6-km walk, but a lovely trail right along the river, mostly through forest, with enough sunshine to make it pleasant. (It is apparently also one of the prettiest sections of the themed trail). It WAS very cold though, and since we started only after noon, the shadow from the mountains came quickly... but luckily we finished our 2-hour walk before the sun totally went down!

Start of our hike in Krummenau on the Thur River at 12:30. In the background are the beautiful Churfirsten mountains to the south. Also, we ended our September 2022 Thur River hike here, so it was a good place to start. 

This was a short walk for us, not even 6 km, along the Thur River Trail in the Toggenburg region of Eastern Switzerland. But it was enough for Urs, who is still recovering from a muscle tear in his leg, and since we started only after noon, we would have had to walk in the shadow of the mountains had we continued to Wattwil. 

It's nice to still find trails like this in winter, although the ground was frozen. Also, being slightly in a ravine, it wasn't quite as sunny as we had hoped. 

A cold winter walk along the Thur River in the Toggenburg. 

We were looking for sunshine, so were ecstatic every time a bit of sunshine reached us on the river trail!

 

Always a bit of sunshine along the trail

Very pretty!

A bit of an adventurous section! Watch for falling rocks from the cliffs.

One advantage of a walk like this in winter, you can see more of the river because it's not hidden by the summer forest foliage. 

VIDEO:

A small waterfall on the Thur River

For a moment the trail left the ravine, and we got a look at more of the landscape here. 

A glimpse of the mountains to the south

Another small waterfall from a side stream. This is looking back along the trail, we had to cross at the base of the waterfall. 

Amazing work by a beaver! This looks pretty recent, the wood shavings are fresh. Urs says the beaver must have been near-sighted, to do so much work and not see that there was barely any tree left to fell!

Here the river is wider and flows more sedately. The sunshine is lovely. 

An interesting feature along the river is the Brandholz wooden covered bridge

Brandholzbrücke. There was an interesting giant macrame hanging from the bridge.

I love bridges

Brandholzbrücke

On the themed trail no.24: "Thurweg", or "Thur River Trail". It wasn't a long stretch we did, about 90 minutes between Krummenau an Ebnet-Kappel (It took us a bit longer as we didn't walk quickly)

At 1:45 p.m. we finally found a bench in a sunny spot where we could eat our sandwiches!

The lovely sunshine on the river as we enjoyed a break on the bench in the forest. 

The Thur River at Ebnat Kappel

A look to the south (zoomed photo) as we enter the town of Ebnat-Kappel

This is Canton St.Gallen but the houses have an Appenzell flair

A view up-river toward the Churfirsten Mountains at the far back. 

We passed the Evangelical Church in Ebnat-Kappel on our way to the bus stop. So obviously, we had to have a quick look inside.

The lovely organ inside the Reformed Church in Ebnat-Kappel

Quite an impressive building next to the church.

We were about 10 minutes early for the 14:47 bus to Wattwil, and there was a bakery next to the bus stop. So we checked out what they offered, and were able to try a Toggenburg specialty with the funniest name: "Schlorzi Fladen", a kind of pie with a layer of dried pear filling and custard on top. It tasted very nice.

From Ebnat-Kappel we caught a bus to Wattwil, where the train station was already in shadow at 3 p.m.! From there a train back to Rapperswil on Lake Zurich (less than two hours for the trip home). I tried to take a photo of the Churfirsten mountains before the train headed into the Ricken Tunnel. 

What our 6-km walk along the Thur River looks like on Google Satellite Maps

Location of this section of the Thur River in the Toggenburg Region of Eastern Switzerland