Pleasant Walk along the Schonbach River from Schangnau-Wald to Wiggen

Thursday February 29, 2024 -- This final day of February was the one day of the week that had the best forecast, many places showing pure sunshine all day, so I could not pass up the chance for another 10-km walk, and had my destination all planned out on Wednesday evening...

.... and then woke up to an entire country (or at least those regions which I could reach within a two-hour trip by train and bus) covered in high fog, which didn't look like it would be dissipating any time soon!

My plan was to leave by 9:11, and until then I kept a good eye on the webcams from the areas I had wanted to walk, but had to give up on that plan as the fog just wasn't lifting. I finally risked heading out at about 11 a.m., which would still get me to one of my planned hikes (in the Entlebuch Region of Canton Luzern, 2¼-hours' trip from home). The hope was that when I got there, the fog would finally have lifted.

Which was indeed the case! I was headed south by bus along the Ilfis Valley toward Kemmeribodenbad, from where I was planning to complete a 2½-hour section of the "Alpine Panorama Trail" which we needed to complete, but I got out sooner, as the fog had lifted, and there was another trail I wanted to walk along a small river back out of the same valley. It was the perfect decision. The air temperature was perfect, the trail not at all boring (even though I can't go much more than two hours along a river trail), and I enjoyed another three hours of sunshine!

(Additional note: As the end of my hike in Wiggen was very near the Kambly Cookie Factory, I took a detour there to get Urs some more of his favourite cookies...). 

Here near Schangnau is where we ended a previous hike in October 2020 (photos HERE), so this is where I decided to start walking, and continue heading north toward Marbach. I started here shortly before 1 p.m. 

The stream here (called Schonbach) is not much more than a channel, but becomes wider as it gets further out of the valley. For most of the 9 km which I followed it, I walked on a small trail such as this one. 

I got off the bus at the Schangnau-Wald stop shortly before 1 p.m., made my way to the trail, and walked about 9 km (2 hours) alsmost exclusively next to the stream. I was about 10 minutes early for the 15:24 bus in Wiggen. The pink line near my starting point is the canton border, so I started in Canton Bern and crossed into Canton Luzern after only about five minutes of walking. 

Many such lovely farm buildings along the way

The next hamlet along the way is called Lauimühle

A look behind me shows the first higher mountains of Canton Bern, although these are on the north side of Lake Brienz. The passage between the two peaks is called the Sichle, and we still plan on crossing that pass one day. 

Along the way I set up my camera for a few self-timed photos, and the best ones are of me running to the place I think I should be standing for the photo!

At about 1:30 p.m. I got to the Marbachegg gondola cable-way, which is on the East side of the river where I am walking. (We rode this gondola in February 2019 when we did a really nice winter walk here. PHOTOS)

Looking up a side valley, I get the first look at the peaks of the Schrattenfluh range. This one is probably the "Hängst".

A particularly lovely farmhouse. 

First look at the large church in Marbach, on the other side of the river as well. 

There is always something interesting to see on people's properties as I pass near their houses. 

I didn't cross the river into Marbach to visit the church for a change....(as it turns out, I would have had time to do the detour)

From here to Wiggen is another 1¼ hours, and a short stretch is part of Trail no.65: "Grenzpfad Napfbergerland". 

A nice close-up view of the Schrattenfluh Range. 

Here I have to cross the river to the East side. There were many bridges across this river, and I crossed from West to East and back again many times. 

Crossing to the West side of the river again. This is a long straight stretch and I was worried that it would be boring, but it wasn't, actually. 

This self-timed photo worked well!

The horn at the very south end of the Schrattenfluh range is called the Schibegütsch, and it is possible to walk along that crest, although this is something we have not yet done. 

Back on the east side again!

I was very impressed with the way this tree has been trained to grow up the front side of the house.

Looking south behind me for a change. 

Trying out another self-timed photo! This time the view is up the Hilfere Valley to the north end of the Schrattenfluh

Another look south from the west side of the river. 

A small pond along the way. 

The peak on the left (north part of Schrattenfluh) is called Hächle

Shortly after 3 p.m. I was opposite the village of Wiggen. There was a bit of a detour to get to the church, near where I caught the 13:24 bus to Escholzmatt.

And a final look up the Schonbach River and the valley I just walked in, as I head to the bus stop near the church. 

All the hikes we have done in the Entlebuch Region around Marbach. 

Location of Marbach in the Entlebuch region of Canton Luzern. 

Short Walk in the Luzern Back-Country from Sempach Station to Rothenburg.

Sunday February 25, 2024 -- One of the most beautiful February days so far, but we had to keep our excursion short and close to home because of a previous commitment which was to begin at 2 p.m.!

We did find a good compromise, another section of the Via Gottardo Trail just north of Luzern, where we had a very nice view of Mount Pilatus and the Central Alps, and visited two churches with important artwork from the 16th and 17th Centuries during the heyday of artistic creativity in this region. It was a pleasant Sunday walk which we timed correctly to reach our train station in time for the connection to the event. The walk was only two hours, but we were quite satisfied with it.

Note: This hike ended by crossing the Rotbach Ravine over the Rotbach River. Back in April of 2020 we did an 11-km walk starting in Inwil to the east of Rothenburg, and we walked through the Rotbach Ravine before catching a train from the same train station where we ended our walk this day. Those photos are HERE. 

Heading through Luzern on our way toward Lake Sursee, this photo of the summit of Mount Pilatus was taken from the train platform. Visibility is lovely this day. 

It takes us only about an hour to get from home to our starting place near Lake Sursee, in this case the train station "Sempach Station", where we started on our walk at 10:20.

A short walk from Sempach Station to join the Via Gottardo Trail, and then for much of our walk we had a view of Mount Pilatus

For about 10 minutes we walked along this stream, that eventually flows into Lake Sursee. 

Trail no.7 is the "Via Gottardo Trail". At Adelwil we came to a lovely pilgrimage church (Built in the 14th Century, this chapel has been a pilgramage church since the end of the 16th Century).

 From Sempach Station, a small walk to join Trail no.7: Via Gottardo, which we then followed to Rothenburg Village, and caught the train there just after 1 p.m. It was another almost 10-km walk, and we had three hours of lovely sunshine. 

The pilgrimage church at Adelwil is dedicated to St.Gallus and St.Einbeth. The chapel was extensively renovated inside and out in 1987-1988.

The richly decorated interior of this little church is typical of pilgrimage churches, and has made this building an important artistic and cultural historical monument for the Canton of Luzern. 

Most of the artwork like these side altars and the main altar from the 17th Century era between late Renaissance and early Baroque bear witness of an unrivaled heyday of art and handiwork in Canton Luzern. 

Also this extensive series of paintings depicting the life of Saint Einbeth were created in 1634. 

Ah, look at all these cute little black faces!

We are always intrigued and impressed with these very pretty side-buildings called Spycher. 

After a long stretch through the forest, we passed this little pond next to the Autobahn. You couldn't see much of it as it was totally surrounded by trees and bushes. 

All along the way we had this kind of view of farms and pastures. I can only imagine how pretty these high-growth trees will look once they are in full bloom!

To our south we always see the north side of Mount Pilatus, and further in the back are the Melchtal Alps. 

There are always curious little guys along the way!

A long straight stretch parallel to the road wasn't boring at all! (The mountain in the back is Mount Rigi, which you can see from a large part of northern Switzerland!)

We are very pleased with how much of the Alps are visible to us on this lovely day!

Urs is racing off to get possession of the bench under that tree, as it is now noon and we need a place to sit for our picnic lunch, and there are people coming from the other side on the path, so we need to get there first!

It worked! Enjoying the view of Mount Pilatus from our picnic bench. 

We passed through a "hamlet" of buildings which belong to a company called Schürch which manufactures and distributes beverages. And just in case we had missed all the signs on all the buildings, they even built the word "beverages" (Getränke) into the tiles on the roof!

More farm buildings

Nice to see the cows out and about. 

Before reaching Rothenburg, we came through a small community called Bertiswil, and this church looked like it would have a very interesting interior, which indeed was the case. 

History of the Marienkirche in Bertiswil: First mentioned in documents of 1173. As usual, such a building had been built and rebuilt several times over the centuries, until the 1973-1974 restoration of the most recent 17th Century building.

This church is one of the few pre-Baroque churches in Canton Luzern which was able to maintain its medieval character without a lot of damage. The frescoes were discovered during the 1973-1974 restorations. The high altar has a date of 1688 inscribed on its back side.

The organ is fairly new, built in 1975 by a local company called Graf in Sursee. 

A look back at the Marienkirche as we continue toward Rothenburg. According to information about the building, the bell tower contains three valuable bells dating from the start of the 16th century. 

Leaving the Via Gottardo trail, we took a little detour around the suburbs along a small ravine on our way to the train station. 

Down below in the ravine flows a river called the Rotbach, and that building used to be the former mill. 

This is the end of our walk at the Rothenburg Dorf train station (recently renamed Emmenbrücke Kapf, probably because people got confused with the naming of the train stations on their way to IKEA, which is the next stop on this railway line, and whose nearest stop is called Rothenburg Station). We got here at 12:54, seven minutes early for our planned 13:03 train to Ebikon. 

These are the hikes we have done in the Luzern Back Country. The pink trail is the one we did this day, and the yellow one to the east of Rothenburg is the one from April 2020. 

Fantastic view of the Central Alps on our train ride back to Luzern. 

Location of that part of the Luzern Back-Country between Lake Sursee and Rothenburg.