Late Afternoon Walk along the Lorze River to the Newly-Completed "Schlaufensteg" in Baar

Wednesday, July 24, 2024 -- Usually a hiking day for us, but it wasn't nice enough to travel far, so we relaxed at home till late afternoon and then went for a walk closer to home when the clouds let up. (Even though we walked from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., the day was still quite hot). 

We had read about the recently completed construction of an elaborate set of wooden walkways connecting walking trails across an elevation of 45 meters in our neighbouring town of Baar, and wanted to check this out. But to add some walking distance to it, we started at our local river called the Lorze on the opposite side of Mount Zug, to make it a good 8-km walk.

As we have walked most everywhere in this region, we thought we'd try a couple of new trails we found on our maps, not what they call "official" trails, though. As it turns out, we had to do some detouring, as the trails were not for public use. But we did make it to the walkways called "Schlaufensteg", a fantastic 350-meter long construction of angled walkways which allow the viewers to get a different perspective of the forest from 22 meters up. 320 m2 of wood were used in the construction, and the cost was 3 million Francs (double what was originally planned!). After the short walk along the walkways, we caught a bus for the 20-minute ride home near the factory of the famous Baar Brewery. 

We started at the bus stop called St.Meinrad in Allenwinden, across from this small votive chapel built in 1740. Legend has it that St.Meinrad prayed here on his way from Cham to Einsiedeln. The Lorze River is downhill from here. 

We took a shortcut through the fields to reach the trail we wanted to walk, which is a forest road past this house. (Most forest roads are walkable here). The farmer met us in front of his house and told us the road was not a walking trail. He insisted it was overgrown and there were mother cows in the pasture beyond. Apparently he had posted a sign on the entrance to his driveway, which we missed because we took a shortcut to get here. 

Pretty flowers on the farmhouse. From here we had to turn back and take a longer route down to the river. 

We had to backtrack to the end of the farmer's driveway (originally we took the shortcut down from the St.Meinrad Chapel behind that copse of trees). Here's the sign he posted, that he didn't want pedestrians walking down this road. Which technically is not allowed, as this is not an official prohibition

We started our walk at St.Meinrad bus stop at 4:30 p.m., walked 8.7 km including a couple of detours, got to the walkway at 6:30 p.m., and back on the bus at the Baar Brewery at just after 7 p.m. It was late in the day, but still hot. 

After a bit of a detour, we joined the trail next to the Lorze River. 

This is the bridge we would have crossed had we been able to walk the original forest trail we had wanted to use. A short foray on the other side showed a road, not at all overgrown, and without a sign denying entrance, so we are not sure that the farmer was telling us the truth. But we weren't in the mood to walk back up in his direction. 

These steps which we often see in the rivers or streams are to prevent excessive flooding when there is a lot of rain and the river water gets high and fast. 

Lorze River between Lake Aegeri and Baar. We walked next to the river for about 25 minutes, before ascending through the forest back into the community of Allenwinden. The regular trail from there goes through the forest via the Wildenburg ruins (see photos HERE), but we have done that trail twice, so we decided to follow an "unofficial" trail which I had seen on the map for several years now. 

To access the "unofficial" trail on the south, we had to climb through a fence at a housing complex. The small trail through the forest was very nice to walk, but as we emerged, we saw this sign on the north side, it reads "This is not an official hiking trail. Please use the trail via the Wildenburg ruins. Thank you for your understanding"!!!!

The view across the city of Zug and Lake Zug from the exit of the forest trail at 5:45 p.m. 

Instead of following the next forest trail to the north, which we had done before, we descended into the fields to follow a field trail. 

Walking through the fields. 

There are still daisies in the fields

Behind me is the northern flank of Mt.Zug, a region where we have also done several walks. 

Another view across Lake Zug to Mount Rooterberg (apparently it's Switzerland's smallest mountain!)

There was a pasture with sheep eating grass like crazy, as if they hadn't tasted grass in a long time!

At 6:30 p.m. we arrived that this extravagant structure, the upper section of the "Schlaufensteg" 

The construction used 320 m2 of local wood, 61 log supports, 265 steps, 350 meters of walkway, over an altitude of 45 meters.

Plan of the Schlaufensteg. (More details on their website HERE). This structure cost 3 million francs to build!

According to the website, the idea came from a local cardiologist who was looking for a place to create an intensive stair-training for the heart. 

The log supports.

It was fun to cross the walkways, but it really only took a few minutes. 

Personally, I find this a very expensive way to create a passage down the small hill, but the idea is also to be able to see the forest from a different perspective. 

At the lower end of the walkway is a 29-meter tower, with LOTS of steps!

View from the tower. Back in the industrial revolution days there were several factories here (including spinning and weaving... some of the buildings are still standing) and the houses here were built for the factory workers. After descending from the tower, we followed the trail on the left to the bus stop on the main road. 

The famous Baar Brewery, home of the famous "Baarer Bier" label since 1862. 

What our 8.7-km hike looks like on Google Satellite Maps

We have done a lot of hikes in the area of Zug, Mt.Zug, and the Lorze River.