Local Hike to the Etzelpass and Schindellegi (near Lake Zurich). Our Plan B Hike....

Wednesday July 11, 2018 --  Wow, wow, wow, the weather report totally had us fooled on this day. I've long wanted to do a local hike called the "7-Egg Weg" (the Seven-Egg Trail because you pass across seven peaks or locations that have the word "egg" in them, i.e. Windegg, Sternenegg, Ibergeregg, Müesliegg, Steglerenegg, Holzegg (there's one missing...)). To get to the start of the trail requires a ride with a cable car which starts the summer season as late as July 7th, so I waited a long time for this! Also, the views are supposed to be remarkable.

When we got to the base station at Hoch-Ybrig, the clouds and fog were very low on the mountain and it was COLD, and I didn't want to risk sitting in the fog up top waiting for it to clear (which it didn't till quite late that day), so we rode the same bus back along Lake Sihlsee northward where the sky was clearer to a random place on the map, a little village simply called EGG, so I guess we still were within the topic of the day! From there we walked up to the Etzel Pass (from which you can descend to Lake Zurich), and continued on to Schindellegi. It turned out to be an 11-km 3-hour hike in the end, and we got to view the fogged-up peaks to the South, glad we weren't walking there! 

All-in-all an acceptable alternative except we hadn't brought much of a picnic along, intending to eat at a restaurant on the way, and in Egg and on the Etzel Pass all the restaurants were closed for vacation. It happens that way EVERY TIME we don't take food with us....  

BUT, among other things we learned about St.Meinrad the patron Saint of Einsiedeln, and we unexpectedly came across a tank defense line and an ammunition bunker, of which there are many spread across Switzerland. There are always pleasant surprises along the way!  And the baby Alpaca was so cute.

When you travel from Einsiedeln to Lake Zurich, you cross the Etzel Pass. We had never been in this area before, so it was a successful PLAN B

The Church in Egg, the starting point of our hike. Actually, we first walked (back) to a nearby restaurant on a Halflinger farm, which was supposed to be open but it wasn't, so that was a wasted 1.5 km....

Up the hill toward the Etzel Pass. The village of Egg is down below on the left

The alpacas were so cute, especially the baby!

At the Etzel Pass is the Chapel of St.Meinrad, patron Saint of the city of Einsiedeln to the South. He came up here from a monastery on Lake Constance in the year 825 and lived in a tiny cell for 7 years before moving on to where the monastery of Einsiedeln now stands. 

The Chapel of St.Meinrad, and the Gasthaus St. Meinrad which is unfortunately closed on Wednesdays...

Closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays, what a shame.

We used the hotel's empty terrace to consume our meager lunch of coffee and cookies. Even though we told Urs' uncle we were treating him to lunch, he was clever enough to bring along enough to eat for himself! Which he shared. Our treat next time.

This place is the cross-roads of three popular trails: No.4: St.James Trail / No.3: Alpine Panorama Trail / No.84: Lake Zurich Round Trail

What would any hike in Switzerland be without the Swiss Brown Cow!

Above the St.Meinrad Chapel

We did a panorama trail of sorts with agreeable views. To the South is the saddle where we had planned to walk, right next to the Greater Mythen mountain where the fog is only just starting to lift.

Pleasant forest trails as well.

No complaints about the view. This is South to Lake Sihlsee. 

We came across a tank defense line in the woods

It is always weird to run across a line of "Toblerones" like this, in the middle of some randon pastureland.

This is one of several tank defense bunkers in this area. The purpose (in WWII) was to prevent any infiltration into the Sihl Valley from Lake Zurich to the North

Heading down toward the Sihl River for the final stretch to Schindellegi

To the North we glimpse Lake Zurich

This beautiful farmhouse is completely covered in tiny wooden shingles

Imagine the work to have to create this, or restore it (all the tiny wooden shingles). It is an art that not many people can do any more.

This area is on the Sihl River is called "Three Waters (Dreiwässern)" and is a recultivation project (earlier a deposit site for a gravel pit) to attract amphibians and marsh animals

Our destination: Schindellegi on the Sihl River

11 km, 3 hours, from Egg to Schindellegi

Meien Valley (Meiental) on the East Side of the Susten Pass (2304m)

Sunday July 8, 2018 -- This Sunday was a day of Superlatives: Super Weather (just enough cool wind so we didn't feel the summer heat), Super Landscape (as usual, cows, meadow flowers, freshly-mown hay, quaint hamlets, and barely-just-melted-winter-snow-alpine landscape), Super Cheap and Very Tasty Alpine Cheese purchased directly from the farmer, and a little bit of Adventure crossing another patch of late-melting avalanche snow followed by a difficult crossing of avalanche-ravaged forest... because who wants to take the easy trail when there is a challenging one! And if we hadn't done that, we wouldn't have encountered the forest goats, of which there must have been 50, who so desperately wanted to follow "Peter the Goat Shepherd" that they continually pushed me off the trail.

The Reuss Valley (one of Switzerland's major river valleys) which stretches directly South of where we live to the Gotthard Tunnel has loads of hidden side valleys formed by glaciers which previously flowed onto the one which carved out the Reuss Valley. We've walked many of them, and added this walk down the Meien Valley to our repertoire. The road into the Meien Valley from Wassen is a popular one with motorcyclists, as it is one of those winding pass roads which crosses the Alps (Susten Pass) to the Gadmer Valley to the West, and unfortunately the roaring of the motorcycles was really the only thing that could dampen the perfectness of this day. The best place to walk was near the Meienreuss river, as its roar drowned that out of the motorcycles. Fortunately, the noise does not come across in the photos.

Never happened to us before: The bus along the Reuss Valley (the main valley, not the side one) picks people up who do a variety of hikes in this popular area. Even though the bus was already "full" by the next stop after we got on at Wassen, at each stop another dozen people entered the bus! There were literally people piled on top of people, and kids hanging off the support bars. (This bus runs once an hour to the Erstfeld train station, so it's not like anyone wanted to wait.). A 35-minute ride!!!!

On the way up by bus we can see from above the alpine pastures we will cross: On the left is where we stopped to buy cheese. And the start of the hike was at the road at the back. 

We started the hike at Sustenbrüggli, a popular motobike café. This is the last stop before the actual pass. Our trail was covered with avalanche snow, so we had to improvise and crawl under the road barrier here to the right.

 

This avalanche snow actually covered the trail we were supposed to walk on, so we came down from the road to the left.

Superb high alpine landscape

Superb variety of meadow flowers, as usual

And the view to the East. We are headed to the river and out of this valley. Total 15 km.

Every few minutes I had to look backwards to the stunning line of mountains

Every few minutes I had to look backwards to the stunning line of mountains

A couple of the many bridges on the zigzag road up to the Susten Pass

What would a hike anywhere in Switzerland be, without the cows.

From the dairy farm, this is the view Wesward toward the Susten Pass Road, where we came down from. 

Buying cheese at the alpine dairy farm: Alp Hinterfeld

Our trail crossed back and forth over the Meienreuss River, and passed through a few tiny hamlets. This was the old Susten Road, and in the village below (Färnigen) is an old hotel that was the main rest stop along the route.

Hamlet of Färnigen

Not just beautiful flowers, but also lots of pretty butterflies

Nearing the entrance of the Meien Valley, which merges into the Reuss Valley

The little cluster of homes below is simply called "At the Chapel" Across from the church is a school

Another crossing of the river, looking back up the valley.

This group of houses is called Fürlauwi

Just passed through "At the Chapel"  (Bei der Kapelle)

At this point we would have had only 1 hour 15 minutes to our destination, having already come about 3 hours from Sustenbrüggli. But why take the easy way when you can take the hard way: Cross the river, navigate around avalanche snow, beat your way through avalanche-devasted forest, and walk with goats? My way took 45 minutes longer....

Navigating the avalanche snow that we actually saw from across the road on our way up with the bus.

Turning a corner, we ran into the goats, who immediately joined us for the rest of the hike... until we locke the door to the next bridge...

Whenever we run into goats, they join us on our hikes.

They looked so sad when we closed the door to the bridge!

And now we've reached the Reuss valley, and it's only about 20 more minutes to descend to Wassen, the destination for this hike, which took 5 hours, and worth every minute....

14-km walk out of the Meien Valley, took us 5 hours.

We have done many hikes in the side valleys to the Reuss Valley. 

Walking through the Tüfelsschlucht (Devil's Gorge) on a Very Hot Day

Wednesday July 4, 2018 -- Not all our excursions meet up to our expectations, and this was one such one. Maybe the weather was simply too hot, or it was because we had read rave reviews about this gorge in the NW part of Switzerland (between Olten and Balsthal) which was supposed to be spectacular (and specifically picked by us in the hopes of doing a cool hike on a hot day)..... but having been spoiled by our ability to go to all corners of the country and having been in really magnificent gorges, this turned out to be a tame, made-for-local-families-with-small-children type of gorge. (several places to make campfires along the way).

The entire walk through the gorge took 30 minutes, and the really interesting sections even less. But still, I am always amazed that such passages are created and maintained to provide "us" with access to wonderful landscapes we might otherwise never see. 

The particularly interesting thing about this gorge is the Warning/Danger sign at its entrance, that the steep cliff walls are continually releasing rocks and therefore the passage through the gorge is "at great risk and own responsibility". Apparently this was recently the case as we found out later that the gorge passage had been closed for three weeks due to a massive slide, and only just reopened the week before. Good luck for us, as the (5.5 km, 1.5-hour) walk to get there was pretty hot, and I would have been disappointed to not have been able to walk through as planned, as short as the gorge passage turned out to be.

The total hike we did was 8½ km / 2½ hours, of which the actually passage through the gorge (Tüfelsschlucht) was only 30 minutes. 

The villages in this part of the country have their own particular charm. this is our starting point in Langenbruck

Many of the old houses have been renovated, and the original barn entrances (some with very lovely doors) converted to fit into the living space

Stables used to be built onto the living quarters, and often now restored / renovated into new living quarters. The palm tree was a surprise, and the stone fountains are always welcoming!

This is a typical landscape for this northwestern part of Switzerland. In particular, this is in the Nature Reserve called "Thal Naturpark"

These cows were probably thinking: "Why are those idiots walking on such a hot day?"

And there are always plenty of butterflies, and buzzards looking for mice

Along the way we passed through one single village called Bärenwil (Bear Hamlet). Appropriate. 

 

The only restaurant far and wide was closed for holidays (although they would have been closed on Wednesday anyway). So we "borrowed" the bench for our picnic lunch. 

We are always glad when there is a fountain where we can fill up our bottles

Also appropriate: We found a bear in "Bear Hamlet" (or two)

Finally arrived in the gorge. Well actually, this is a small stretch called the "Upper Gorge"

I liked this little piece of the Upper Gorge the best

At the entrance to the actual Tüfelsschlucht Gorge, a sign warns of the great risk of rocks breaking off here, especially during storms and spring thaws. Oh, and bikes are NOT allowed.

The gorge did have its charm, what with the lush vegetation. 

A recently-patched bridge shows where the rockslide probably took place

Granted, this section definitely offered the cooler air we were looking for.

A few interesting spots meant it wasn't all a waste of time.