Name: Hemberg and SchwagAlp Pass It was one of my most beautiful days yet on the bike in Switzerland through the quintessential St. Gallen countryside. One of those days that makes you incredibly thankful for being able to spend some time in this beautiful country.
Area: Eastern Switzeland - St. Gallen
Date: Sunday, May 25th Length: 60km GPS: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/i...kValue=5790611 Time: 2:15 to 3 hours (it took me right about 3 hours riding time but at a very leisurely pace( Total Altitude: 1,200 meters Difficulty: Light/Medium Ascents: Hemberg (950m) Unknown Pass (1050m) Schwagalp (1,300 meters) Traffic: Very light except on Schwagalp pass road Transportation: Zurich HB - S5 to Rapperswil and Voralpen Express to Wattwill. Trains leave on the same platform but opposite side.
Highlights: Santis and the beautiful countyside...horses, goats, hairy sheep and all the goodies, an Appenzeller brew to finish the day
Description in Detail: As I had a brutal day on the bike on Saturday (5+ hours) on Sattelegg pass and the greater Einsiedeln area, I was looking for a leisurely ride just to enjoy the great outdoors. It turned out to be that and even more. Leaving the train station, one must head into town, do not follow the cycling sign that points you Rickenpass – unless you want a good warm up. In about 0.5 kilometers you will see another cycling sign pointing to the right, take this turn and you will be immediately onto Hemberg Pass Road. There is sign marking the beginning of the route saying Steig 8km 330 meters. Immediately, you head straight up, the first two kilometers are brutal with a good 8% to 9% pitch. But the road is as smooth as glass as the sites already are beautiful countryside with many cows, goats and beautiful hills in the distance. After the first 2k, the ascent is pretty light all the way to the top, a couple short steep ramps but not much. The road is virtually void of traffic except for a few motorcyclists flying by and it is beautiful all the way up, pasture lands and rolling hills. One couldn’t dream a more beautiful scene. When you reach the town of Hemberg, you will see lots of cycling signs pointing in all directions. Follow, the sign straight ahead which says Schwagalp. The descent is sharp and steep, with lots of sharp bends. A good descender would love it, I took it easy. Once you reach the bottom, you immediately see another sign which says Steig 6km 300 meters. You head up another climb, not particularly steep, a few steep 10% pitches but short. You then reach the town of Bachli. In the town, there are cycling sides pointing straight ahead (this one would take you to schonengrund, but you don’t want that) and one on right pointing up a steep little hill. Take the one on the right. This leads to one of the most beautiful pasture roads I have experienced and more or less void of traffic except for a herd of cattle a farmer was leading down the road and the peak of Santis showing itself off in the distance.. It is slight climb for several kilometers and eventually there is a steep pitch for 0.5 kilometers until you reach the peak of the pass (at 1050 meters), which I will call the ‘Unknown Pass’ as I yet to find a name for it but it had its very own ,meter sign on the top. Then you have a steepish descent with a few minor bends, but watch out for traffic coming the other way as it is a pretty narrow road until you arrive in Urnasch. Now, you take the road to the right and you are on your way up to Schwagalp. Overall, Schwagalp was a pretty easy climb, easier than I was expecting, a few steep bits at the start and then pretty steady until the final 2k’s or so which pitch up at 8 to 9%, maybe more at bits, enough hairpin turns that you can get a bit of a break. The views are spectactular, I even broke the grimpeur’s rule 1 and stopped to take a picture. The last stretch up the summit is awe-inspiring with Santis lurking over you its glory. The road is very busy with cars and lots of motorcycles. I have now arrived at what I thought was the top and had my celebratory Coca Cola at the little restaurant, only to realize the ‘real’ top is another 0.5 km’s up the road. I climbed up this little stretch of road and finally figured out where all the motorcycles and cars were going, there was huge parking lots with restaurants and \a cable car to Santis. However, unless you have a mountain bike this is a dead end for the roadies, so you turn back and take the turn to the left (with the sign pointing to Zurich). Now you have a nice little straight down descent, more or less, so the speed demons can have a go here. At the bottom of the descent you arrive in Neu St. Johann turn right on this road and more or less immediately you will see two cycling signs, one pointing ahead for Hemberg and one off to the left to Krummenau (cycling road 95). Take the road to Krummenau, this is beautiful road which seems to be used by horses more than cars as you can tell the litterings on road. I even passed a horse and buggy and just had enough room to squeeze. This road is pretty straight shot following a river and all down hill at a slight gradient so have fun. Only one tricky part is when you are nearing Wattwill, there is a cycling sign pointing to go left up a little hill, don’t take this continue on down and follow the signs to Wattwill. If you are lucky like me, and miss the train to Rapperswil, you can sit at the outside café and drink an Appenzeller Stange and soak up the sun. You have earned it.