The third stage of our tour around lake Zurich turned out to be a great days riding. The day started with a long climb out of Pfaffikon SZ heading towards Feusisberg and Schindellegi. As we climbed on paved roads we were treated to great views over lake Zurich and the surrounding countryside.
Once we got through Schindellegi we entered the forest and continued the climb on fireroads towards Gotschalkenberg and on to Charenboden where we met up with the start of the singletrail from the Aegeri tour. From here the trail climbs for about 300m to a small clearing with views of Aegerisee on one side and lake Zurich on the other.
This is where the fun begins, the trail starts to head slightly down hill with some nice rooty and rocky sections. Its not technical enough to be scary for beginners, but has enough features to allow the more enthusiastic biker have some fun when they ride it fast. The trail continues to follow the ridge down to a fireroad junction where you ride straight on and climb for a short while before getting back onto the trail again. We all came screaming out of the woods at the end of the trail with huge grins on our faces hoping for some more of the same later in the ride.
Once back on the road we headed for Meinzingen and then followed the yellow wanderweg signs for Sihlbrugg, Sihlmatt or Sihlsprung. Our route took us along a few new sections of singletrail that none of us had ridden before until we met the river Sihl at Sihlsprung.
We then followed a mixture of singletrail and fireroad along the side of the river until getting to the train station in Sihlbrugg and realising we had just missed the train and would have to wait an hour for another one or ride to Thalwil. An extra 10km of riding in our already tired legs got us to Thalwil and on the train without a second to spare.
Stage 3 turned out to be a great days riding and leaves me looking forward to many more days like this over the next few months.
Stage 4 will take us from Sihlbrugg up onto the Albis ridge to Uetliberg and ending up with a blast down the Antenna trail.
