The Schluchtensteig is a 120km, 6-days trail in the south of the Black Forest in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. Schluchten means canyons, Steig is climb, and together: the gorges trail. The trail crosses several rivers, the main one being the Wutach. This means a lot of water, some impressive gorges and lovely dramatic views.
Who is this for?This is a well-maintained trail for people who like to spend their vacation hiking in somewhat dramatic scenery full of water (rivers, gorges, waterfalls) while ending the day with a great meal and a nice hot shower and a comfy bed. All nights other than one (Schattenmühle) are spent in a village or town, and you are never far away from civilisation, but you get to experience some lovely nature. It's not particularly physically demanding, with a daily average of 20km and some nice daily ascent and descent (total of about 3200 over the entire trail). It's typically completed in 6 days, but it can be done in 5 days. The area has been a popular travel destination for over 100 years, so there's lots of family run hotels (pension) and great infrastructure. People spend their summer vacation here, taking full board in a hotel for a week and doing day hikes. The trail as a whole was not very busy, with only a few other people completing it along side us. There are other multi-days trails in the area, including the Westweg and Jakobsweg - the German part of the famous Camino Santiago.
Planning: You can arrange everything yourself, but due to time I opted to use a local travel company. I used Eurotrek and picked their 6 hiking days package, which includes hotels reservations, luggage transfer and trail instructions. They were very nice and friendly, answering all my questions efficiently (and in English). Everything went smoothly, and they made sure we got two twin beds rather than one queen in every hotel. You can of course do the booking yourself if you want, and arrange luggage transfer directly with the local taxi companies. You can also carry your own luggage and/or camp. I saw several trailer parks around, so i'm guessing there's also places to pitch a tent, but we saw no one with a tent while hiking. It's easier if you speak basic German, as in many places people spoke very little English, and most hotels we stayed in had no English option on their website and/or were not available for booking on the large international booking sites.
Getting There: We arrived via Zurich airport, but Basel airport (Officially known as EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg) is closer. As the Zurich airport in Kloten is north of the city, and the trail is north from there, there is no need to enter Zurich itself. From the airport we took a ~20 minutes ride on the 530 bus to Bülach Banhof. It's not a big station so it's easy to find your way around. Waiting for 20 minutes, we boarded the S36 train into Waldshut. It's a beautiful 50-minutes journey along the Rhein river, crossing from Switzerland into Germany. At Koblenz the train stops for a few minutes and then it looks as if its retracing its steps. It's not. Well, only slightly. The last leg was a tiny train from Waldshut to Stühlingen. As you get off the train from Bülach, the platform to Stühlingen is on the same side, literally an extension of the platform you just embarked from. From here it's a ~30 minutes ride on a tiny train (train #37). There is also a bus #338 that runs along this route - it takes a bit longer but is more frequent. Sounds complicated, but it wasn't - just pay attention to timetables, as being late to one leg of the journey might mean a long wait time. At the end of the trail we took at taxi from Wehr, the last town on the trail to the Wehr-Brennet train station. From there a train to Waldshut, where we retraced our steps back to Zurich.
Navigation: The trail is generally well marked and well maintained. We had several diversions due to trail closures with the announcements (a piece of paper stuck on a tree or pole) were only in German. So if you don't read the language, it's helpful to have a translation app on your phone. Trail marking were generally very good, with a mix of trail blaze and signs with destinations and distances. The trail has its own somewhat complicated green, red and blue logo that is easy to spot. I downloaded the trail map to my phone, and used it only sporadically.
Food: Expect traditional food - heavy on meat and potatoes for dinner, cold meats and cheese for breakfast, so not the place to be a vegetarian or vegan. But if you like game meat, then almost every restaurant had Hirsch - deer meat. If you do eat fish, then this is trout heaven - Forellen mit Mandeln appears on every menu - it is lightly breaded trout served with melted butter and shaved almonds, usually accompanied with Salzkartoffeln - potatoes boiled in salt water and served with chopped parsley. Simple and delicious. Almost every village we went through had a bakery selling fresh breads and other baked goods as well as serving coffee and light lunch. Look for the "Bäckerei-Konditorei" sign and expect white linens and professional service. We sampled the cakes in each and every one of these places, and they were utterly scrumptious.
For lunch, can get packed lunch from your hotel (ask the night before), but we opted for more control over our food and bought some provisions in the grocery stores. There's a large supermarket in Blumberg on the second night, and all towns along the way had a bakery and/or small store.
Weather: This trail can be hiked spring, summer and fall. We did it in early August, so we had anything from a 30+ degree day to non-stop rain, with drizzle almost every day, but nothing too serious. Take rain gear with you, and remember that in Europe, rain is not a reason not to hike.
Flora and Fauna: Oh. My. Good. The amount and variety of mushrooms was insane. With summer blooms at their peak, it was a butterfly paradise. We also enjoyed wild strawberries and raspberries which we picked along the trail.
Transport: We only used public transport once on the trail, but it seems very efficient. There's a map produced by the local tourism board detailing all the public transport options between the stages on the trail. Ask you hotel for a KONUS-card for free use of the public transport system in the area. They will give you an empty card, and you must fill it in with the dates of your stay. So either enter the whole duration, or ask for a new card in each hotel.
Costs: We paid 1198 euros for two people for the package that included 7 hotel night, breakfasts and luggage transfer. The only added costs on the trail were lunch, dinner and snacks. This being Germany, costs were not high for a western European adventure. You can expect ~20-25 euros for full dinner,~5-7 euros for coffee and cake. Transport in the region was free with the KONUS card, so the most expensive part of the travel, other than the plane ticket, was public transport from and into Switzerland.
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