Walderlebnispfad

The weather forecast is looking pretty grim for the rest of the week. Today and tomorrow will be lovely, but the rest of the week is cold, and rain, and more cold rain. Although we're all a little tired, I decided it was important to get the kids outside, on what might be the last pretty day of the year.

I packed a picnic lunch of bread and cheese and apples and some maple sugar candies, and we all clamored onto the S10 train, to the S4, all the way up into the Sihl woods, Zürich's backyard. A friend had told me about a fun children's trail that ran along a ridge, with cute little stations along the way.  It was a very manageable two kilometers, although, she warned me, the very beginning of the trail is very steep, on the assent to the ridge.

I got off easy: Joey was exuberant when we got to the woods, and took off on a dash up the switchbacks. When he got a little tired, he crouched on the path for a moment, catching his breath ("I'm tired!") until he noticed a smooth stick, just about the length of his arm.  He grabbed that stick and took off running again, beating the ground before him.  There's something about carrying a stick that makes a hike of any length and altitude tolerable.

I didn't tell the kids about the fun treats that they'd be finding along the way, so there was a yelp of excitement up the hill when the kids came across the first station, a tree stump with annual rings highlighted. "Can you find your birthday ring?" the information sign asked. Alex could not: the tree was chopped down in 2004.

Most of the stations were similar: simple, but appealing.  One was a pair of trees that had been hooked together by a pipe, so that the kids could talk to each other through them. They hooted birdcalls to one another, and Ella reminded me that I'd told her the story of how Aunt Kathy and I, before we shared a room, used to whisper to each other through the heating vents.  Until Grandpa, one night, shouted through his own vent for us to go to sleep.

Another listening station was simply a rock with a hole bored into it: it was called a "humming stone," you were supposed to stick your head inside, and hum, and listen. They also had set up a few xylophones, made of tree limbs, for the kids to pound on.

But more of the stations were just celebrations of the forest, reminders to pay attention and experience the beauty.  There was one long, rickety wooden boardwalk side-path around the woods, where the kids and I had a wonderful time spotting mushrooms in the moss and autumn leaves.  Ella was particularly pleased with herself when she thought she recognized one of the plants highlighted in her endangered species "Haselwurz und Bärenklau" board game.

We also found and pocketed the largest snail shell I've ever seen.

There was also a funny little "barefoot" side trail, which had been segmented off and filled with different natural materials: shale, bark, pine cones, dirt, roots, river stones, and so forth. We were encouraged to shuck our shoes and experience the different textures. I imagine I looked pretty silly with my parka and bare feet.  Ella loved that soft dirt segment so much that she danced a little jig. Alex decided he wasn't a fan and walked, tightrope style, along the wooden barriers instead.

They also had a station where you could compare your longest running leap with those of different animal species.  While we played there, I finally learned how to adjust the shutter speed on my camera.

I couldn't let the kids have all the fun.

I don't know who coined the phrase "babes in the woods," but my babes were utterly confident today, as they ran ahead on the trail, and circled back to tell me all that they discovered.

I loved trails like these, and the way they beckon kids along.  Joey whimpered a few times along the trail, but he walked the whole thing except for a few tiny stretches.  Ran, really, trying to keep up with the brother and sister who he adores.