Fairy Falls

A lovely warm spring day had me wondering where to go locally, and see something new. I found a hike, under 3 hours in the lowlands in my Rother Wanderführer for Emmental. This includes Oberaargau, the Bernese end of my canton. An interesting route, starting at St. Urban with a super little train line from Langenthal to the former Kloster. The path followed the edge of the woods, then joined the stream, Rot. I could walk right along the Rot as it meandered through fields, to a small timber yard with working water wheel near Roggwil. A highlight was the dam, where the river Mürg meets the Rot, where the Murg flows down a gorge, and the Rot becomes an 8.5 km long canal. This was built by Monks from the Kloster in 1640, to water fields between Murgental and Rothrist, and later for a spinners and more recently 3 small hydro power projects.
It felt for a few minutes like being back in Lancashire, but the water in this canal was the clearest turquoise canal water I have seen for a long time, and with some beautiful fish. Murgental is quite industrial, you wouldn’t know it when walking through the pretty woods filled with anenomies, violets and cowslips along the side of the Rotkanal.
My blip is of this incredibly beautiful mossy spring in the woods, which I have named the Fairy Falls. I can imagine them bathing here on a moon filled summer’s night.
The Rotkanal carried on, but looked tricky to follow, no towpath, so at Riken, I followed the Wanderweg to Rothrist, which first passed through farmland, then through some fabulous forest. The middle of the forest was a nature reserve, it was bog land, or a moss, with lots of reed and frog filled ponds, with every footstep frogs jumped out of my way and back into the ponds. Another half an hour, then the path dropped down steeply to the edge of Rothrist, through the town, and to the railway station, in perfect time for the direct train home.
11.5 km 150m ascent 3 hours walking