Bettlachstock, October 2023

Bettlachstock lies on the southern slopes of the Jura – the lesser known of the two parallel mountain ranges crossing the country diagonally (with the Mittelland plane lying in-between, where the majority of the Swiss population lives). Bizarrely, the official UNESCO nomination files talk about Forêt de la Bettlachstock, even though Bettlachstock forest lies squarely in the German-speaking part of Switzerland (the country takes its language borders very seriously).

The core zone is located around 500 meters above the Mittelland plane. Avoiding what must be a strenuous ascent I started my hike from bus stop Bettlachrank on line 38 which runs from Grenchen further up the mountain all the way to Unterer Grenchenberg (a popular weekend spot with a nice view and restaurant).

I like to start my walks at dawn in order to have the chance to spot some animals – this time I saw a chamois (I did not expect to see them at these still relatively low altitudes, but the terrain is quite rocky and steep, and hence they apparently like this area – also, with the forest being protected, maybe they are safe here from being hunted?), a fox, and just a quick passing shadow from what appeared to be either a marten or a weasel. As it was too early for the bus to already operate at this time I had pre-arranged for a taxi to pick me up at Grenchen Süd train station – a stop on the intercity line from Zurich to Lausanne.

The core area starts right behind the Bettlachrank bus stop, and with me starting off already at altitude, I proceeded to simply traverse the mountain slope in an easterly / north-easterly direction. I used map.wanderland.ch – a very well made (official) site containing all the country’s hiking trails; this being Switzerland, there was excellent Internet connectivity throughout my hike.

After a little while I passed the ruins of Burg Grenchen (1000 AD, nice viewing spot), before arriving at Bettlachberg – a small alpine farm (jurassic farm?) with a herd of cows grazing in the early morning sun (quite pastoral - all of them were wearing jingling bells and all).

The final stretch was the most interesting one – walking up Neu Stockweg to Stockmätteli (1074 meters – the highest point I visited), then traversing a very nice area of pure beech forest with passing views of the plane below, before walking down the steep mountain flank of Strickhubeli to Bettlach train station.

Bettlachstock is one of the areas in the country where ETH and partner organizations study long term forests growth patterns and what can be done to address changing climate conditions; some automated measuring equipment is placed in the wood, and a few small fenced-in areas can be noticed where long running experiments are being conducted; some informative panels along the way explain what this research is all about.