You may be wondering what "Barfussweg" stands for. So were we until we read our guidebook and it translated it for us as “barefoot”(barfuss) “path” (weg). It was sheer coincidence that our campsite was practically at the start of this path. We realized this when every now and then we'd see a small group of people walk into the campsite, holding shoes in their hand or strapped to their backpacks, looking around for trail markers. The barefoot hiking was a really memorable experience. The dew was still on the lush grass and it was like walking on a plush carpet. The sun was shining brightly and it was absolutely gorgeous walking through the fields with the Ebenalp towering on our right, small red trains going by every so often on our left and rolling fields of green with cows grazing and their bells ringing. The entire trail was only about 5km with only a few sections where we were on gravel. One of the highlights of the path was where I misinterpreted the marker and ended up covered to my knees in mud! Luckily, there was a water/foot washing station soon after. There were some walkers already there and they were heading the way we had just come. When they saw me covered in mud, they had a worried looks on their faces. I cleaned off my legs and I must say that it felt like I had been at the spa having undergone some kind of mud bath. We then made our way back to the campsite but along the road this time to save time.

We had a quick lunch back at the campsite and then decided to ride our bikes into Appenzell, about 10km away. It was pretty much a descent the whole way into town and I was busy taking in the scenery when I had my first bicycle crash of the trip. We were crossing some railroads and I clearly didn’t take the tracks on at enough of an angle. My front wheel slipped into the railroad track groove and down I went like a sack of bricks, skidding along the road for a few meters. My handlebar mirror was smashed and I had a bloody knee and elbow. Luckily, there wasn’t any traffic at that moment and there was a construction crew nearby that kindly came over and offered some bandages. I applied the bandages and we resumed our journey into town.

We locked up our bikes just outside the pedestrian zone and wandered through the cobblestone streets of the town admiring one of the best preserved traditional small towns in Switzerland. We stopped by the TI and that’s when I saw a sign in the window that had a picture of a small boy leading a herd of goats and then some dates, city names and times listed. I didn’t understand what the sign conveying and so I inquired. And it was a good thing I did because it turns out that tomorrow, two herds of cows would be returning from their summer grazing in the high Alps! We thought we had missed this annual event because we had seen cows grazing in the fields near our campsite. We were super excited that we were in time to witness this important event. The decision to bring the herd down from the Alps is made about a day or two before by the head farmer so there isn’t a lot of forewarning. In addition to this, most herds return somewhere between the end of August and beginning of September so there is a very narrow window of opportunity. It is a very important event in the life of an Appenzell farmer and is marked with much ceremony – the farmers all dress up in traditional garb, adorn their best cows with decorative bells and are welcomed into each town they pass through, sometimes being served free beer and wine.

Excited about the chance to see the cows, we cycled back to camp. Megs made it all the way back up without stopping from Appenzell to Jackobsbad camping. There was a 2.2 km climb (1.2km of it is pretty steep – probably around a 6-7% grade). We stopped to pick up some milk at the top of the hill. I thought about going for some beer, but decided I hadn’t worked hard enough for that. That evening, we got thundershowers and it absolutely poured all night long.