Gonzen (Spina-Trail)
Description
The first part of the tour rides along the marked Palfries mountain bike route (477). This takes you from Sargans train station to Trübbach and then branches off onto the ascent via a small mountain road. This rides past the Malanserholz to the Scheidweg at 1360 meters above sea level. Here you leave the signposted mountain bike route and reach the alpine settlement of Rieterhütten and the ridge below the Gonzen. Ideally, you should leave your mountain bike here and walk to the summit of the Gonzen with its fantastic views of the Chur and St. Gallen Rhine valleys and the Seez valley. For the descent, switch to the western side of the Gonzen and climb a few meters from Rieterhütten to the top of the pass on the road to Palfries. Now you descend on the path across the alpine meadows, followed by a stretch of alpine road to Hinterspina, where the singletrail fun begins. The trail now winds its way down countless hairpin bends, rides through the forest between the rocky ledges and only ends on the outskirts of Heiligkreuz. Now take the high-level trail to Sargans Castle and from there back to the train station.
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Details of the tour
28 km
1525 m
1525 m
477 above sea level
1739 above sea level
1 day
Sargans
Sargans
1143
well suited
More information
More tours nearby
User comments (11)
About the author: Thomas Giger
Note: This content has been automatically translated from German. Please report any incorrect translations.
Attention driving ban!
Bike route 477 up to the Palfries pass is a wonderful route. After that, however, the route is no longer correct. Although there has been feedback since 2020, the ride team has not yet made any corrections. They are probably relying on the information in Ride Magazine instead of reading all the comments.
Ride ban 1 (official): The path across the alpine meadow may no longer be ridden on. According to local bikers, there has been a strict riding ban for several years. The reason for this is several fatal accidents. Hikers have also slipped and fallen. I can provide you with photos so that you can check this with the locals. Unfortunately, I can't upload any photos here.
Driving ban 2 (official): I wanted to bypass this section and rejoin the route at Berghaus Palfries. But there is now another driving ban here too. I therefore followed route 477 to Vorderpalfries and from there descended via Rütiguet, Tschuggawald and Hinderspina along the ride route.
No riding 3 (local council - not sure if the sign is official): At the start of the Spina Trail (Spinaweg) there was another prohibition sign saying "Bikers prohibited". The local council thus rejects any liability. It is now the responsibility of each individual. However, I think the tour details are wrong. Maybe they were correct 10 years ago, but the fact is that the riding technique here has to be 100% mastered. Even then, no RedBull hardliner would enjoy riding this route. The information regarding e-bikes also urgently needs to be revised.
Appeal to the ride team: Please check the route on site, discuss it with the locals and revise it with the latest information. If necessary, delete the route. Thank you!
Greetings, Ömer
I rode the tour today. Despite the great weather on Saturday afternoon, I didn't meet a single hiker on the Spinach Trail.
I didn't see any hiking trail signs at the start of the trail either, just the sign prohibiting cyclists.
A great, crisp trail on which you are really challenged. Good enduro bikers ride everything, everyone else probably doesn't have quite as much fun ;)
Today 26.07.2020 we did the tour Gonzen (Spina-Trail), the trail towards the valley is unfortunately not rideable because there is a driving ban for bikers...a pity that RIDE still suggests such tours and annoying because this creates a mismatch between bikers and hikers.
Alternatively, you can ride Tour 477. Panorama = top, trail = unfortunately flop.
The tour was recorded when biking was not yet prohibited on this route, and the route is also one of the region's great classics. Thanks to the comments on the tour, there is a lot of helpful, supplementary and up-to-date information on the route and ultimately everyone should decide for themselves whether they want to ride the tour or not. However, it would be a bit strange for the ride tour database if one of the great classics in Sarganserland was not included.
Tried to ride the route today, but failed on the descent as bikes are not allowed there. I stuck to it and unfortunately rode most of the way back on asphalt. The panorama was still beautiful.
Checked 2020
We rode the tour today. There shouldn't be any more tree foliage, as far as fall suitability is concerned.
The ascent is only recommended on the road. We skipped the detour to the summit of Gonzen due to time constraints. The descent to Heiligkreuz is technically demanding but really fun. The hairpin bends are easy to ride. Technicians have their fun here, unfortunately a bit short... as is usually the case. But always worthwhile.
We started from Sargans and took the ascent via the state forest towards Walserberg, past Maienberg, Rüti and Lochberg. There's a fun single trail through the forest with a few footbridges and bridges over the small streams. Above Malanserholz you reach the mountain road towards Palfries. The road has a series of steep ramps and you quickly gain altitude. The descent can start directly at the highest point or at Berghaus Palfries. At the beginning, you descend across the meadow and after a short stretch on gravel, you enter the forest into the hairpin bends.
The hairpin bends come one after the other, with barely 2 meters of straight sections in between. This adds up to 110 hairpin bends (we counted them this time). The terrain is steep and in the hairpin bends there are always ledges and so on. Technically a treat and a challenge.
As the terrain is steep and the trail is quite technical, I would only recommend this tour to experienced riders who enjoy riding technical passages. It should also be dry, otherwise the upper part in the meadow is extremely wet.
Once you reach the bottom, it's worth looking up - it's hard to believe that you can ride down along this rock face on a bike.
Many greetings Dani
Do you think there's a ban on bikes somewhere?
Yes, that's right. Even at the highest point there is a sign prohibiting bikes and along the way there are always signs warning against liability.
I assume that this is about liability. I've ridden the route several times and have only come across 2 hikers so far, hardly anyone walks this route.
In fact, the ban is the only official (with obligatory concrete foundation) bike ban in the region that I know of. That's why I don't actually ride the Spinach Trail (especially not at weekends).