Rigi North Trail from Seebodenalp to Arth

Wednesday June 8, 2022 -- More bad weather in the forecast for the afternoon, so we settled for a rather short hike nearby, starting early on the Seebodenalp on our local Mount Rigi.

Always when traveling from our home south of here where we do most of our hiking, we always pass near Mount Rigi on the other side of Lake Zug. The view we get is of its Northeast face, a relatively steep face which sports only one trail down, a trail built by Polish internees during WWII and thus aptly dubbed the "Polenweg", or "Trail of the Poles". (Alternately also "Rigi Nord-Lehne"). The trail starts at the popular and sunnier Seebodenalp on the Northwest side of the mountain, a lovely upper plateau above Küssnacht am Rigi, and one which we can see from our apartment balcony.

To save on climbing time, we took the Seebodenalp Cableway, and walked the 8 km down to Lake Zug level at the town of Arth. We got some nice views of Lake Zug, but most of the hike was on a forest trail. Unfortunately for us, the trail suffered some recent damage (there have been some very major slides on this mountainside in the past 100 years, causing much damage to the railway lines below) and so there were some repairs being done on the trail, and the machines had made the trail very muddy, due to recent rains.

Our original plan was to walk to the railway station in Arth-Goldau, but the sunny weather enticed us to a lake-side pizzeria where we enjoyed a pleasant lunch before taking the bus to the station and then the train home.

Side note: There are several such trails in Switzerland, built by the Polish internees and known generally as "Polenwege".

Heading by train along Lake Zug to Küssnacht a.Rigi, which is a village just below Seebodenalp at the foot of Mt.Rigi and from where you can take a cable car up to the sunny plateau. The trail we walked is approximately as shown, the only trail on this side of the mountain. 

The view over Küssnacht as we head up in the 9 a.m. cable car. The mountain in the background is Mt. Pilatus, Luzern's main mountain and a tourist favourite for the view. Also far back on the left you can see the Bernese Alps

A very close-up zoomed photo of Eiger-Mönch-Jungfrau, the most well-known of the Bernese Alps, and in the foreground, the fancy hotels on Mount Bürgenstock

The Seebodenalp Cable Car, saves a climb of almost 600m altitude

Down below, the community of Küssnacht am Rigi, on the Küssnacht arm of Lake Lucerne

We're only doing a short hike this time, 2 hours 20 minutes to Arth on Lake Zug, with the option of another 45 minutes to the train station in Goldau (But we opted for lunch at the lake, and taking the bus)

Because the north/northeast side of Mount Rigi is so steep, there is only this one trail going down this side of the mountain The trail was built by Polish Internees during WWII. The forest is an important part of the vegetation here, as it helps to prevent land slides. 

We are always observed by the cows! Up above is the Swisscom Telecommunication Tower on the summit of Mount Rigi, i.e. Rigi Kulm. 

A really nice look north across Lake Zug, before we head down into the forest. On the right is Mount Zug (the Zugerberg) and at the very back the city of Zug where we live. 

VIDEO:

Panorama of Lake Zug

This side of the mountain is steep and there have been several slides in the past 100 years. 

Then we ran into the little machines "fixing" the damaged trail, although it looked like they were doing more damage to it! The machine operator had to move his machine so we could pass by. 

A large part of the trail was muddy clay, partly due to the machines and partly due to recent rains. It took us a long time to clean our shoes...

Some information about the many landslides on this mountain flank in the past 100 years or so. The forest helps protect from even more damage

Finally down at valley bottom level. This stretch of railway is very well-used, especially by cargo trains. On the other side is the freeway. In the back are the unmistakeable peaks of the Greater and Lesser Mythen. 

Crossing under the railway tracks

A look back at the mountainside we descended.

And ahead of us is the town of Arth below on Lake Zug, and the mountain called Wildspitz, or Rossberg, the site of one of the largest landslides in the history of Switzerland. (1806, here is an ARTICLE)

These are huge cherry trees. I'm not sure how they actually pick the top sections....

Clouds are gathering in the mountains as predicted, that is why we started early and kept it short

The current St.Georg's chapel built in 1652 is the 5th or 6th chapel built on this spot, the first one being documented in 1036

A painting inside the chapel documents the great fire of July 21, 1719. The houses at that time were all single homes made of wood. After the fire, in which 77 homes were lost, the district administrators stipulated that the houses would not longer be built with wood, but stone with tiled roofs. 

The village of Arthh was rebuilt in stone with tiled roofs after the great fire of 1719

The house in the middle is called the "Haus Krone" (Crown House) and is a typical residence from the 18th Century. 

At noon the weather was still good, so we gave up walking and decided to treat ourselves to a lunch at the lakeside Pizzeria. 

Urs had the lunch menu (Pork steak with potato gratin) and I had the "Meat Lover's" pizza... The girl who brought the pizza was funny, she said "Here's the vegetarian pizza for the lady...!!"

A nice relaxing lakeside lunch, with a view of the hillside we had just descended, and best of all, no one smoking nearby!

Starting in Küssnacht with a cable car to Seebodenalp, and then a 2+ hour walk down to Arth on Lake Zug

This is the view of the Northeast side of Mount Rigi that we see every time we travel North-South by train. On the way home again. 

Mount Rigi is a long-stretched range, and we have done many hikes along its flanks.