Hasenboden Trail at the foot of Mount Mattstock in Amden

Tuesday June 13, 2023 -- Sixth day of a 12-day vacation period and we're off again early in the morning to be in Amden at the chair lift for start of operation at 8:30. (This is another beautiful location which is not far from home, so we can start early in this ongoing heat. In fact, it's only 90 minutes by public transit). This is at least the third time we have ridden on this chair lift, and it is a peaceful 15-minute ride in a lovely countryside.

From the summit of the cable-car we walked a mountain trail new to us, climbing an easy 250 meters (one hour) to a surprising upper alpine meadow below the summit of Mt. Mattstock (others climbed to the summit, but we didn't need that much view). It was so nice up there, we spent longer than usual admiring the little blue globe daisies which totally covered the terrain here. We also watched cliff-climbers for a while, before descending for another two hours through meadows and forests and back toward Amden, where we caught the bus on the road lower down. With our luck, right where we wanted to stop for an early picnic lunch is where a helicopter was busy bringing cut logs out of the forest.

Back in March of this year we did a hike in the same region, slightly lower down the mountain than where we were this time (those photos are HERE), but at that time there had been clouds above the lake when we had reached the look-out point, so since our trail this time took us near that location, we detoured back to the look-out point for our picnic, as we also knew there would be shade there. (In retrospect, we could have saved ourselves the detour, as the views we had higher up were better).

We got back on the bus at 1 p.m. but didn't have a direct connection back home, so we spent the 30 minutes down at the lake in Weesen on Lake Walensee, which was pleasant and in the shade.

Highlight: We saw the first marmots of the hiking season!

From the train station in Ziegelbrücke we ride the bus up the mountain to Amden, which is on the north side of Lake Walensee. The distinctive peak to the south is the Mürtschenstock, which is at the northwest corner of the Sardona Tectonic Arena. This early in the morning, the air is the clearest.

In the village of Amden, before heading up on the chair lift, we can already see where we will be walking, above those cliffs. We got on the chair lift here at 8:30, after stopping in the local bakery for sandwiches for our picnic.

A look behind us at the village of Amden as we head uphill on the chair lift

The chair lift from Amden to the restaurant at Strichboden saves us almost 400 meters of ascent

??? Why is this stuffed animal riding the chair lift? We saw him last time we rode down the chair lift and could not figure it out at that time.

Nice farms on the hillside along the way.

On this hike, which was not quite 10 km, we had a bit more uphill than on the last one, but not a lot. It was another typical 3-hour hike for us. Most of what we followed was Trail no.929, called the "Hasenbodenweg", because it goes past an alpine pasture called Hasenboden.

In family-oriented summer vacation areas there are often special trails for children. This one here obviously involved marmots of some kind....

....and ah, now I get it. The trail is called "Munggeweg", of which there are many in the mountains. "Mungge" is a dialekt word for Marmot, and I guess that's why the stuffed marmot rides the chair lift. He's a mascot of some kind, for the kids to enjoy!

Usually after about 20 minutes of walking, we stop to put on sunscreen (Urs) and change into shorts (me) and this time we found a nice shady place where there were already two other individuals resting! Needless to say, they had to check out what we were doing.

The goats are checking out the snacks I have taken out of my back-pack.

Continuing up the hill, it's just starting to get a bit hot here. The air is already more hazy than an hour earlier (It's now 9:30)

At this junction (after an uphill of an hour) we would have the option of climbing to the summit of Mount Mattstock (an hour and 380 meters almost straight uphill), but we will stick to the original plan to follow the trail to Amden. We don't want to do too strenuous hikes this week.

Following these cliffs for a while

One of many views to the sunny alpine pastures of Amden and Lake Walensee below. The snow-capped mountains are all part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Sardona Tectonic Arena.

This place we have reached is called Obloch

The large upper plateau was full of these blue flowers called "heart-leaved globe daisies". So pretty!

The alpine plateau was strewn with boulders, and everywhere the pretty globe daisies were flowering!

At the foot of Mount Mattstock

This upper plateau is a summer pasture for the cows. (The trail continues below, past the cows, but we didn't notice, and ended up walking up too high).

"Heart-Leaved Globe Daisies" (Globularia Cordifolia)

Bunches of purple alpine flowers

Heading uphill, but it turned out to be the wrong way! We were on a trail taken by rock climbers, and had to find our way down to the walking trail again.

Watching the rock climbers

Best kind of trails

This farm is called Oberfurggle. From there we headed downhill to the right

Here at Oberfurgglen we joined the "Hasenbodenweg", and are headed to the tower at Durschlegi.

Looking behind us at the trail we walked

It is always a pleasure to catch sight of marmots

The first marmots we had seen this summer

This is the first view we get of the mountains to the west, i.e. the Glarus Alps. Below is the city of Niederurnen, which is at the entrance of the Linth Valley.

A long stretch on a small trail through the forest. We often see such interesting fungi

Here we have reached the clearing called Hasenboden, where we wanted to stop for our picnic lunch, but there was a helicopter working nearby, and it was very noisy

This little bird (possibly a song thrush or blackbird, but definitely a young one) did not fly away from us. He was very busy trying to get a mouthful of an earthworm he had discovered.

Heading down the clearing at Hasenboden, we get a very nice look at the entrance to the Linth Valley. At the very left is the mountain called Glärnish, which forms the south side of Lake Klöntal, which we had seen from Aeugsten across the valley the week before. (See the helicopter?)

We watched the helicopter for a while, as it flew in and out of the valley carrying freshly-cut logs. This went on for about 20 minutes as we made our way along a level forest road toward Durschlegi. The helicopter was moving quickly back and forth.... we were surprised at how quickly the logs were attached and detached.

A fabulous view of the west end of Lake Walensee and the Linth Canal, as well as the Linth Valley (Linthal). Below is the town of Weesen, where we later spent 30 minutes waiting for a bus connection.

Rounding the corner at the Durchschlegi tower, we now know where the helicopter was dumping the logs! (Now it's close to noon and the workers have left, as has the helicopter)

The tower at Durschlegi

At first we thought we might have our lunch here on this bench, with this view of Lake Walen (Walensee), but it was decidedly too hot.

Some wild fire lilies we spotted in the forest

After a cool descent through the forest, we came to the trail we had walked back in March, and figured we would have our picnic lunch at the look-out point we had passed at the time.

It was a 10-minute detour to the look-out point, and as it turns out, we had had just as nice views from higher up. At least there was shade for our picnic lunch. It's now only 12:10, and we are almost finished our hike!