Saturday August 21, 2021 -- Now we are finally having some nice summer days! Saturday was again pretty glorious most everywhere, but we decided to stay relatively close to home again for this day trip, namely near Engelberg, which has some pretty spectacular geology.
The hike consisted of crossing the Bannalper Schonegg ridge from Canton Nidwalden into Canton Uri, and involved the use of two cable cars with which we had not yet traveled, including one of those fabulous open cargo cable cars which belong to mountain farmers but have been made available for public use (and they totally UNDERCHARGE the ride at 4 SFr. per person!). Start of the hike was in Oberrickenbach near Wolfenschiessen, from where you can access no less than FIVE cable cars, and from where we rode a different farmer's cable in June (photos HERE). To get here was an experience this beautiful Saturday morning, as Postauto sent only one bus which was already full by the time our train arrived in Wolfenschiessen. More and more people tried packing into the bus, until the driver finally had to close the door and leave a half-dozen people behind. They should know by now how popular this area is on a rare nice Saturday in summer!
Surprisingly, even with this large amount of people, we only had to wait 10 minutes until our turn with the cable, and got to the Bannalp Plateau only 20 minutes later than expected. Also surprising was the unexpected number of people who were also doing the 2-hour, 600m ascent to the Bannalp Schonegg ridge.... this we hadn't expected. Fortunately, once there, most of the others headed right or left, and we were the only ones who descended to the Oberalp Farm to use their cable car.... after having a nice cold drink at their little outdoor "restaurant".
The little cable car saved us 300m descent along a boring road, but even after that we still had five kilometers to walk along a forestry road for over an hour to the bus stop at St.Jakob (luckily next to the Isental River, and through some forested sections, so we stayed relatively cool). We were surprised to find out later on that this was an additional 480m descent to the 600m we had already done higher up! In all, this was a pretty successful hike that I will look back on fondly.
From Oberrickenbach below there are several cable cars accessing the mountainsides. To come up here to Lake Bannalpsee, there are two cable cars, this one is the larger of the two. It carries about 12 people at a time, and we were lucky to be on the second run up the mountain.
This alp is called Chrüzhütte, and this is the fabulous backdrop of Lake Bannalpsee (not visible from here)
Up ahead of us is the farm called Urnerstafel (large mountain hostel) from where we are going to ascend 600m or about two hours, toward the left.
The hike from here to the bus stop at St.Jakob is about 4.5 hours. But using the small cable car at the Oberalp farm on the other side of the ridge saves us 30-40 minutes of walking. In any case, it takes almost two hours to get to the ridge.
It was hot already early in the morning (we started at 9:30) so a tough 2-hour climb! But as we got higher and higher, we saw more of Lake Bannalpsee
Up ahead is the ridge which we want to cross. There was a farmer here hand-raking all the mown grass into bales.
Daisies are such happy-looking flowers
Near the ridge (called Bannalp Schonegg) with a spectacular view down onto the lake and the Engelberg Valley
Here on the ridge, about half the hikers continued to the top of Mt. Chaiserstuhl, the peak on the right.
View from the Ridge to the East. The side we came up on (to the West) is in Canton Nidwalden, and here along this ridge we are crossing into Canton Uri
It's down below in the center where we are headed. You can see how the hillside drops off into the valley at the back (called Grosstal) where we can save ourselves 300m descent by using their cable car.
The other half of the hikers which came up on the same trail we did, were headed on toward the South along that trail behind Urs (toward Engelberg). Here is where we had our picnic lunch.
We were the only people heading down this way.
Down there in the circle is the little cable car, which belongs to the farmers from the three farms below.
Sometimes we have to work hard crossing these alpine meadows!
Always pleasant when the pretty cows are in the pastures.
Down below is the first of three farms up here. This one is called "Hinteralp". I am impressed at how close those large boulders are to the buildings!
The very pretty, but very poisonous Monkshood (Wolfsbane) is the flower we are mostly seeing at this time of year on our hikes.
These goats were further up the mountain but came running down when they saw us. They are the prettiest, cleanest and shiniest goats I have every seen.
For some reason, goats like to follow Urs on the mountain trails. They recognize him as a Swiss Mountain Man
VIDEO:
The goats are following Urs again! (It's not the first time that goats have followed him in the mountains!)
Looking up past Hinteralp to the ridge we crossed
At the next farm called Oberalp we stopped for something cool to drink. This was a new experience, a drink called "Orangenmost" (a mixture of orange juice and light apple cider, a local recipe). It is also here that we had to arrange a time to descend with the cable car. The owner had to send someone to meet us there to operate it.
Down below is the Grosstal Valley where we are headed. In the background are two well-known peaks here, Mt.Schlieren and Mt. Uri Rotstock (the pointy peak on the right). In his younger days, Urs had hiked to the top of that peak.
Panorama view of the road which we could have used to walk down into the Grosstal Valley. But the cable car saved us 300m descent and almost 2 km on that road
Admiring the Oberalp Farmer's Cable Car, which is the main reason we arranged this particular hike! It is one of many such private cable cars in both Cantons Nidwalden and Uri. We have now tried out almost all of them!
The shadow of our cable car as we descend 300m to another farm called Gossalp
Here we are at the half-way point as the other "box" crosses on its way up!
After getting to the bottom and other alp called Gossalp, we watched as the next people descended, and the two cars crossed higher up.
VIDEO:
(This is my own video, uploaded to YouTube)
What it is like to ride on this Farmer's Cable Car!
In the mountains the weather changes quickly. Anyone hiking on the Uri Rotstock right now is caught in the fog and can't see their way! On the other hand, we have great weather down here and the little cable car looks spectacular from here.
To get to the closest bus stop at the back of the Isental Valley, we have to walk 5 km down the Grosstal Valley on roads like this, which turned out to be not too bad at all.
Walking down the Grosstal Valley, along the Isentaler River (Isentalerbach)
Somewhere along the way out of the Grosstal Valley, a look back to the magnificent mountains of Canton Uri
Here we made it to the bus stop at St.Jakob, again with about 10 minutes to spare. This is looking back again where we walked 5 km down the Grosstal valley. We were surprised later to see that altogether it was another 480m descent, which is quite a lot.
In all we walked 10.5 kilometers, but if we hadn't used the Oberalp cable car, it would have been over 12 km, and 1300+ meters descent. As it was, it was still a 4hr, 30min. hike for us.
What the hike looks like on Google Satellite Maps
From St.Jakob at the back of the Isental Valley, it's another one of those spectacular bus rides down narrow hairpin roads to lake level at Lake Uri, near Flüelen.
A beautiful day on Lake Uri near Flüelen (from here we rode the bus to Altdorf, and took a train home. This is fairly close to where we live, so we were home quite quickly!)
Also an area we hike a lot in! There are lots of cable cars here...
August 11, 2018 -- Vacation Week Day 8: (Day 6 was a day of rest for me as our Guest and Urs did another big hike to the source of the Rhine River near the Oberalp Pass. Day 7 we spent traveling between home and Berne, visiting Lucerne, a cookie factory, a huge mill crammed full of thousands of second-hand books and watching street musicians in Berne). So the last hike of our vacation was perhaps the most surprisingly interesting or rather varied one due to several unexpected occurrences and adventures, most notably the lack, once again, of sunshine even though the forecast was for clear blue skies. This hike in Central Switzerland was close to our home, took only about an hour and a half to get there. We did a variation on a hike called the Walenpfad, which is a very popular trail from Engelberg to Lake Bannalpsee, considered one of the prettiest in Switzerland (and did I mention also most popular!). We had done this hike before in fall, when below us was a thick blanket of fog, and above pure sunshine, so we never saw the lake, which is supposed to be quite stunning. This time it was the opposite: Cloud cover above, but at least we saw the lake. Would have been better with sunshine though! First fun variation: Whereas everyone else on the bus went up one of the regular cable cars straight to the lake, we took the local farmers' option: an open 3-seater, so much fun! Urs had to use the old phone to let the farmer know to send us up! First though, we found a self-serve cupboard near the old cableway station, so bought some sausage for our picnic. Second fun surprise: on our hike up to the lake we passed by the quaintest little mountain dairy where we inquired about buying cheese, and were treated to an actual cheese tasting: five samples for each of us of the same cheese ripened across several years. We bought a big chunk of the oldest cheese, which was hard and salty like Sbrinz and fun to eat later that evening after our fondu (SO MUCH CHEESE!). Third unexpected but pleasant enough consequence of no-sun was that we had the muddy 200 meters climbed in no time... to our pre-lunch of a huge plate of French Fries to warm up. More uphill took us across the most stunning landscape: Cliffs, narrow trail, views to the lake from way up high... no wonder this trail is considered one of the prettiest in Switzerland. Instead of continuing to Engelberg we descended to another cable car we had never been on before. That 4-seater was a scary experience! Not sure anyone else uses it except the farmer who lives up here. Other adventures on the way there and home were big detours around scary-looking cows, getting zapped by an electrified fence, and having to stand in the train back to Luzern because EVERYONE goes to Engelberg on a Saturday.... ***Interesting Note: Many mountain farmers and mountain restaurants in Central Switzerland are dependent on cableways to transport their cargo. In Canton Nidwalden there are over 40 such cableways that have also been approved for public use and the farmers have created an organization to support each other with the upkeep of these small cable-ways. It is a huge investment and requires lots of funds and administration. We like to support them.
Weather forecast: Sunny with cloudless skies everywhere.... except where we were going of course. The lake I want to see is up on that high plateau on the left....
In the village of Oberrickenbach, at the small farmer's cable car station, we discovered this "cupboard" that when you opened it, you found all kinds of neat homemade stuff, made by the local farmers. We bought smoked sausages. (All on honour principle)
The first of three privately-owned cable cars we tried out this day. You have to phone up to the farmstead to have them start the cable car. Turned out one of the farmers had just come down, probably to go shopping. She had a car parked here. All the other hikers who were in our bus went up with the modern cablecar, top left.
Heading up to the first farmstead where we had to change to another cargo car
This is the middle station where we changed to the other cable car. The farmer who owns the cable car is here to run the motor and collect the cash! And chat about where we came from. Compared to the modern cable cars, this one cost about half.
Below is the farm. They own the cable car but it has been approved by the Canton for public transport. I've ridden this one three times. I love it.
Shortly after leaving the cable car (which just simply ends on a metal frame mounted in the middle of the hillside) we came across this mountain dairy where you can buy cheese and have something to drink. And play with the Jack Russell Terrier. And get checked out by the cows.
Our hike, which had a good deal of uphill to it. The regular trail "Walenpfad" actually starts at the lake (top of one of the two regular cableways) and continues South to Engelberg.
Heading up from the dairy toward the Bannalpsee. Below is Oberrickenbach where we started, and beyond that is the Engelberg Valley.
I was hoping the clouds would dissipate, but they never quite did. Looks cool though. And the uphill was easy to do because it wasn't hot.
Behind the little house is the lake, and the rest of our hike is basically across the middle of this photo from the left to the highest point on the right.
But first and most important is to find a restaurant that serves French Fries! It wasn't this one. Too small.
Ah, the fries, and a slight touch of sunshine!
This Baby can't have been more than a day or two old!
Finally, a glimpse of the lake.
We didn't go down to the lake, but continued along the slope to the South, and up to the saddle ahead.
More of the Lake. This is what I came to see.
Lake Bannalpsee Panorama
Looking backwards at the progress we made.
Not quite sure what this would be. There is another mountain restaurant here. Their specialty was goat's cheese.
Another progress shot. Parkes is probably thinking "enough with the hugging".
This is the view I came to see today. Last time we were here, everything below the upper farmhouse was in fog. On this photo, at the back slightly left is the restaurant where we ate fries.
A beautiful trail, but very popular
Can't beat this for a fantastic landscape
The trail continues along this steep slope to the highest point on the right
Beautiful Central Switzerland. Looking to the North toward Lake Lucerne
Looking down at the village of Oberrickenbach
It was while setting up my camera for this self-timed shot that I got zapped by an electrified wire hidden behind the wooden posts. I actually dropped the camera, but caught it quickly.
A different kind of fence crossing
Heading back down toward the Engelberg Valley, we at least hoped to see some Chamois or Ibex here in this wonderfully convoluted rock-work, but no luck.
They definitely wear toupées.
And this was the ride of a lifetime. Not sure how thrilled Parkes really was! It was very steep, and the hanging cables certainly didn't inspire any confidence. I doubt many people use this, and I think the farmer who owns it was rather surprised when we called him to book our descent....
Heading steep down to the bottom of the Engelberg Valley to Grafenort, where we will take the train back to Lucerne and home.
The little collection of buildings in Grafenort includes a baroque chapel (1689) and a manor house built in 1690 as a vacation getaway for monks and nuns....
Whereas most people take the cable car straight up to the lake, and then walk to the cablecar above Engelberg, we took the "farmers' specials" and hiked up to the lake. We were the only ones.
