Winter Walk on our Local Mountain: Mount Zugerberg

Wednesday February 20, 2019 -- Lately we don't feel like traveling too far for our winter hikes, so we did something "unusual": We went up our local mountain for a 3-hour walk in the snowy landscape in the sunshine looking down on the city we live in.

We had never been up here in winter before, but less than two weeks ago we got loads of snow, which is unusual for here, so we figured just once at least, we should see what this upper moor looks like in winter. As pretty as it was, we were already too late for good winter conditions, as the walking trails were already soft and in places slippery (melting during the day, freezing at night) and the roads were dry. For a bit of "excitement", we found an official though narrow winter trail through the woods, which turned out to be really slippery for our hiking boots!

On a very clear day you can see far into the Alps from here, but for us it the day unfortunately turned hazy.

All told, the round tour back to the funicular station was 11 km. We had lunch on the sunny terrace at about the half-way point... unfortunately overpriced for what we got, and once again unlucky with chain smokers nearby.

But lots of sunshine, and a short trip back home.....

You take the funicular to get up to the top of Mount Zugerberg

 

There are some nice views from up here, but you can see the snow has melted quite a bit already.

Observing where we live (red arrow) and the field where the National Wrestling Championships are going to take place in August of this year. Just 600m away. 350,000 people are expected....

The place for the arena (which will hold 56,000 people) has already been marked.

The snow was already soft, but it was sunny and pleasant, almost too warm.

When the air is clear, you can see all the way to the Glarner Alps in the East

This upper plateau is actually a moor landscape

We peeked into a barn and wondered what the black thing was. Cow poop?....

No, it was this little guy!

Looking westward across the plateau toward Mount Rigi (on the other side of Lake Zug) and Mount Pilatus near Lucerne

Eating lunch on the sunny terrace at the Pfaffenboden restaurant at the half-way point of our walk 

An Alphorn player

Returning past the little chapel called "Buschenchäppeli"

The main road back was all asphalt, so we took a lesser-used trail through the woods. It was a little slippery, but more interesting

Up here are several interactive stations for children, this one shows the different sounds made by different type of wood

VIDEO: A little bit of fun with the wooden chimes...

This hike also ended up to be about 10 km and took us 3 hours to walk

Goldach Water Trail from Untereggen to Horn on Lake Constance

Sunday February 17, 2019 -- We were invited to visit friends who live in Arbon on Lake Constance (Northeastern Switzerland), so being as the weather has been so wonderful lately and the area near the lake is first to be snow-free, we wanted to do a walk before our visit, and so we studied webcams and maps to find a suitable hike of the kind we prefer: Through meadows and forests and farms and along streams, interspersed with asphalt if necessary.....

In the Internet we found a description for a 7-km walk at low elevations (from Untereggen near St.Gallen to Horn on Lake Constance) that had as a theme all kinds of things to do with water, from something called Kneipp Therapy (alternating hot and cold water), to various mills, a fish ladder, and a walk along the Goldach stream. 

Even though the snowy mountain landscapes that we experience in winter are stunning, this little "walk" was so much more our style. Little villages to discover, cows to greet, lots of variety and something new around each bend, and colours other than white....

Often when we come back from a hike we also learn of things we missed. For example, on this particular hike, not far off the trail, is something called an earth glacier, which I have never heard of before. A section of ground (in this case 600m long and 200m wide) gets worked on by the water and shifts and moves at 2 to 8 m per year. Over decades the area fills with leaves and dirt, and shifts and changes, and like regular glaciers forms clefts up to 2 meters in depth, where frogs breed and hide. Trails and bridges along the way have to be repaired regularly as a result. 

We plan another trip in summer, now that we know this exists....

The Goldach Water Trail starts in the village of Untereggen with a Kneipp-Therapy. Well, we pretended.

So nice to walk through farmland again! We are heading North. In the background is Lake Constance (Bodensee)

Looking back at the village of Untereggen where we started our walk.

Sure sign of spring, when cats sun themselves on the window sills

The cows on this farm contribute to the fabrication of the delicious Appenzell Cheese!

Here was the start of the Earth Glacier. We didn't have time to explore it, so will come back in summer some time.

Walking along the Goldach stream, we passed under both this freeway bridge and a railway bridge

This house was kind of cool, seems to have been converted into apartments

Up ahead is the railway bridge

Passing under the railway bridge

I totally didn't see the "Fish Ladder", but this canal creates a waterway around the mill up ahead, where the trout from Lake Constance can move upriver to spawn.

This canal is part of the Fish Ladder that allows the Bodensee trout to come upstream to spawn

 

Always love a wooden bridge

A little to the West up on a hill is a Capuchin Women's Monastery, called St. Scholastika

The Goldach stream shortly before it enters Lake Constance. There is an additional stretch along this canal which you can walk barefoot in summer.

Another view of the Monastery

7 km from Untereggen to Horn on Lake Constance

Our little 7 km walk took place in the NE corner of Switzerland

Winter Walk and Tobogganing at Melchsee Frutt

Wednesday February 13 -- We have been having some very nice winter weather, lots of sunshine lately which looks great when the landscape is covered in an expansive blanket of snow.

This Wednesday we went for a winter walk in the large vehicle-free upper plateau of the Obwalden Alps between the Melchtal Valley and the Engelberg Valley. Namely between Melchsee Frutt and Tannalp, There are no trees up here, just snow as far as the eye can see. 

The walk itself was not particularly interesting though, a 10 km roundtrip with a nice lunch at the halfway point at the Tannalp Gasthaus which is open all winter. You walk on a typical wide prepared trail, but the lack of trees and the frozen-over lakes makes the landscape somewhat monotonous after all. Or maybe it was because I forgot my sunglasses, so the glare was hard on the eyes. But it was tranquil and the sun was warm.

To get up here, you take a gondola cable-car from Stöckalp in the Melchtal Valley. Getting back down becomes more interesting, as there is an 8-km toboggan run, the longest in central Switzerland (in summer you can rent a trottinette for the descent). We brought our sleds along and saved on rentals (we locked them up near the cable-way station so didn't take them on our walk) and the 35-minute descent at the fastest possible speed was the best part of the day! Also, we made it back to the bus stop with just two minutes to spare, which was a good thing, because we were wet and cold and wouldn't have appreciated having to wait another hour for the next bus....

The bus from Sarnen brings you into the Melchtal Valley, to the cable-car station at Stöckalp. After our three-hour walk, we rode our sleds back down to the station.

At Melchsee-Frutt, the first amazing views

 

From the top of the elevator, looking across this high plateau. The landscape is covered in walking trails, cross-country trails, and ski pistes

At the bottom of the elevator is where the loop trail starts and ends

We started the loop on the South side, passing the chapel first

 

URS

 

 

Up ahead is the dam from Lake Tannensee. For me, the landscape was maybe TOO MUCH white

And the half-way mark and furthest East we can go: Tannalp. At the very back slightly to the right is Mount Titlis, whose glacier offers skiing all year round

 

Gasthaus Tannalp open all winter, served very good food.

I found an empty chair and had a nap in the sun before heading back to Melchsee-Frutt

One last look at Tannalp (we did a summer hike through here in 2016 and purchased some Tannalp cheese, hand-made up here in the summer time)

Heading back on the northern side of the loop.

 

Back at the summit station we collected our sleds and did the 35-minute run back down to the Melchtal Valley

VIDEO: We played "Leap-Frog" with the two kids on the sled for most of the way down. Sometimes they passed us, sometimes we passed them.

We still have a long way to go from here down to the valley bottom!

Sharing the toboggan run with the skiers.

VIDEO:  The toboggan run back down to the valley was the best part of the day.

The red line is the gondola cable car, the purple line shows the approx. 10 km we walked, and the yellow is the toboggan trail back down to Stöckalp