A Short Walk…Hike? Up Mount Pilatus
But first, this morning’s breakfast at Hammer Hotel deserves it’s due. Everything, eggs, bacon, musesli, yogurt, fruit salad, dark bread and jams a-fruity-plenty, was delicious! All, while looking straight at the Alps.
We had planned on just seeing where the road took us, but the front desk clerk recommended a one to two hour loop that started at the trail we took the previous night. We followed little yellow signs to a village of about twenty Chalets. Each had their own personality. I especially liked the ones with flower boxes overflowing with red geraniums. Eventually, the path became more of a trail again and we started walking upwards with the gentle slope of the mountain. Goats with their bells said hello and kept on grazing. Soon the trees gave way to a beautiful landscape of the distant mountains far beyond the lime green, grassy hills. The path curved and at the tippy-top there was a crossroads with an oversized swing set in the middle. Back and forth, we pumped our legs before trying out the other swings all in a circle. Afterwards, I accepted Fierce’s challenge to a chess match and…lost.
After a respectful handshake, we headed across the clearing to a trail up the mountain again. This had a very different feel. Both of us agreed, we were definitely not “walking” anymore. This climb was not difficult, but filled with scraggly roots, cut in logs for steps, boards to cross sandy spots, and all kinds of watch your step terrain. The forest seemed to be everywhere, until a window opened a view to see Luzerne on our left. Fierce called out to them, hoping for an echo. Up we climbed, looked at each other and said, “We are really hiking the Alps now!” Oh, I should mention that this whole time, we were wondering when we should be going down to complete the loop and see a river. Ya..we just kept hiking…upwards? Nevertheless, we also kept discovering the most beautiful landscapes and one actually made me laugh, grab Fierce by the shoulder and ask him if it wasn’t all so worth it? Lovely, just lovely.
I had to admit though, that we were certainly not heading down anytime soon and after asking another hiker for info, we discovered that we had made it almost to Sageli…not a bad hike for a day! We made our way back down the mountain and to the base of where we saw the villages and realized we heard rushing water. Oh my, the creek was right around the corner. I have no idea where the “loop” actually was, but hey, we had a grand old time and I am not sure we would have committed to hiking the mountain otherwise. Love it.
