For the second weekend hike with an overnight stay in a mountain hut, I decided to take my friends to the pretty popular Maderaner valley. Initially, we were a group of 10 people, but as the trip had been arranged before Corona hit the world, a few had to cancel due to conflicting schedules. Unfortunately, some more friends decided not to come once we knew the weather, as the forecast wasn’t really good, predicting frequent rain especially on Saturday. In the end, only two friends, Martin and Flavio, decided to come along and so we met each other early on Saturday morning at the cable car station in Bristen. As expected, the sky was already overcast, making us start walking right away, to get as far as possible before the rain would start. Hiking along the main road first, a turnoff soon led onto a gravel road, which more or less followed the river that flowed through the valley. Basically from the beginning we started to gain height, but as the ascent was very gentle and we were talking a lot, we didn’t really notice. :) Following the bottom of the Maderaner valley, we mostly hiked amongst trees and always close to the gushing water of the river.
Soon enough the Alp Stössi appeared and as it also was a dairy, we decided to have a quick look into their shop. A group of elder people arrived at the same time and one of them told us to turn around if I would lead them to the Windgällenhütte, as apparently he hadn’t liked it there at all. Lucky us, that wasn’t where we had planned to go, but it couldn't have been that bad anyway, as we detected more than a hint of sarcasm in the man’s words. :) Continuing our walk after a little snack, the drizzle that had set in a while ago turned into a light rain, but it simply wasn't enough to stop us from moving on. Of course the views had been pretty limited so far, but the hike was entertaining enough, as we passed some lovely holiday huts and were able to walk on a proper hiking trail for quite some time.
The farther we walked however, the less civilization there was and before long we had left the last houses behind us. From now on there was no shelter anymore and we just hoped that the predicted downpour wouldn't come. :) The gravel road also disappeared after a while and eventually we were solely walking on a lovely hiking path. Not many other people were on the trail, but that was no surprise, as it for sure wasn’t the best hiking weather. Fortunately though, the rain soon started to recede and as we had to step aside to let an enormous cow herd pass through, we did that without having the need for a shelter.
Continuing our steady walk upwards once the trail was free again, we soon came upon the last turnoff at the end of the valley. The gentle ascent was over now and the steep ascending slope leading to the Hüfihütte was right ahead of us. Martin and Flavio were pretty eager to start with the ascent, so eager that when we resumed our hike after a short rest, they took the wrong path at first. :) As I’m a nice guy, I told them right away and taking the correct way instead, we headed over a bridge to the other side of the river. Up, up, up it went from there and while there were quite a few steep parts to conquer, several flat ones also gave some respite to catch our breath. It was a nice walk overall and being mostly surrounded by bushes while crossing numerous creeks, it sometimes felt more like walking in the jungle than in the Alps of Switzerland. :) No rain had fallen for some time now, but a pretty dense fog had started to move in and once we left the "jungle" behind us to walk on some rockier ground, we couldn’t see anything anymore. It almost was like a whiteout. :)
There was no other option than to move on however and having brought another steep part behind us, we decided to take a brief rest. As it was pretty humid, Martin and I had walked in shirts and shorts only and we both wondered why Flavio still had his rain jacket on. Even without the jacket we were sweating a lot and so we were curious to know if it wasn't too hot for him. Well, Flavio decided to take the jacket off and literally when he had stowed it away in his backpack, a raindrop fell. :) More drops followed and as it was getting worse by the minute, we all put our jackets back on again. :) Fortunately, the rain only lasted for about 10 minutes and once it stopped, the fog and the clouds suddenly moved away to give us a first glimpse on what we had missed out so far. High mountains surrounded us and as the weather got better and better, some spectacular views unfolded into every direction.
Even the Hüfi glacier could be seen and after having walked for the whole day without getting any views, that was more than we could have asked for. The hut soon appeared as well and once we had dropped our bags in our room, we sat down on the freshly cleaned terrace to enjoy a snack and a well deserved beer. :)
As the time passed, more and more people arrived and after a while even the sun decided to say hello. So even though we had arrived at the hut rather early, it wasn't boring at all: we ate and drank, had a chat with the other guests, played cards, enjoyed the impressive views and took a much appreciated bath in the sunshine. :)
Dinner was served before long and after another game of cards we fell tired into our beds. As we were the only ones in our room, the sleep was good enough and we were happy that we didn’t have to get up too early. Saying goodbye to the Hüfihütte after a lovely breakfast, we started to retrace our steps and as the clouds were back again, did that with a once more limited view.
Hiking down the steep slope of yesterday, we had the feeling that we were walking quite fast, but in reality the descent took us longer than we had anticipated. Good for us that we were in absolutely no hurry. :) Arriving at the turnoff at the bottom of the slope, we turned right and started to ascend again, as we wanted to take a different trail to head back to Bristen. Bringing the short ascending slope behind us, another turnoff appeared and we had to decide which way we wanted to go. In theory there would have been a nice panoramic path above the valley, but as the clouds were still too thick and we couldn’t really see that much, we opted to stay on the trail and walk on towards the Maderanertal Hotel.
As we were nearing civilization again, we soon came upon a cluster of houses and passing the last one of them, a sign advertised a nearby lookout. Checking our watches, we were surprised to see that it was already noon and therefore decided to have our lunch right there. The sign likewise advertised a tiny lake in the woods and strengthened from our break, we opted to take that short detour. Well, honestly, we also could have walked on to the hotel, as the lake had almost no water and hence just looked like a dirty pond. The hotel appeared soon after that unnecessary detour, but as we had taken a break before, we passed it and started to descend towards the bottom of the valley. Rejoining the trail from yesterday at Alp Stössi, there was another possibility for a detour and as the clouds finally had opened up in the meantime, we decided to take that chance. Crossing over the river shortly after the Alp, we faced our last ascending slope of today and oh boy, it was a steep one. We were soon back into sweating mode and while it went upwards relentlessly, a final challenge appeared when we had to conquer too many uneven stairs to make it through the steepest part of that slope. Eventually arriving on top after about 40 minutes, we sat down at the beautiful Lake Golzern to take a longer rest. Right on time the sun had made her first appearance and so we knew it had been the right decision to pay the Lake Golzern a visit.
As there were some restaurants in the nearby village of Golzern, we also had an "end of the weekend hike" beer, before a 15 minutes stroll brought us to the terminus of the cable car. Gliding back down to the parking lot in Bristen, we all agreed that it had been absolutely right to do that weekend hike, although the weather could have been better. It was a good example however that there can be gorgeous moments in bad weather as well. For now though, I already look forward to the weekend hikes of the oncoming year, let's see what they will bring. :)
Highlights of the weekend: the views from the hut with the fog and clouds wafting around the mountains, beautiful Lake Golzern and the company of my friends
This hike is for you if:
- you’re looking for an exhausting but doable weekend hike
- you want to explore each part of the Maderaner valley
- you don’t mind a steep ascent / descent
- you like diversity (mountains, glaciers, waterfalls, jungle feeling :))
This hike is not for you if:
- you’re looking for pure remoteness
- you mind sharing the trail with many other hikers
- gaining an altitude difference of about 1500 meters is too much for you
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