Another nice weekend ahead, some friends and I decided to go on a "season opening hike". As the snow still covered everything above 1500 meters, we focused on something lower and found a nice hike close to the Lake of Ägeri. The starting point was the town of Morgarten, which is famous for a battle that took place in the year of 1315. The battle is well known in Switzerland, although no one knows for sure what happened in the battle or if it took place at all. :) We wanted to go up to Mount Morgarten and found ourselves soon on a pretty steep ascending slope. Luckily the steep part was not very long and after about one and a half hour of steady walking we already stood on the summit of Mount Morgarten. It was time for a break to enjoy the shining sun and the clear view that reached all the way to the Swiss Alps at the horizon.
The descent from the summit was quite nice as we had a panoramic view of the Alps for quite a while. We walked down into the village of Sattel and turned right at the first possibility to head back to our starting point. We had been on the lookout for a restaurant with a terrace to enjoy a cold beer in the sun, but unfortunately all the restaurants we passed were closed. So as we were walking back towards Morgarten we came along an Information Centre about the battle of Morgarten. There we decided spontaneously to follow a different route and turned right along the "Path of Morgarten". We thought this particular path would take us all the way back to Morgarten, but unfortunately this thought was wrong. The path is a one way path and as we didn't know that, we walked in the wrong direction away from the beer and the restaurants. :) The first part of this way took us back into the forest. It was really steep and mentally we had already finished our hike, so this part was pretty tough. But at least it was worth it. After we covered about 150 meter of difference in altitude in 10 minutes, we arrived at a very beautiful lookout over the Lake of Ägeri.
We kept on going up after the viewing point and five minutes later we ended up at a street with a sign for the "Path of Morgarten" pointing back to the same way that we passed about half an hour ago. Haha, brilliant. :) Luckily and totally unexpected we found ourselves right next to a farm that also contained a small restaurant. It was the perfect time and the perfect place for a cold beer and some local food. Unfortunately we couldn't stay at this lovely place forever so we headed back down towards the way we already passed before. We took another small detour through the forest and were soon back at the Information Centre for the battle of Morgarten. From there it was a gentle walk back to our starting point. It was a really enjoyable hike, also because of the detour we took and we headed back to Zurich tired but with a smile on our face.
Highlight of the Day: the detour
This hike is for you if:
- you're looking for a hike to open the hiking season
- you don't mind some steep parts along the way
- you want to go up to a summit without covering a lot of altitude difference
- you're interested in the History of Switzerland
This hike is not for you if:
- you mind villages and paved streets along the way
- a summit of 1250 meters is too low for you
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