From Zurich main station, we took the S25 train toward Glarus and the Linthal. The train wasn't too crowded as we took the one leaving at 8:46 am, but I still wore my mask for good social-distancing practice. In Ziegelbrücke, we changed trains to the S4 train, for a very short segment to Mühlehorn. In Mühlehorn, we caught the 511/127 bus that makes a loop above the south side of Walensee and then down to Näfels-Molis and then back to Ziegelbrüke. We got off the super-crowded bus in the early part of the loop in the town of Filzbach. Walensee is around 500 meters at lake level and Filzbach is around 700 meters, so the bus helps cut off some junk meters from the hike.
After getting off in Filzbach, I took a few moments to unmask, get my water bottle out and enjoy views of Walensee below. Then, we started heading up the road toward Talalpsee. The first part is along the road. Then, you reach a point where a toll-road begins and there is a chair lift available. The lift was not yet open for the season, but many people had parked at that point and started walking. The trail then heads up steeply through meadows and into forest. The shade of the forest is a welcomed relief from the unrelenting sun on the northern facing slopes in the morning.
As we climbed, we started to get views of the peaks above as well as views of the Amden area on the other side of the lake. Shortly before arriving in Talalpsee at 1050 meters, we re-joined the toll road and came across a very noisy herd of cattle grazing. It's clear a lot of car owners also pay to use the toll-road, which ultimately means too many people along the shores of Talalpsee at lunch time on the weekend.
When we arrived, it was still relatively quiet. We grabbed a table at the Talalpsee restaurant before it got too crowded and enjoyed a Würst-käse salad. The restaurant only serves cold foods and has a relatively limited selection. But, it has a nice selection of snacks and drinks to take away, too.
After our stop, we headed around the west side of the lake, which has a narrower walking path. We enjoyed the wild flowers and ample butterflies. At the end of the lake, we continued up the trail toward the higher lake - Spaneggsee. We stopped below the steepest part of the climb at a spot called Hellöch, which many people thought was a crater from an asteroid. But, it's actually a collapsed cave.
From there, we headed back around Talalpsee on the eastern side via the wider trail. By this time, there were hundreds of people making fires to grill along the shores of the lake. We stopped again at the restaurant and grabbed a bag of chips and a small cake before heading up to Habergschwänd, which is another couple hundred meters up and where the chair lift from below drops off. At the top, you can eat at the Bergrestaurant or rent a scooter to ride back down the hill to Filzbach. That was tempting, but we decided to continue training our legs for the Summer season and walked back down to town. We took a slightly different route down along a creek and caught the bus as it was making its way to Näfels-Molis where we caught the S25 home. We arrived at the bus stop only two minutes before the bus, which was great timing!
