Hiking - Isenfluh to Sulsseewli

 It was predicted to be a cloudy day, so we decided not to spend the money or effort on one of the higher, more expensive hikes. Instead, we found a trail at lower elevation from Isenfluh to Sulwald. We paid Fr.10 each for the gondola ride up, planning to hike back down.

The gondola advertises that it can carry eight people or one cow. Luckily there were no cows in line, so we squeezed in with six other hikers. The ride was steep, about ten minutes, and dropped us off at Sulwald, a charming little mountain village.

Once there, we spotted a sign for a lake—just an hour’s walk away. Why not? we thought. This is why checking trail ratings before starting is important: the “easy hour walk” turned out to be a very tough trail. At points we scrambled up steep paths with steps, loose gravel, and boulders. It was much harder than expected, but once we started, we were determined to finish.

At the top we found a waterfall and then the lake. To be honest, it wasn’t the most breathtaking lake I’ve ever seen, but I can say I hiked up a steep mountain to reach it. The descent was grueling, hard on the knees.  We took it slowly, gratefully using benches along the way.

The views, though, made it worthwhile. On the way up, the clouds wrapped around us and at times we were hiking above them. On the way down, we chose the longer paved road that zigzagged down the mountain instead of risking the steep trail again.

One option from Sulwald is to rent scooters—non-motorized, just gravity-powered, braking all the way down. I admit I was jealous when I saw a group of six zooming past. That is, until we later found them stopped on the road, one woman badly injured with scrapes on her face and hands. She had to be taken down by ambulance, and my jealousy vanished instantly.

One really interesting thing about the ride up and back to Isenfluh is there is a 1.2 km tunnel that goes in a circle - at least one loop, maybe 2. On the way down, we noticed that the road even went over this tunnel. There is only room for one vehicle to go through the tunnel and should You meet another vehicle one of you has to back Of the pull off spots periodically throughout the tunnel. On the way down, the bus was behind us going at a pretty good Made us even more nervous. 

We made it back to Sulwald sore but intact, and then drove down to an Aldi. Dinner was simple—premade sandwiches and a beer on our balcony overlooking Lake Brienz—but it felt like one of the best meals we’ve ever had.

Total 6.6 miles, 5 hours moving time