Wednesday July 20: Elm to Braunwald
And it was another beautiful morning!
After yesterday’s epic physical challenge, we didn’t relish the thought of an even longer walk over a harder pass, the Richetlipass. With rain in the forecast, we didn’t love the prospect of a descent on steep, loose scree. In addition, the 24.4 kilometers of the route would only get us to Linthal, and we were staying on up the hill in Braunwald. In the interest of not killing ourselves, we decided to make the day easier.
The previous evening, a fellow traveler told us about the Swiss travel app that could be used to ride any sort of public transportation. We loaded this app onto our phones, and it transformed our Via Alpina experience! It works VERY well, tracking travel by the second and making it simple to find routes and get to destinations the most expeditious way possible. To begin with, it showed us how to get ourselves to Braunwald in a couple of hours.
Having let ourselves off that particular hook, we could now do a leisurely morning walk that covered some but not all of the prescribed route. We walked through town to a cablecar that whisked us up to a settlement called Ämpächli. There, we picked up a balcony trail that we walked to Obererbs.
At Obererbs, there is a ski hut that makes a nice break for people who do walk this entire stage. The trail from here leads up to the Wichlenmatt and the Richetlipass and thence to Linthal.
Instead of visiting the ski hut, we just caught a bus back to Elm. After that, it was a simple matter to catch another bus to Schwanden and a train to Linthal. The Linthal train conductors shuttled most us straight to the turnstyles to the funicular that runs up to Braunwald.
Braunwald is a car-free town up on a shelf above Linthal. It’s a major tourist destination.
The funicular got us up the hill, but we still had a long, stiff climb to the Hotel Tödiblick.
We dined on the terrace with a beautiful view of the mountains we’d come from that day. There was a thunderstorm after dinner. That was dramatic, and it also helped settle the damn flies.
