Uetliberg
The weather hasn’t been great here for the past week or so, so we haven’t really been out and about much. We were also trying to help get our son through his last week of English Comp 1 summer school, and watch the College World Series as much as we could (National Champs, y’all!). But today had really good weather, so we wanted to get outside and go do something. We decided to bike over to Uetliberg, the baby mountain that is to the west of Zürich, and then hike up the trails to the summit. When we were here in the summer of 2018, we took the train and cable car up there and had fondue at one of the restaurants up there, and the views were spectacular.
I got a new bike this week. Her name is Helga.
We rode over to the west side of town which is at the foot of Uetliberg. It started out nice, there’s a river, some green spaces, lots of hiking trails, and other stuff in that area. Really pretty.
Then we start to bike part of the way up Uetliberg to where the hiking trails start. Cass was following Google Maps directions. At some point, I couldn’t bike up any more so I get off and start walking my bike up. Then I quickly have to start taking rest breaks even from walking my bike up. So Cass takes my bike, walks it up some of the way, then returns to walk his up. This goes on for a bit. At some point Google directs us to take a right onto. this trail that’s a series of switch-backs. We’re most of the way up it when some people come zooming down it on their mountain bikes. They pass by Cass (who is in front of me, of course), but when they get to me the guy stops. Of course, he stops to explain to me (not Cass) that we’re going up a down trail. Very dangerous. My face must be tattooed with “Please Mansplain To Me Because I’m a Woman and Not My Husband Because He’s a Man” on it. Anyway, we don’t yet officially have our personal liability insurance (application is submitted!) and I definitely don’t want to cause harm to someone else, so I convinced Cass to go back down and find another way up.
We successfully made it up to the location where the hiking trails up Uetliberg begin without being dumb Americans and breaking any more of The Rules. I had to take a breather, because my fingers and toes were numb. I know I’m not in the best shape, but I walk 3-5 miles most days and expected a little more of myself. But I finally felt like starting the hike up after a few minutes, so up we went.
That was the modest incline portion of the trail. The remaining 75% of it felt like it was nearly straight up. There were railings a lot of the way, and at some locations they had made steps to go up/down because it was too slippery. And there were people who were jogging both up and down these trails! I was feeling totally inferior. The only pictures I took during this portion were at the very few rest spots on the way up.
We did make it though! Our reward was some fondue at Uto-Stassel restaurant with spectacular views of Zürich below. The first view picture is the view of the “back” side of Uetliberg, away from Zürich. And I threw in a pic of the WCs doors because I thought they were funny.
The walk back down was not as easy as you would think. It’s pretty slippery, and if you’ve got a back injury like I do you’re pretty paranoid about falling on your ass. Luckily I had worn my new hikers, which made me feel a lot better, even though I was taking baby steps most of the way down.
Overall it was a lot of fun. I probably won’t do this particular hike again anytime soon, I’m definitely game to go find some other places to hike/bike. Oh, the best part was that we got to exchange. “Grüzei”s with several people as we passed them. Achievement unlocked!