A Hike from Adelboden Over the Mountains Into Lenk, Switzerland
It's a little complicated getting to Adelboden from Kandersteg. Take the train to Frutigen and transfer to the PostBus that stops at the Frutigen train station to Adelboden. If you manage to miss the scheduled bus and want to add more and easy distance to the hike, walk. There are marked trails on both sides of the valley.
Once in Adelboden village proper, you'll see even more yellow Swiss hiking signs pointing in all directions. Adelboden has a huge ski circus in the winter...View image, and quite a few of the lifts operate through the summer. Perfect for hikers and families who just want to hike around the top of the many mountains, through the flowery meadows without any exertion, and then take the chair lift/cable cars back down at the end of the day. Our yellow sign pointed the way to Hahnenmoospass and Lenk along Adelboden's main street, and past the church.
By one of these many cable car stations, we followed the winding trail uphill across the grassy ski slopes with the the saddle of Hahnenmoospass visible even from the bottom. Another one of the many pluses of hiking in Switzerland is the abundance of benches to sit on, eat lunch and admire the views on all moderate trails...without exception. Down in the valley in one direction was the village of Adelboden along with Frutigen in the distance. A 180 degree turn and there was Lenk far below us and today's destination. You could even make out spiderweb trails on the mountains of Lenk leading into infinity on the other side of Lenk. A person could just keep going...and going...and going...
At the top of the Hahnenmoospass with a restaurant, a signposted track led gently downhill towards Lenk.
Down, down, down with time to wander into a bakerei to buy some well-earned goodies and refill water bottles (the tap water in Switzerland is drinkable) before returning to Kandersteg. The return to Kandersteg took quite a bit of very scenic time. The S--L--O--W train that made every stop to Zweisimmen, transferred to the Spiez train on Lake Thun, and waited for the next train from Spiez to Kandersteg. Very glad for our little Swiss passes that made the different journeys seamless. Just show the pass to the conductor/bus driver without any hassles.
When asked by other travelers, friends and family why we travel to Europe to hike or snowshoe, the above is your answer. Where else can you take public transport to Point A, end up in Point B another valley away and take public transport back to where you began? I don't know anyone who doesn't love Switzerland!
