Stage 19 Via Glaralpina - Finisher swim in Lake Walen

The backpack is full of memories from the 18 stages completed. Walking the last elevation meters downhill, the hiking trail leads from Filzbach village (715 m above sea level) past the Lihn seminar hotel and down to the mouth of the Linth river at the Escher canal. The now flat path continues along the lakeside trail to the Gäsi campsite (421 m above sea level) heading towards Weesen. Over the road bridge, you then switch to the right side of the Linth canal. Past the beautiful tree-lined avenue, the hiking trail runs along the Linth canal to the starting point of the Via Glaralpina, the Ziegelbrücke station (424 m above sea level).

And one last look back into history: floods and the constant inundation of the upper Linth plain and the shores of Lake Walen threatened the livelihoods of the people in the late 18th century. Already in 1784, on behalf of Zurich, a water engineering project was designed for the Glarus Linth. It included, among other things, the diversion of the river into Lake Walen. The lake was to serve as a sediment trap and balancing basin. Hans Conrad Escher took up this idea again to lead the Linth in a canal from Mollis to Lake Walen. On July 28, 1804, the Federal Diet approved the Linth correction. Escher was able to implement his plans. The construction works on the Escher canal lasted from 1807 to 1811. About 70 years later, the Linth work was completed, with the Escher canal from Näfels/Mollis and the Linth canal from Lake Walen to Lake Zurich near Schmerikon.

Here the circle of the long-distance trail Via Glaralpina closes. Perhaps with memories of the glacier fields and the white summit of the Tödi.