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Monday July 23rd, 2007
The warm and comfortable feelings about the Hotel Klausenpass from the previous evening were, however, quickly and effectively dispelled the following morning at 7 as we waited in the hall for the breakfast room to be opened. We had asked if an early breakfast was possible, and had been told that it was (normal was 7:30), but someone must have forgotten, so we went back to bed. But at 7:30 it was the same thing -- the owner and his wife had not just forgotten, but also overslept. We didn't actually get breakfast until about 7:50, and left around 8:20, significantly later than planned.
This was potentially a problem, because the hike was to be particularly long, and the weather was supposed to get worse in the afternoon with showers and thunderstorms possible. In addition, I add experienced some intestinal trouble in the night (but save your sympathy for Russell, who experienced the same but in a more acute form during the hike the previous day (ewwww)), which had left me feeling a little, shall we say, drained.
On the plus side, however, the clouds had gone away and we now were able to appreciate the spectacular landscape surrounding us. The hike was along a balcony trail, varying between 1650m and 1850m halfway up the north side of the Schaechental. At times along farm roads, at times over meadows or through woods, at times across rocky mountain slopes, and sunny and with those beautiful views, it would have been a true pleasure if I hadn't felt a little weak.
Thus when we stopped for lunch at noon and threatening dark clouds began to mass to the south and west, I felt compelled to suggest to my doughty and ambitious hiking companions that we could perhaps shorten the day by an hour and a half or so if we were to descend a little earlier than planned. Most surprisingly (not) they proved to be less doughty and ambitious than expected and were vociferously in favor of this change of plan, Russell going so far as to call me his god.
So we took the next path down into the valley (along the Suvorow trail -- that guy (a Russian general from the Napoleonic era) was everywhere! -- more about him in a later post). It was interesting to see the difference between being on one of the "main" trails, which in Switzerland are generally superbly marked and well maintained, and one of the "minor" trails, which is what this was: with not a marking to be seen during the whole descent, and only one signpost after the initial one, it required a fair amount of mountain-hiking intuition (as well as frequent mapchecks) to make the right choices at the frequent intersections. In addition, it was in terrible shape in its upper reaches, and I was very glad that it was dry: if not, we would have reached the valley covered in mud.
But the rain held off, and we managed to avoid losing our way (except for a 50m error once down), so some 1300m and 3.25h later we arrived at our hotel in Altdorf. The total hiking time had been around 7 hours, and thus although shortened, this had not been a short day. I was borderline catatonic at dinner, and was happy to go to sleep early once more.
