An excellent dinner at the Bollenwees last night... and we slept well... so we decided to do something a little different for the hike today: a reprise of the ridge hike I had done with Kristof and Corinna on Day 3, instead of a simple up and over saddle to Meglisalp. The weather forecast, for the first time, spoke of the possibility of a thunderstorm, but there wasn't a cloud in the sky as we set off around 8:30.
I've had ridiculously good luck with the weather when hiking so far this year. 28 days of hiking and garden visits in England in May with one day of rain, another of drizzle, and otherwise just a couple of showers. 4 days in Provence in April, with summer temperatures for all but the last day (when, I have to admit, it hailed on us for almost 5 hours, but still), and now 7 days in Appenzell without a drop of rain. I'm sure I'll pay for it some day, but for now I'm just enjoying it. This is how hiking is supposed to be!
And speaking of hiking, today's hike was once again gorgeous. There were a few people on the trails, but not too many, and, well, it was pretty much perfect. Gabi hikes at around the same pace I do, and is if anything slightly more tolerant of challenging trails than I am (when we went by the Altmann peak yesterday she wanted to climb up the last 100m to the top... despite the fact that there was no visible marked trail... and only did not do so because I said that I wouldn't go, although I did offer to wait for her with the packs :-). So I had no worries about taking her along the ridge... and other than almost falling off once, she had no problems with it either.
After lunch at the Meglisalp, and taking possession of our room, and showers, the question arose as to what to do with the remainder of the afternoon. I wasn't excited about putting my sweaty hiking gear back on, and frankly felt that after 7 days straight of hiking (I had hiked about 3.5 hours on my rest day, between going up to Aescher for lunch and down to Wasserauen to meet Gabi, as well as over 4 hours already today), I could afford to give myself an afternoon off. So Gabi went out and hiked another couple of hours by herself... she does not lack for energy!
Dinner was once again excellent, and we had a nice conversation with a young couple from Sankt Gallen, who introduced us to the local specialty liqueur, called (what else) Appenzeller, which apparently contains 42 different herbs... and tastes like medicine. And despite there having been some clouds, the threatened thunderstorms had not materialized. Another good day.
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