Dayhike in Switzerland

Tom talked me into taking a hike with him on Saturday and it wasn't quite what I expected. I was thinking that we would hike 2 (maybe 3) hours of moderately difficult terrain and eat about an hour into the hike. Boy, was I wrong!

We got to the start of our trail about 2:30 since we had slept in and then needed to go to the store for some hiking food and a map. Note: if you know anything about Tom, you know that he can't stand to be anywhere without a detailed map of his surroundings! Anyway, we started out and were immediately challenged with a rather steep climb. After awhile, we came to a gate. I didn't know this, but apparently in Switzerland, you hike all over land that belongs to others and they don't really care - as long as you securely latch the gates behind you. The ever-present yellow trail markers point all through personal property. Beyond that gate, we were in cow land. Not only did we walk by cows for the next few hours, we also hiked through the evidence of cows. Let me just say that cows must eat a lot...

After about an hour of this, Tom said - look, you can see the top (of this part)! I missed the latter part of his comment. So, that wasn't so bad...rather steep and a little messy, but I'd survived. Let's eat! Then we turned a bend and I saw what we were really trying to get to the top of - oh my. We finally made it to the top of the ridge a little after 5 and it was time for dinner. It was a really pretty place to picnic, and the food was very welcome. Now nourished and rested, we were ready for the descent. We made it back to the car in about 1.5 hours after passing through quite a few more cow pastures and one full of sheep. The moon came out on our way down and was just beautiful. All in all I got a 5.5 hour hike and learned that Swiss hikes usually come with a lot steepness and quite a few cows! We had a beautiful day for a hike though and Tom was a good encourager and patient with my slow pace. We ended up ascending (and then descending) about 2,500 ft, though, so it was a rather significant climb. It was a nice afternoon overall, but I propose we visit the chocolate factory next weekend :)

Oh, I almost forgot - my favorite part of the day was when we saw "the cows come home." This time of the year, the cows are brought down from the higher pastures in preparation for the winter. It's a big tradition and both the cows and the people herding the cows dress up for the occasion. We were driving when a guy on a motorcycle waved us to the side of the road and behind him were about 20 cows - all decked out. What fun!