Sabbatical - 8/20 - Fucking Mules

Apr 17, 2016 13:00

Our first full day in Switzerland was comparatively easy. Our second had some of the most gorgeous views of the entire trip, but was utterly exhausting, at least for me personally.

The day started out easily enough with a leisurely flat walk along a well groomed trail through a park. We stopped at a farm for quick break, where I had a good conversation with a couple from Boulder that had retired to the area. From there, things got unpleasant.

The primary cause of this unpleasantness was that our path that day took us up some very steep, narrow and rocky paths high into the Swiss Alps. The secondary cause was the mules. By this point in the tour our group was usually split into two, with me at the back of the first, faster group, and another much slower group behind. This pattern held today, but somewhere along the way a youth group with some pack mules got between our two groups. This youth group seemed intent on sprinting up the path, which would be fine except that for several miles the path was so narrow that there was nowhere I could pull over and let them pass. Any time I tried to stop to let them go by they seemed very put out and aggravated, and basically tried to run me over. Our guide was at the front of the line and out of earshot, so I was forced to keep moving at what was for me a very rapid rate, and naturally, it was one of the hotter, sunnier days we'd had as well. The upshot is that by the time the trail branched and the youth group turned I was pretty tired, and it wasn't even close to lunch time. Thankfully, there was a chalet with some excellent home baked pies for us to rest at. When the rest of the group asked how I was, all I was able to say was "Fucking Mules," which they found uproarious. On the plus side, there wasn't much of a view on this portion of the trail so I didn't miss much while basically running up the trail.

From the chalet, we went up even farther. The summit of La Croix de Bouns (sp?) next to the chalet wasn't particularly high (more of an overachieving hill than a mountain), but at some point in the pass someone had been inspired enough to haul a cross up to the top. More importantly, our guides promised us a great view in several different directions. We headed up to the top, and 45 minutes later we had a picnic lunch at the base of the cross and admired the view, which fulfilled every promise the guides had made and then some. It may have been the best single view of the tour.

Valleys spread out in several directions. The Rhone Valley headed straight to Germany. Apparently during WWII secret hangars were built into the walls of the valley. If they'd been needed, the doors would have opened and planes would have used the road system as runways. In another direction we could see the beginnings of St. Bernard Pass. We had a great view of Mt. Blanc off in another direction. All in all, it was a most excellent place to eat lunch, enjoy the view and get some rest.

It is a good thing that I got that rest, because then we had to go down the hill, and although it had been quite steep going up, it was even steeper going down the other site. There were several times where I would have fallen over without the trek poles to catch myself. This portion of the hike was further complicated by our hiking through a cow pasture with the attendant traps. How the cows were able to walk on this steep of an incline I don't know, but we could see them far off in the distance, and hear their bells as they wandered around the mountainside.

Once we reached the bottom it was thankfully a short and comparatively gentle hike to our hotel for the night. I was bone tired in a way that I hadn't been on any prior day of the trip. Even a shower, some ice cream and an excellent dinner in the hotel restaurant didn't really make me feel any better. I collapsed into unconsciousness.

Photos twenty-two through thirty-one of this set are from August 20.

photos, european sabbatical 2015

Previous post Next post
Up