Day 11- September 6

Lenk to Gstaad

Hotel Gstaadherhof

I started in Lenk went through Betelberg to the Trutlisbergpass then followed the dotted line to Lauenen.

From Lauenen I took a bus to Gstaad where I’ll be for two nights.

Today was my last full day of hiking and it couldn’t have been more perfect. The weather was sunny and warm. The views were unbelievable and the path had just the right of challenge to make it interesting but not overwhelming. An added bonus was the path was dry so I didn’t have to maneuver slippery wet rocks. I logged nearly 12 miles with 1500 ft of ascent and around 3,000 ft descent.

All of these mobility devices had been checked in and tagged at last night’s hotel. #inspiration #iftheycanIcan

On my way to the cable car to take me to the start of the hike.

Farewell Lenk

Always cows

I wished I had had time to explore this

Now that I understand the significance of the bell sizes, having the Queen Cow stare me down this close to the road completely unnerved me. Remember I was chased by a cow last week. I hate cows.

The first few miles of the path were a bit crowded. I saw more hikers than I’ve seen the entire time put together. I don’t know if it was the weather or because it was Saturday or a very popular path. Probably a combination of all. This part of the path had flower identification tags and these posts with carvings. Since I can’t read German I don’t understand why they are there but I thought they were cool

This one made me think of Heidi. I’ve started rereading Heidi because I understand the context so much better.

I think this is heather. It’s everywhere and so pretty

Such rich pastures for the damn cows

This part of the path was a bit challenging but it was fun.

There were numerous narrow crossings similar to this.

That was on one side

And that was the other side. You can’t get a clear picture of how that hole drops very deeply into the ground.

This is the path. It wasn’t as narrow as it looks. It really was fun.

Another bonus to a nearly perfect day was that I finally saw a marmot. I’ve heard them every day and seen the entrances to their burrows but not until today did I get a glimpse of one of the chubby and furry fellows. Swiss marmots are much shyer than the brazen hussy marmots of the US.

The view from my balcony in Gstaad

Tomorrow I’ll visit Glacier 3000 and Peaks Walk suspension bridge. I’ll probably skip wandering around the town of Gstaad. I walked through it to get from the bus station to my hotel. That’s probably enough.

In the past 10 days I’ve hiked the majority of the above route. Even with skipping some of the path and adapting other parts, I’ve hiked up and down with a backpack for almost 70 miles. I did it!