Now, whose idea was this hike again?

Switzerland in the the fall means overcast skies and fog. At least in the lowlands. On the mountain tops frequently you are above all that and can enjoy the views of all the surrounding mountain peaks.

One of my jobs is to decide where we are going to hike on any particular Saturday. Sometimes I suggest a few and Bob picks or sometimes I've just suggest an area and Bob decides on the route once we get there. In looking at options, I had checked the "My Switzerland" website. I didn't see any of the "Autumn Vineyard" hikes (their current hiking list) that offered much physical challenge, but in the process, come across the hikes suggested to Stanserhorn and thought that would be a fun place for us to hike. Stanserhorn is the mountain above the town of Stans, a favorite town of ours in Switzerland as it is the home of Pilatus Aircraft, the Swiss company that manufactures the P-6 and the P-12, planes Steven is apt to fly when on the field. We had a wonderful tour of their facility when the guys and Dawn visited in January. (See post on 21 February of 2008)

Before leaving home I checked the live webcam. It looked clear on top, so even though it was overcast and drizzling, we had hope that at least once we broke through the clouds, we would have some great views. Of course, as Bob often reminds me, we're going for the exercise, the view is just the frosting on the cake. (I don't know about you, but I much prefer cake with frosting.)

There was some event going on in Stans, so it took us a bit of time to find parking, but we eventually began hiking in cool, drizzly weather. We quickly realized the Wanderweg would parallel the funicular as it made its way up to Kälti, where, if making your way to the top via mechanical means you would change to the cable car for the rest of the journey. At this point we had a choice of paths, but my strong vote was for the shortest time indicated on the Wanderweg signs. The route I had chosen was for 3 hours and 45 minutes, not another route up to the top of the mountain that was 4 hours and 30 minutes. (With a 3 hour and 30 minute descent, that makes for a long day on the feet!) After all, I had chosen the hike for today and I really didn't want to hike that additional hour.

From the change station, the path headed up into the woods. Or should I say headed straight up. Much of the trail was leaf-covered steps leading up the mountain side. Even though we were in the clouds and couldn't see much, we did realize that we kept passing right next to the cable car standards. Bob says that they always tried to ski the trails that lead underneath these, as they were always the steepest way down the mountain. Wonderful.

At 3,000 feet we broke through the clouds and could now see the top of the mountain (at 6233 feet) Oh my. We still had a good portion of the mountain to climb. We did stop for a bit and watch the clouds roll up the mountain side and decided we had better keep moving so that the clouds didn't catch back up with us.

Moving out of the clouds and the woods, we began a long section of switchbacks. Very muddy ones. At times Bob led us straight up the mountain, across the pastureland as the path was just too muddy. It seemed that every other step or so you were sliding backwards.

I began this hike not feeling very "perky." A couple different times in the hike I came very close to asking Bob if we could just turn around and head back down. I really didn't think I was going to make it to the top. Bob's wonderful sense of humor and kind, gentle encouragement are the main reasons I reached the top. Bob joked most of the way, "Who picked this hike, anyway?"
Thankfully, it wasn't until we were drinking our coffee at the Stanserhorn restaurant, enjoying the lavish views from the top, that Bob indicated that probably was the toughest trail we had hiked to date. Not the longest, but the steepest and muddiest. Who picked this hike, anyway?

We did decide that the trail was just too muddy to try to hike down. And so we did something we have not done before. We took the cable car down the mountain. Of course, that did allow us to purchase another cow bell for our collection. A well-earned cow bell. I think next weekend, I'll just give Bob a list and let him make the final choice.