Summer Solstice

Today is the longest day of the year. Tomorrow the days are starting to get shorter. I always feel cheated when the season turns and we are still waiting for the first nice day, for a sign that summer is just around the corner. I actually saw a couple of patches of blue sky in the late afternoon (the Canadians call them sucker holes). It's been overcast and rainy for the last week (Oregon style!) and on Sunday morning there was fresh snow all the way down to the valley bottom. A lot of it has melted in the meantime, but the snowline definitely has remained below the tree line, and once again, high elevation hikes are out of the question. The river is once more running clear and very low - it's again too cold for the glaciers to melt!

The snow hardly was a surprise - it definitely was in the forecast. And it was forecast for the one weekend on which I was supposed to go on a 2-day hike to the Kesch Hut. It's in a remote area, too far and in too rugged country for me to go by myself. So when I got the invitation from the municipality of Zuoz I jumped on it. All inhabitants were invited to what seems to be a yearly hike to go check on the far off cairns marking the municipality's boundaries. Indeed, Switzerland has neither public lands, nor Crown Lands (like in Canada): all the "empty" land belongs to some municipality, and so it is that the town of Zernez, just 3 train stops from Zuoz, is the largest in Switzerland. The hike was 7 hours each day - challenging. I checked in with the leader who reassured me that I would be ok and welcome... and I started training. However, towards the end of last week it became obvious that it was going to be a miserable affair. I called the leader, embarrassed about even entertaining thoughts of bailing after having signed up. He was very kind and encouraged me to not make up my mind until the morning of the departure. As the forecast became only worse, on Friday morning I made the definite decision not to go. On Saturday morning I walked up to the meeting point in town to let them know I was not going. I was greeted by a group of some 12 men... all men, all very sturdy-looking... The sight of this group confirmed that I had made the right decision - and they probably were relieved not having to deal with me. The main reason for my cancellation was less the expected hardship of the adventure than the knowledge that the group would surely have had to wait for me while I was having my multiple snacks. It's one thing to make people wait when the weather is good - another when it's miserable and they are getting cold and want to get going. Saturday actually turned out to be not too bad a day, and I started regretting my decision. And then, on Sunday morning I woke up and saw this:

That was the end of my regrets!

Hannah, my Portland yoga friend, was here all last week, and she was the perfect guest. Unfortunately, the weather was poor. After the initial great hike on Monday, we limited ourselves to afternoon walks on Tuesday and Wednesday (with sprinkles on and off). When we got up on Thursday we were surprised to see blue sky, and decided that it was now or never to go to the National Park. A villager had told me that it was a good time to see wildlife with their young. A bus now runs from Zuoz to the nearest gateway parking lot to the park - a welcome ride that shaves a solid hour of walking on a paved road. After 2 hours of hiking we reached a meadow from which we saw dozens of animals - it felt like on a safari: ibex, chamois, elk, marmots... all over the place. The rain had the decency to wait until we were done admiring and had started our lunch. It never let up again and we reached the parking lot soaked. Meekly I asked two gentlemen we had met earlier on the trail whether they would give us a ride to the main road, as it was going to be another 90 minutes before the next bus... We lucked out - they took us all the way home!

Given the relatively little hiking, Hannah and I had lots of time for other entertainment. Hannah is an excellent cook and we treated ourselves to many good meals. I taught her Lew's game of dice which provided excitement in the evenings. We had to take an emergency trip to Samedan (4 towns up the valley) because both my watches' batteries ran out during the week - and I cannot catch a plane without a working watch! Yes, Zuoz doesn't have a store that sells either watch batteries or... nail polish! Today I decided that since I will be wearing sandals in New York it's time to beautify my toes... but since I was unwilling to take the train up to Samedan just for that, I'll land tomorrow in New York with unadorned tootsies.

Pictures:

1. Sunday morning, from my house
2. Val Trupchun, National Park (photo by Hannah)
3. Making the best of bad weather