Despite all the people at the Hotel Weisshorn (I think this place is consistently booked), as well as the crowds from the funicular station above St. Luc, the moment we turned off the planetary walk toward the Meidpass the trail deserted. It really did feel isolated and other-worldly as we made the climb. Make sure to bring a topo map, as there aren’t a huge number of markings, and once in a while, we weren’t quite sure which way to veer. This trail was rather like our first hike in the Valais on day one: a whole lot of ascent, and then a whole lot of descent. I loved the colors in this area: more of a burnished yellow and gray, different from the deep greens of the Bernese Oberland. There were small uneven lakes that looked like mirrors once we climbed above them. It was incredible to see the treeline here (right below the hotel Weisshorn), and then to have the treat of climbing for so long above the treeline. I remembered how hard we had to work in the Canadian Rockies to get just a brief hike above the trees, and here we were, above the trees for nearly an entire day.

Since there weren’t any people, once again it felt odd to not have wildlife here. There was nothing really except what was growing on the ground, the grasshoppers, and then the cows. I missed the excitement of spotting grizzly paw prints, or moose, or marmots, or birds (though we did see and hear crows, their loud wings flapping against the air).

We had lunch at the Meidpass with a few other people and a woman sunbathing in her bra. Even when the trails are empty, we tend to see hiking companions at the passes.

The descent was especially pleasant and gradual at first, in a completely deserted area below the mountain pass, but then became very long, and we passed odd things, like a teepee. The footing on these Valais trails was much more rocky than in the Bernese Oberland, which made for a few missteps and twisting ankles on the descent. We entered the treeline and Harold somehow spotted some wild raspberries. These gave us the burst of sour-sweet energy we needed to make it to Gruben, and our least favorite night of accommodation, the evil Hotel Schwarzhorn.

I’m kind of glad I didn’t realize how bad the Hotel Schwarzhorn was, or else the descent would have been even more painful. They were completely out of private rooms, and so we had booked dorm rooms for the night—my theory is, judging by the clientele who got the private rooms, that somehow the private rooms are always booked (to hikers at least). Maybe the private rooms are reserved by tour groups a year in advance or something—it was odd, that all the hikers were in dorm rooms, and the couples in Porsches (yes, Porsches!) and the suit coats got privacy. We entered the Hotel Schwarzhorn and waited around for about half an hour, ringing the little bell that was supposed to do something on the front desk. Finally, Harold went off in search of someone to check us in, and found the woman in a smoke-filled bar in the basement. She told us where to go and the dorm rooms were just gross and looked dirty and stained, with this odd closed in smell—a bunch of mattresses on the floor of the attic. Harold and I were hoping at least the rooms wouldn’t be filled up, because they fit about 20 mattresses in there, but it actually was pretty full by the evening. The Schwarzhorn is the only place to stay in the town of Gruben.

Somewhere along the hike today, amid our various aches and pains, Harold and I decided to cut our hike a day short—tomorrow would be our last day, and we would stop in Grachen rather than Saas Fee. Partly because I wanted to spend a little more time in a city after all this isolation (we were going to stay in the capital city of Bern for a day or two before leaving the country). Partly because our bodies were growing sore and we needed a rest day but hadn’t scheduled one. I’m still not sure if this was a good idea—the hike from Grachen to Saas Fee is just supposed to be incredible, but we had seen so much incredible scenery already…so we used a payphone at the Schwarzhorn to adjust our reservations.

There was no common area at the Schwarzhorn for the dorm room people to be in, so before dinner, Harold and I wandered outside and down the road to what was really the highlight of Gruben, a small restaurant that had little farm animals that were the cutest things I’ve ever seen. I could have watched them forever. There were baby goats, a baby pig and the mother pig. I loved the energy the animals had, they certainly did not hike the entire day like we did. I am not a dog person, but I could be a pig person I suppose. They animals were supposed to be behind fences, but they would squeeze through and run around the picnic tables, or in the parking lot.

But, alas, we couldn’t sleep with the pigs, and had to go back to Schwarzhorn to what was a fine meal (with canned pineapples for desert, but the meal was fine)—though in my journal that night, I noted that I was constantly very hungry from all the hiking, and maybe felt like I wasn’t getting enough protein from the cheese. The atmosphere of the Schwarzhorn was odd and cold: you could definitely tell the hikers from the fancier guests. It must be an old prestigious place to stay for a certain crowd.

After dinner, some people went upstairs to sleep, a lot of people went to the bar. Harold and I took our books and tried to read in the lobby, until the owners came in and blasted the television. Grrrrrr….we tried to read in the stairwell, but the light was a motion detector light and kept turning off, we’d wave our arms, it would turn on, it would turn off. Finally we sat outside in the hallway on the floor, where there was light, and read, and the guests in their various degrees of drunkenness would just step over us. Needless to say, I barely slept that night, thanks to several larger snoring men.