I left for the next step in my hiking journey on the 19th, 6 days ago. But as the very next thing I would do was to cross the Alps, I needed to do some training. It's impossible to train for the mountains in the Netherlands. No, just walking up and down a bridge lots of times doesn't work; all those times you go down you rest, that doesn't happen when climbing a mountain.
Last time, two years ago, I passed this awesome hut with an attic for sleeping, and I wanted to sleep there but as I passed it at 11.00 in the morning, not just then. And I prefer to sleep in lone huts with someone. My lover Alex was crazy enough to want to accompany me, so that was the plan: take the train to Saint-Dié-des-Vosges together, walk the 5 hours my GPS app said it would be to the hut, sleep there together on the solstice night, then Alex would take the bus from Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines and then the train home; and I would cross the Vosges region to Colmar to get some mountain training.

It almost worked out that way.
The journey to Saint-Dié-des-Vosges took longer than usual because of a collapsed train tunnel in the North of Luxembourg. This meant we could not do the whole thing in one day, so we spent a night in Luxembourg, having dinner and sleeping in a crossover between a hotel and a B&B.
The hike to the hut wasn't 5 hours, it was closer to 7. Including an extremely steep climb that was actually too much for day 1 and not having had dinner (we'd cook at the hut). But we made it.
There was supposed to be a water source at 300m from the hut, but it wasn't there. Luckily we had cider. First time ever I drank alcohol to combat thirst.
Next morning we found the spring, but it was way more than 300m away. Besides, there had been drought, so it might not even have run in the evening, but after the thunderstorm we had that night it did.
Also, as some know, I canceled my apartment from the date I was going on vacation, so I had to move house as well. An ambitious plan that became nearly impossible when I was ill for a week and slept so badly that I got way less done than I wanted. So the day before leaving I had to move my things to storage and a few different friends I'll be staying at. In this packing chaos only one thing went seriously wrong: I packed my camera in the wrong bag, which meant I did not have it with me. As taking pictures is an important part of my vacations, this really sucks. And I hadn't really left the stress levels behind when I left.

So, I wandered the Vosges for 3 days, trying to get as many meters climbing as possible, enjoying views and forests, seeing a black squirrel, 3 lizards and countless birds, and thinking about how to get a camera, one that I could sell after returning. Also getting completely drenched in another thunderstorm when I was at a campsite, and thought that if the lightning was going to pass straight over I did not want to be in my tent. So I spent that evening worrying about my tent while I'd wanted to sleep early; this did not help with my stress levels.

Yesterday, I took the train to Basel, then Luzern, wandering both cities in search of a camera. I checked out at least five electronics and photography stores, but any camera was at least 400 euros and that's a bit much, given I already have one. Wasted a lot of time on it, which would have been worth it if the search had been successful. This, again, did not help my stress levels, together with some other smaller things that also went wrong.
I took the train to Giswil, where I left last time, and walked the 2.5 hours to the nearest campsite feeling very frustrated, unable to enjoy the beautiful views. Along the way I made a new plan, to order a camera online and pick it up at a store, which I think would take a train to. That plan made me feel better. When I was at the campsite and had my tent set up, I tried to order a camera - but no such luck. It seems there is no simple cheapish digital compact camera for sale in the whole of Switzerland. So I was severely disappointed about not having my camera all over again, and I don't deal well with disappointment. In the end I just went to bed, hoping today would be better.

And it was. I decided to stay an extra day on this campsite, as I had made plans for intensive training and I just was too tired for anything like that. I spent the day planning, and that took almost all day. The crossing of the Alps takes more planning than any part of my hike so far, and I needed to book huts and other sleeping places. There are no campsites, even if my equipment was warm enough for camping at 2000m. Next was the planning of how much food to bring, calculating how to bring 7000 calories for 2 days in as little weight as possible. In my spare time I did laundry and spent an hour taking a swim in the lake (hey, the campsite is right next to it and I'd been wanting to swim for days, with all the heat). And that took all of the day. I feel much better now. Normally I do all this planning, as much as is necessary, before leaving, but I hadn't had time. Now I finally did, and it takes away a lot of stress.

So, another night in Lungern, and by now I feel like hiking and climbing mountains again. So tomorrow and the day after I will do my training plans, then a day with a shorter hike and some shopping, and Thursday I'll start the actual crossing.

Stats of last night's hike from the train station to here:
8.4 km
Start altitude 484m
End altitude 701m
Up 309m
Down 92m

Note: the app is pretty useless when it comes to picking locations on the map, so I'll update the route later, when I have a computer to work with.

Another note: the pictures I take are now with my work smartphone, for lack of a camera (which I'm still pissed about), which is why some are such crappy quality. I miss the 30x optical zoom a lot.
My work phone also has the pindat app. Don't worry, I did not buy a smartphone for private use, I still have my Nokia.

Geschreven door Jewaontheroad