Today was a bad luck day. It didn't start out bad; it was cold on the campsite and cloudy, I left at 7.30, went by the grocery store and took the train back to Realp. Once I got there it started to get sunny. So far so good. I started walking again at 8.30, for a somewhat ambitious but doable plan, to go over the Passo di Lucendro to San Gottardo. The path started climbing quickly, and steeply, sometimes very overgrown, most of the time doable. I remember thinking "did I think I had steep paths before? This one is steeper. I'm glad I don't have to go down it."
Then I met a herd of cows, and I wasn't even close when one started running at me. Call me stupid, but cows are a little scary. They're really big, and the mountainside is very steep, so if one cow gives me a push whether with aggressive or playful or even just curious intent, I'll fall down the slope and quite possibly get hurt. So if a cow is running at me, I'll give it the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately just backing off wasn't enough and next thing I knew I was being chased back down the path by the whole herd. They kept standing at their fence, even though I'm quite sure I saw a few of them on the wrong side of it, but the path on the other side of it may have been to steep for them. It was a bit steep for me, too, half running.
So then I was screwed. That path just wasn't going to be an option anytime soon. There was no way around it, no other trails nearby, and the slope was too steep and too overgrown to just follow the fence on the outside. I had to go back down, almost all the way to where I started. Well. Shit.
I found a plan B, a variation on A where I would rejoin my original route at a certain altitude. So at 10.30 I was again on my way.
But plan B ran into a herd of cows too, standing on the path, no way to get past them without pushing them away. At first I could follow the path outside the fence, but at some point that wasn't possible anymore and I had to go back to the road. I tried a few times to get back to the path, but I kept running into a wall of vegetation. I even checked all the streams I met, thinking I might climb up one, but all of those were impassable too.
I found an alternative again, where again, I would rejoin my original plan later. Plan B and C were just variations on plan A.
Somewhere on the way to plan C I got a couple of bees stuck in my hair, so by that time I really felt this was a bad day.
Then I got to the plan C path and are you fucking kidding me that one went straight through a herd of cows too. Including calves, and there was one of the warning signs 'nursing cows protect their young, keep your distance'. As if I needed reminding. I try to keep my distance every time, I'm totally uninterested in the cows and they should return the favour.
That left me with only one option. And when I couldn't find the path that led to plan D I thought, fuck it all, I'll take the road, not pleasant, not pretty but at least I know where it is!

So there I went, after 4 hours of walking with no progress at all, on to the most boring, most uninteresting, most un-beautiful route to the Gotthard pass, the one following the car road up the valley. When I planned this whole trip, like years ago when it became clear I was actually going to do it, I decided I didn't want to take the Gotthard pass, for several reasons. It's one of the big passes, so it's busy, touristy, you have to follow the car road for kilometers. And it's too low. Call me stubborn (I am) but I like going over high passes. What I want is not the fastest route to Rome but the most beautiful.
And here I was, walking up to the very pass I didn't want.
The path wasn't all that bad, it was at a distance from the road most of the time, and actually the valley isn't ugly at all; but after walking between peaks, patches of snow and spectacular views for a few days this was kind of disappointing.

Of course such a road has a tourist trap restaurant, and I decided to make use of it to charge the smartphone, because calculating all those alternative routes (plus a few that were too long to be possible) cost way too much battery. So I had tea and pie on a terrace in the sun. I was thoroughly not in a hurry anyway, as this least interesting route was also the easiest and shortest.
On I went, past more cows (hisssss!), most behind fences but not all. And by now I really don't feel comfortable passing cows that are not behind a fence.
Later I got passed by a trail runner, who didn't seem to want to waste breath to announce their presence or ask to pass (I just suddenly heard a spooky panting behind me), or to thank me (they did raise their hand in a nonverbal thanks); but some 100m further on they did answer their phone, which I found funny. Way higher up they passed again, coming down this time so I could see them coming.

Up, and up, but gradually, passing a lot of streams to cross (I suppose most people use the stepping stones and try to avoid stepping into the water, but I do it on purpose for the cooling effect), a road on the other side of the river with a lot of camper vans, up to the Gotthard pass. 2108m. I would have gone over 2500 today. By that time I was just bored and wanted to get it over with. And there I was, not yet 17.00, checking into the hostel I would be sleeping in. It's very windy up here, I understand why they placed wind turbines. It took a lot of effort to find a spot that was sufficiently out of the wind to boil some water for tea and dinner.

I had to replan again as there are thunderstorms expected for the next 3 days no less. But they won't start until around 15.00, and there isn't a lot of rain the rest of the day, so at least I can make some progress for now. As I couldn't take the pass I wanted to say, I want to do that tomorrow, turning the two-hour hike down to Airolo into 6 hours; so I'm going to leave very early to be able to make it down to the valley before the storm hits. As I said, I'm not about taking the fastest route but the most beautiful one.

Geschreven door Jewaontheroad