After my morning hike in the rain, and a glorious bowl of fondue and a delicious cup of coffee, I was ready for a bit of a rest… which I took.
And then I went hiking again.
Earlier in the week, specifically when I hiked through Gorner Gorge, I noticed an interesting set of signs on a short portion of one of the trails I was on. Something about a “Zermatt fitness trail”… which seemed interesting, especially since Zermatt is particularly conducive to fitness – elevation, mountains, no cars, etc…
What sort of fitness trail would a village in the Swiss Alps have? I needed to find out.
What I found was basically exactly what one would expect a fitness trail to be, regardless of location and elevation – it was a lovely trail, through the mountains, with various workout stations scattered throughout. Jumping jacks, lunges, squats, pull-ups, and push-ups. Lots of -ups.
Today was, in the end, one of my rest days… regardless of how much hiking I was doing. As such, I went light on the fitness trail – just stopping for a single station to do some pull-ups, since those targetted antagonistic muscles to those I’d been using on my hiking poles… and muscles unlikely to be dramatically necessary to the hike I had planned for tomorrow.
After a long and amazing hike the previous day, I decided to take Sunday as a rest day.
That fits pretty well, in my mind. Some kind of historic significance to that…
This is me, we’re talking about, though. In one of the most beautiful mountain towns in the world. I wasn’t about to sit on the couch eating bon-bons and watching TV… no matter whether or not they were available in large supply in the various chocolate shops around town.
Instead, I did a few hikes. Or… attempted to, I should say.
You see, it was rainy out, which adds a bit of challenge to the trail… and risk of injury from slipping… and limits the views available on said hikes. I still wanted to get onto the mountainside, but I made sure to do so safely and cautiously – which means that I went slowly, and did a nicely simple hike to start out.
My target was the Edelweiss Hut – a restaurant / lodge high up on the steep slopes to the West of town. It… well, frankly it was a bit too ambitious, in terms of elevation gain over distance, but still. It seemed like a fun idea, to hike and then have lunch and then hike down.
It wasn’t to be, though, as the trail that I was aiming for was one of the victims of the recent flash floods, and was closed down with quite a bit of caution tape barring my way. I could have gone around, of course, via a similar (but much longer) trail… but that would have been pushing a bit too far in terms of milage for my “rest” day.
On top of that, I was sticking to the rule of 3. Three things go wrong, you cancel the trip. End statement. Prior to the trail being out, I’d forgotten my hiking poles, and… something else went wrong too, that I frankly can’t quite recall at this time. Suffice to say, I simply took it in stride, and headed around a shorter loop… consoling myself by finding an absolutely LOVELY fondue restaurant when I made it back to town.
And, to be clear – I was rewarded for that discretion. The new trail I took was stunning, and granted me some amazing rainy views that I simply adore. I hope you do, as well:
Who are the Mazamas, you may ask? And what’s BCEP, you may enquire? Well, let me fill you in dear reader. When I first moved to Oregon, I pretty quickly heard about a mountaineering group in town called The Mazamas.
Similar to the AMC back in Boston, they teach classes and do conservation outreach projects. Over the years, I’d interacted with them tangentially – attending a few classes, volunteering with a few groups, but I’d never been able to actually take a course officially. I’d applied to their Advanced Rock climbing class, but wasn’t accepted for one reason or another.
Now, nearly seven years after first moving to Oregon, I was trying again. This time beginning at the bottom – while you may notice that I’m not quite a beginner when it comes to the outdoors, I was tired. These last few years haven’t been easy, and I was just tired of fighting… the chance to just sit back and meet new people while enjoying a few group hikes was more than worth the price of admission.
Saturday, 02-Apr-2022
I swear, I’ve hiked more new areas this year than I can freaking count.
I mean, okay that’s not true. It’s actually pretty easy to count – I have a count right here. But allow me my hyperbole for a moment, if you don’t mind. It’s been a lot of new hiking trails!
I had a feeling that I’d be getting a lot from this BCEP class, and this is absolutely proving that correct – so many new places, and so many amazing (if foggy and cloudy…) new views to be had!
Today’s trail was up in Washington State, near one of my favorite climbing spots – Beacon Rock. Interestingly, right in the Beacon Rock state park! With that name in mind, I’d actually brought all my climbing gear with me, and had coordinated with one of the other students to do an ascent of the SE Corner of Beacon Rock after we finished the hike!
That… wasn’t in the cards, though… for a few reasons. One that I found out later on in the hike, but one that was readily apparent at the trailhead.
It was pouring. Or… steadily raining, at a minimum… which is still way too much sky-water for rock climbing.
But you know what? That’s part of living in the NorthWest, and we took it in stride. Literally in stride, since soon enough we were heading up the trail and into the woods, to hike and train and practice ropework!
As usual, I’ll skip most of that stuff – the hiking was fun and beautiful, and the practice ropework was interesting (especially since this was glacier travel, which is new to me), and I adored the landscapes that we were hiking through. Think rice-paper painting, with separate levels of beautiful evergreens fading into the distance…
But the hiking itself was… pretty standard hiking.
Right up until the point that me knee started clicking and giving out. Again.
Damnit.
Yeah… I have doctors appointments, and Physical Therapy sessions, and all that jazz all set up now, don’t you worry. But at the time, none of that was on the books, and even if it was it couldn’t have helped. That nagging injury from years back, compounded by that hike up to Colchuck Lake and Asgard’s Pass, reaching forward in time and reminding me that I still have work to do before my knees are back up to strength.
The hike continued onward though, regardless of the knees. I was fine, and kept in communication with the hike leaders so they knew what I was going through, but… in this kind of situation, there really isn’t anything to do at the time.
It’s a simple binary equation – Can you walk out? If so, walk out. If not, someone carries you out. I wasn’t feeling great, but I wasn’t feeling bad enough to ask my new friends to lug my damaged frame down the mountain… so I walked slowly and carefully, using my hiking poles maybe a bit more than normal.
At the trailhead, I rested a bit and then politely ducked out of the post-hike lunch trip… These repeated injuries have a tendency to wear on me, and while I was walking with barely any limp, I was still rattled. With the post-hike climb already canceled, I took the chance to head straight home – a nice dinner, and a long bath, did wonders for both my knee and my spirits.
