Lost in the Woods (Swiss Alps - Part 6)

Nature is being abusive again. What was a brilliant day before has become a wet, foggy, and gloomy morning.

The weather app says that it will be raining for a few hours. I think it’s wrong. Actually, I have no evidence for it being wrong, but sometimes I believe my willful optimism can have a reality distortion effect on the weather. I have no evidence that actually works.

But I set out on foot anyways. It’s an uphill day, gaining over 2000 meters in elevation (6.5k feet).

Though it’s a misty rain, I am quickly soaked. So much for “rain” jacket. As I leave the town behind, the trail snakes through a forest. This section of the trail must have not been maintained yet, because the grass is up to my knees. Wet grass. Soon enough my feet are sloshing around in my “waterproof” shoes. REI, we need to have a serious conversation about your product. My clothes are a wetsuit. I put all my layers on this morning, so now everything is wet and there is no plan B. As long as I keep moving, I am merely cold and not freezing. Cue the angry rock playlist.

Soon enough, I am wet, cold, AND lost in the woods. My gps provides my location with razor-sharp precision. The trail map uses that location and confidently tells me I’m right on top of the trail. Yet precision is not accuracy, as my eyes tell me that there is no trail in front of me. Someone is wrong, and the only one I can ask is the giant hare that just ran in front of me. If the White Rabbit doesn’t know, Alice might be in a pickle.

White Rabbit runs up the mountain.

Things I know: downhill is certainly the wrong direction, my app is lying to me, and the clouds are so thick I can’t see much of anything. So I follow the rabbit. I’m practically Doolittle with my navigation system. Yet again the public education system in America must be glowing with pride at their prodigy.

Eventually I break through the clouds, and for a few minutes get a peek at the mountains around me.

Then the next batch of clouds rolls in and I spend the next few hours trying to not walk off a ledge or into a pond.

Once I get over the mountain pass, things start to clear up. I see signs of the lake and the glacier.

And as I look down triumphantly, I start to see something else by the lake. It looks like a white coiling snake and there’s little things moving fast on it.

Cars. Those are cars. And that yellow thing must be a bus.

I kind of want to cry. With just a quick search this morning, I could have stayed dry and saved myself all that misery? In my defense, the mountain hut I stay at tonight said “hike in only” - meaning there is no road. Where is this hut anyways?

I continue down to the lake, but cannot spot the cabin anywhere. My map, which I am reluctant to believe after the earlier betrayal, shows me it’s another couple of kilometers uphill. Uphill where, to the glacier? Surely they jest.

Finally, I find a sign and an arrow. Cabana De Moiry: 1 hour and 35 minutes. And then I look up towards the glacier. And squint.

That teeny tiny dot next to the glacier is the mountain hut. My app wasn’t actually wrong.

“Noooo”, I lament to myself, “This cannot be”. Now I really do want to cry. Instead, I eat a protein bar. It’s mint chocolate, and if I deeply commit to deluding myself, it almost tastes like a candy bar. Sometimes I hate macros on the road.

After the caloric intake serving as an emotional reinforcement, I proceed to slosh around in my shoes and shuffle up to get close to this magnificent glacier.