Day 26 Bourg St Pierre to Col du Grand St Bernard

From  Bourg St Pierre to Col du Grand St Bernard

Date	10/12/19
Today's Distance:	8 miles / 13 km
MapMyHike	Relive
Total Switzerland:	131 miles.
Total This Camino:	260 miles.
Total All Caminos:	1365 miles
Hostel/Albergue:	Gîte Au Petit Vélan

Thoughts on Completing the Via Francigena in Switzerland

After hiking the four and 1/2 hours to Great Saint Bernard pass, I found out the bus back to the town where I started, stopped running two weeks ago.

So rather than walk the 8 miles back to where I started, I hitchhiked instead. Fortunately I got a ride right away. Sometimes the ending is as good as the beginning.

Notable memories

It's all done. I completed the via Francigena in Switzerland. 

This was an emotional moment for me. 

This trail is a lot tougher than I imagined. I was kind of expecting a Camino like trail. But this was much more like mountain hiking in parts. 

Of course, large parts of it were dirt roads, well worn trails, etc. But there were parts that were absolutely brutal. Like nothing that I've seen doing a Camino de Santiago.

Some of the sign posting on the way up the Alps. I've been following this whole time trail number 70.

Via Francigena

Regina and I met last night in the dormitory room. Took today out to hike together. She's good company.

Pictures of the Alps are more meaningful when there's a context to them.

10 days, 100 miles, and over 7,000 ft of elevation gain. Via Francigena in Switzerland is finished.

Chapel at the Hospice Saint Bernard

What else do you try on at Great Saint Bernard pass, but a hat with a great Saint Bernard on it.

View from Col du Grand St Bernard

Day 25 Orsiéres to Bourg St Pierre

From Orsiéres to Bourg St Pierre

Date	10/11/19
Today's Distance:	8 miles / 13 km
MapMyHike	Relive
Total This Camino:	252 miles.
Total All Caminos:	1357 miles
Hostel/Albergue:	Gîte Au Petit Vélan   @ 65$; 2 nights

2300 foot climb today.

Thought I was going to be the only person in the dorm room again tonight, but another hiker showed up. Her name is Regina and she is Swiss. She is doing a different set of trails than me but we're in the same place for tonight.

She speaks English. Oh my God! I can talk to somebody.

Cow block video. See pictures below.

Notable memories

Everything was so green today. so where I thought I might be in mountains with snow caps, I really wasn't today. But the fields of crops were gorgeous, the pine trees lining the hills were beautiful and the blue sky contrasting against the mountain ridges made for just a wonderful vista today.

The climb

My big fear about the day was the tremendous altitude change. But it turned out to be a non-starter. It was still exceedingly difficult, but I had a plan. From the beginning, I knew I would take lots and lots and lots of microbreaks, followed by hourly mini breaks and then a full break around lunchtime to eat the lunch that I was carrying in my backpack.

I think the plan worked out well. I made it to my destination in 6 hours which really surprised me because I thought it would take longer. And I arrived in pretty good shape, tired but not physically beat up. 

Photographing the climb

Already been going uphill. At altitude 3,550 feet.

I know I don't look happy. 

Going up. 3,980 ft altitude.

Altitude 4120 ft

Altitude now 4,340 ft

Altitude 4790 ft

Altitude now 5,350 feet

Cowblock ahead

So this rancher was marking his land but he told me I could keep going. So I took a little break, and when I got back to the string marking the boundary, these guys came rushing towards the line. I had permission to cross, but just looking at all of them, I decided to find a better way.

Church of Bourg St Pierre

Day 24 Martigny to Orsiéres

From Martigny to Orsiéres

Date	10/10/19
Today's Distance:	13 miles / 21 km
MapMyHike	Relive
Total This Camino:	244 miles.
Total All Caminos:	1349 miles
Hostel/Albergue:	Hôtel Terminus @ 50$

According to the contour map, I had to climb from 500 meters altitude to 900 meters. That difference of 400 meters is just over 1200 feet over 12 miles. I think I can do 100 feet of elevation climb for every mile. Of course it's not a straight quitd pro quo, mile for mile.

Tomorrow's climb to Bourg St Pierre

I don't know what's with the different elevation guides. The official Via Francigena app says that there is 1000+ meters difference in altitude between where I'm at today and where I'm headed tomorrow. But then I look at the profile map that they provide and I read it as more like 700 meters.

I have a separate app that gives me the elevation of different places. I did a quick calculation again between where I am tonight and where I'm headed tomorrow and it comes up with about 2,300 feet which if you divide that by 3.1 feet per meter comes out to about 750 meters. So I guess I know what number to believe.

Just not sure about what I'm feeling to do next. The original plan was to go to Portugal. But I'm feeling burned out. The question is: what am I feeling burned out about?

Burn out?

I could call it quits after Switzerland, but I did have a desire to hike in Portugal. On the other hand, if I'm burned out because of Switzerland and being alone, that would change in Portugal where I would expect to be with other pilgrims.

Right now getting up and started in the morning has been difficult for the last four or five days. I think it's because I'm hiking alone, and then I'm alone all night in the whatever room I'm in, be at a hotel, hostel or b&b.

if I go to Portugal, there'd be albergues along the way where I would meet other pilgrims. But if I'm just burned out on hiking, being in Portugal won't be the answer.

Notable memories

Orsiéres

My bed for the night. Mixed dorm.

Day 23 Saint Maurice to Martigny

From Saint Maurice to Martigny

Date	10/09/19
Today's Distance:	10 miles / 16 km
MapMyHike	Relive
Total This Camino:	231 miles.
Total All Caminos:	1336 miles
Hostel/Albergue:	Octodure Midi Guestrooms @ 65$

Notable memories

Tomorrow I have an 1200 foot climb over 12 miles. Not sure that I have complete confidence in the guide regarding altitude.
Later I will go out and locate the mountain to climb and try to get a contour map.

State of mind

I'm pretty much on my own all day from waking up to hiking all day to evening chores to sleep to waking up the next morning.

This is so different from the Camino where I can figure that I'll meet others at some point. It really can be tiresome to have no one to talk to, especially since I don't speak French.

Cravings

The other day I had a massive salt fixation. Now
I'm craving sugar. Cookies, ice cream and donuts.

Exhaustion

I'm getting much more physically exhausted by the end of the day. My sleeping which usually only needs about eight hours, has gone up to sleeping nine to nine and a half hours every night, without any inducements.

I don't know whether I'm physically exhausted or mentally exhausted or emotionally exhausted. I just know that I'm tired.

I feel like I've lost weight, although I won't know for sure until I get back to the States.

Purpose

There is the daily grind of hiking, hiking and more hiking. I'm just under 250 miles now, and without a long term, clearly defined objective, like Santiago, which provides an emotional catharsis for reaching the end.

Sometimes in the morning I wonder what I'm doing in Switzerland. If and when, or when and if, I make it to the Great St Bernard Pass, my only cognizant reward will be that I climbed to 8100 feet from 1500 feet in the course of three days.

Story idea

The priest knows that to end the recurring nightmare of his failed search, as he's become used to it, for redemption is to confront the evil from which he is running, but he can't do that because he believes that in the end it will cost him his life, just as that same evil destroyed his parish and his village.

Rain, cows and the Alps

Just as Switzerland is beautiful, it's also a country where business has to occur, so there are these distractions along the way.

Having fun and not having fun at the same time

A beautiful two hundred foot waterfall along the way

I would have liked to visited, but the rain at this point was a real drag.

Although it rained all day, it wasn't bad until the last mile when the skies opened.

In Martigny. Tomorrow I have an 1300 foot climb into the Alps. Then Friday I have to repeat it, and Saturday repeat it once more. 

Chateau de La Bâtiaz

Day 22 Aigle to St Maurice

From Aigle to St Maurice

Date	10/08/19
Today's Distance:	12 miles / 19 km
MapMyHike	Relive
Total This Camino:	221 miles.
Total All Caminos:	1336 miles
Hotellerie Franciscaine	@ 65$

Today the weather was gorgeous. Lots of sun and blue skies. It makes for a very motivating walk when the sun is washing over you.

The weather for tomorrow is going to be miserable. Right now the current prediction is pretty much 100% rain all day long. So if I'm lucky I'll be that light sprinkling kind of rain rather than that more kind of sheet rain.

Daily chores done. Clothes washed. Shower taken. Supermarket run for energy foods done.

Notable Memories

It has been three or maybe four days now since I've really talked with anybody about hiking out here. I meet people and have casual conversations, local people, who say that many hike the trail that I'm doing. I just don't see them.

Trail feelings

I'm on the downhill run as far as Switzerland goes, meaning that I've got less days to hike remaining than days I've already hiked.

It's been a different experience. Most days I'm by myself.

No real spiritual meaning to it, at least nothing I've been able to pull out. It's a hike which is okay, just feels different.

It's not a Camino but it is a pilgrimage route to Rome. But there's no infrastructure support, so that's probably what changes everything.

But in just walking around Saint Maurice, I stumbled across the Abbey of Saint Maurice which had a mass in French but with Gregorian chant.

I found a column to lean against and put myself in shavasana and just really let the music flow over me. Crazy how a stupid little quirk of fate can negate an earlier feeling.

First climb of the day is about 500 feet.

Rhône valley after climb

Many of the tributaries have been reengineered to human specifications

First sighting of the Rhône river

View from second climb. Rhône valley amidst the Alps.

Saint Maurice

 Rhône river in St Maurice

Abbey of Saint Maurice

The Abbey of St. Maurice, Agaunum is a Swiss monastery of canons regular in Saint-Maurice, Canton of Valais, which dates from the 6th century. It is situated against a cliff in a section of the road between Geneva and the Simplon Pass. The abbey itself is a territorial abbacy and not part of any diocese.

Day 21 Vevey to Aigle

From Vevey to Aigle

Date	10/07/19
Today's Distance:	17 miles / 27 km
MapMyHike	Relive
Total This Camino:	209 miles.
Total All Caminos:	1324 miles
Hostel/Albergue:	Bnb @ 60$

Hiking conditions

It was a hard walk today. Lots of pavement. Mainly because the first half stayed alongside Lake Geneva, where they have this concrete boardwalk essentially along the entire coast. It was a beautiful walk with amazing vistas of Lake Geneva, lined with art and gorgeous plantings.

Weather

Weather was good though. It was partly sunny today. That picked up my morale as I walked along. The last two days have been partly cloudy.

Now you may ask, what's the difference between partly cloudy and partly sunny, since both definitions involve the appearance of clouds and sun.

When it's partly cloudy, it's a little sad. When it's partly sunny, I'm a lot more happy. Lol

Stages

Five stages done and five stages to go. Hard to believe I'm halfway through Switzerland already. It is just under a week though. When it's all done, I will have been hiking here 10 days.

Notable memories

Camino Angel

I don't have a picture of her, but as I was walking through one of the towns and I don't remember which one, I passed an older lady who said to me 'Bon voyage'. I didn't even register it until after a few more steps. I turned around to look at her. We pretty quickly got to talking about hiking and how she did parts of the Via Francigena several years ago. She told me that climbing the Great Saint Bernard pass, much as I was concerned of it, was doable. She did it at her age and she was older than me, she said. So I thanked her, because she gave me the encouragement that I needed to tackle that one last monstrous climb. Another Camino Angel.

Clarens detour

There was a detour on the boardwalk, so I had to change directions. but it was kind of fortunate because I took a side street and walked past some really pretty houses with verdant green yards. It gave me the feeling that I had when I was walking around New Orleans, and stumbled into the Garden District.

Following the Via Francigena, Route 70

The Lovers

Chateau de Chillon

Clarens, Switzerland

Rhône valley; foot of the Swiss alps

My bnb

Usually the bnb's have been in apartment buildings. This is a nice house on the outskirts of Aigle.