Walking

If there is one change in my body from my time in the military, it's not any sort of discipline, it's not any kind of eating habits or the ability to get up early. No, it's simply just the fact that I can walk for a long time without feeling tired or hurt. It is a useful if unexciting ability. I've been wanting to get more into walking and then transition to proper hiking for a long time. Yesterday I finally took the first step towards that goal.

Walking is nice. I've always quite liked walking and being out in nature. Though I'm not at the point where nature alone feels like quite enough stimulation so you better believe that I was wearing headphones and listening to podcasts the whole time cause I need that sweet, sweet stimulation. Still, walking is nice.

Might as well

I live in Switzerland and even as someone who has spent his whole life in this country, the beauty and especially the close proximity of nature in this country isn't lost on me. There are many beautiful places around the world but Switzerland, with it's excellent public transport and its extensive network of hiking trails, is certainly among the best suited for the hobby of hiking.

It is fantastic how easy it is here to just "go for a walk". People in Switzerland, Germany and Austria are already known to enjoy the pastime of walking and it's no wonder that we do. The cities are mostly very walkable and nature is never that far away. Suburbs are mostly not a thing because most of the landscape is split up into small villages that are never more than 30min to 1h away on foot. Getting lost is near impossible as well, as you can usually just walk until you find the next village, bus stop or even train station. Add to that the fact that all the walking and hiking trails are very easy to navigate thanks to clear signage. More on that later.

Give me a sign!

I already quickly brought up signs but I want to go into a little bit more detail when it comes to signage here in Switzerland as far as hiking trails are concerned. Switzerland is riddled with official hiking trails. That in itself isn't special. Many countries have hiking trails. But what I think is somewhat unique is how well those trails are labeled. Here, a hiking trail will always have yellow signage along its path. There are a selection of different variations. The most information you'll find is when trails cross over. At those crossings, the signs will often not only point to the different directions where the trails continue, but they will also show you the village the trail leads to, along with the amount of time in hours and minutes that it'll take you to get that are a normal walking pace. The second type is similar but without that time or destination information. It simply points in the direction the trail continues when there are crossing paths. The last type are signs and markings along the trails when there are not crossings. Those only exist to indicate to you that you are still walking along a trail and have not strayed of the path.

Here are some examples that I actually encountered on my walk. First just the sign you will find to indicate that you are still on the trail.

This one here shows the path taking a turn.

Lastly one that is like the first, but here just painted on a tree in the forest.

Departure

Sunday the 22nd of October, 9AM. I get up! Having picked out my route and prepared food for sandwiches, I feel ready to go. After preparing the sandwiches and finishing my usual morning coffee, I get fully dressed, pack my backpack and go outside.

The route that I picked is a bit over 12km and I plan to be out for about 4h total. That leaves me with more than enough time for the distance as well as the included lunch break.

Soon after I get to the trail, I'm already met with quite a nice path that crosses a field. I'm still getting familiar with the area and it's always nice to find new spots.

Entering the forest and lunch

After about 30min of walking, I enter the forest. The trail up until this point was mostly going uphill but the incline was pretty shallow. At this point, I've gained about 100m in altitude over a few kilometers of walking. My plan is unchanged and I still intend to enter the forest and walk until I hit the halfway point of the trail and also the highest point of the whole journey. The point I plan to have my lunch. The temperature is about 14C at this point but the forest feels noticeably colder than when I was walking under the clear sky. The absence of the sun makes all the difference. Despite it feeling colder I still don't feel cold. It's honestly the perfect temperature for walking as far as I'm concerned.

I make it to my intended lunch spot at around 11:40AM. Originally I thought I'd get a better view judging from the map because right north of my current location, there's a pretty steep drop in terrain and I was hoping that I would have a nice view once I got here. But it turns out that the trees block all the view from here and I didn't feel like straying too far of the trail in hopes of a view that might or might not be there. In fact, I already stayed a little bit to find this lunch spot in the first place. Only a few hundred meters.

The way back and losing to the fear of blisters

After lunch, I get on my way to continue on the trail. Having walked just over half the total distance, my stamina is doing totally fine. But the same thing can't be said for my feet. Unfortunately, I'm not wearing hiking shoes because I currently don't own any good ones. I'm wearing my normal everyday shoes and I'm starting to feel some blisters that might develop on my left foot. Being confronted with the decision to either finish my walk at the cost of my foot or give up and take the train back, the choice is clear. Luckily the train station is along the way. Before I get to it there is a few kilometers of walking down a pretty steep decline. Not the easiest thing with my current foot situation but I manage it.

After a train ride, I arrive home. My feet hurting a little but intact. No blisters to be seen. I'm looking forward to the next one.