Calanda

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 This was amazing to say the least! I have a new favorite part of my trip. Every part was better than the prior, and there were so many parts the stack got about as high as the mountain. I got the train from Zurich to Chur. Alice Gasser did not know I was coming but Anna Marie talked to Otto her boyfriend and let him know. I was to stay one night in the Calandahutte and get to the summit in the morning. I got to Chur and then the bus to Haldenstien to start the trek. It started with the Gasser made castles which was great to get a closer look at. Then I continued up quickly relizing that Swiss do not mess around with silly switch backs to make the trail easy. I guess they figure if you can't handel it go home. With this I also learned I would not be making it in pants, so I switched to shorts. Then I learned I would not be making it with shirt. So as I continued to skin down I passed views that can't be described followed by ones that take any words you try to give them away from you. I passed one hiker going up since it was Friday mid day most were at work. I passed many cows though. As I got higher and the trees thined they were taken place by cows and tiny houses. I began to feel like a real moutain man and that this was the true adventure I have been looking for my whole trip. Being alone with no one around in the wilderness with the mountain air, I must have had a seed in my mouth because it grew a smile. I came from the trees and saw the first glimpse of the hutte. In a matter of a few hundred feet the land transformed to a mountain meddow with the hutte staking flame to this new land. I pushed my last way the last little way to the door. I found pride in that I had made it up 45min quicker than the Swiss sign said, I heard that they are not very liberal with their estimations. I meet Otto and got across to him who I was and went for a little walk to take in the new land. I found myself looking over the TOP of other alp mountains! I missed one thing from my Zermat trip, there were no berries for me to scarf up. The view made up for this ten fold. I found innumerable little dens for animals and saw on one that would live in them. I guess they are sneeky or something. I saw plenty of birds though, including hawks and crows with the extremities that reminded me of chickens in coloring. I went to have a snack sitting on a cliff over the valley above the hutte. I went down and meet up with Alice. She was the most gracious person letting me stay for free and telling me to stay for another day. I could not refuse this offer to stay in paridise even longer! She cooked dinner for me and the other hikers as Otto waited. I sat with a doctor from Chur and his friend who as I understood was the same age but looked like father time, the doctor could not have been over 50. Everyone was avid hikers and I was the only non-Swiss, a fun change to my usual tourist activities. We had a great meal and I signed the log book. We hung out for awhile but everyone hit the hay early to get a early start at the Haldensteiner Calanda summit. I got up a little before dawn to have the Swiss breakfast of bread cheese and yogurt. I started up the 'hill' at about 7:40 being the last to leave by a few minutes. I hiked past the cliffs I sat on to find that even after the meddow ended and the loose rock started that the Swiss still did not believe in swith backs very much. I found it hard but thrilling. As I looked back over the valley and the mountains across at the sun rise I could not help but feel anything less than... hevenly. The valleys still filled with fog in the morning, sitting to be wiped away by the sun like cream from milk. That is what this was the cream of the Switzerland. I hiked on and at one atop found a hot air ballon in the distance. I went on to small peak to find that the one had turned to about 25! Every time I thought i could not see more an that I must be near the top since I could not imagine much better I would see the point I thought was the top was just a taste an that I was I was in for more. I passed cliffs that dropped to the 'upper' meddow of the Calanda. I clould see all the worlds of the alps, the rocky top, the middle meddows, the alpine trees, the low valleys with the towns that were just starting to reviel themselves through the cream. Nearing the top it came to a crag where I light foot was needed to cross and the other side if the mountain came to view. It was still onthe shade and made for a starck contrast to the sunny side I had been on. I made it to the top where the log book awaited me and a big wooden cross, the only signs of man on top of the world. It was pointed out to me each mountain that showed the boarder to Austria and Italy. This was on. Of the highest peaks in the area and did it with style. I sat and had a snack thinking I wanted to say here forever, or atleast until it got old to me whichever came last. I put my name and a note in on the bottom right of a page of the log book on the date of October 3rd 2009! I sat at the top for as long as I could befor getting cold. Oh yes the rising of the sun made me take clothes and out back on several times as I would heat up and cool down. I started down with as many detours as I could to look around and savor the grace i took from this place. I made it down intime for lunch that Alice cooked me an had a rest for a bit. Alice then told me I could go hike anywhere there was grass. I started up the other side of the valley above the hutte trying to avoid the trails as I scaled a grass hill resembling a wall. I eventualy made it to a point that I was not sure if I should go up. The grass was gone and it was craggy and dangerous looking. I later learned it was caled something relating to the devil. I guess the devil in me got ahold an I went up. It was worth it as I sat on a boulder that looked down on the valley I wanted to toss a rock and could not find one small enough. The rocks were loose from all the winters of freezing an I started tapping one loose with my foot. I realized sudenly that I was playing jenga with my seat on a cliff by myself in the wilderness and forfitted the match. I started down an found some bird watchers were a ways behind me, I had never seen them in real life, it looked REAL fun. I found a trail and to my suprize it pointed me off what looked to be a cliff. I gave it a go and yes it was basicly a cliff but I made it down and back to the hutte without a stumble. I had another great meal cooked by Alice and ate with more Swiss. This nigt was more people just up for fin and not real intense hikers like the night before. There were some young people and we had a chat. I went to bed and some of the folks were a little rouddy which made many hikers mad since many were looking for an early start. This night was fully booked so Alice put me in the downstairs room by myelself. This was nice since the bunks were very short and I had to curl the night before to fit. In myown room I could lay across and fit better. I think this is what my dad did so many years ago. I woke eairly again to hike about alittle in the morning before coming down. I went to the valley below the Haldenstiener Calanda peak that I went up the day before. It was neat to come around the corner of the valley an slowly see the crest come into view. I made my own path as I cut across the vally to the other side scaling and desending everything in my path. I found myself at the other side wondering again if what stood infront of me was to much. It looked to be just another grassy slope, but you could tell it had some meat to it. I figured I could manage and started up. I started to lean more and more into the hill untill I found that I needed to grab onto the grass tuffs to keep from falling. What had I gotten myself into. I made the top to find that this nice slope was a cliff on the other side. I wearily made my way to the edge seeing that I could fall either way an I was on the edge of a razor. I sat and whached the tiny hikers pass bellow me with out a clue that I stood over them. I decided I now had to make the decent from the blade, no direction looked easy so I just went for it! It worked out alright an I made it back again to the hutte. I found that I only had alittle batery left on my camera. It started fully charged, I think this was the most pictures I ever took. I have a hunch that not one will show what this fantastic place was like. I said my goodbyes to Alice and Otto and made my way down from heaven back to earth.  

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