We bested Kev-time today hiking the 5.5 hour Wanderweg (hiking trail) to Weisstanen in just over four hours. Perhaps it’s just because we were fresh and the climb was only 3,100′, but beating the hiking author, Kevin Reynolds, time for a hike is a big deal according to Stanna. Last year we were mostly longer than his posted times.

For those of you curious enough to click on the Spot Locator track you’d have noticed a big jump in the track from the San Juan’s to the Swiss Alps. If you’d zoomed in on the eastern end of the arch and maybe even changed the default map to satellite, you’d see us amble up the Weisstannen (means Silver Fir) valley.

We’re currently bedded at the Gemse (Chamois) hotel, one of two hotels in this very small, as in less than 20 houses, alpine village. It’s an interesting choice of name since the region is famous for introducing the Steinbock (ibex) to the area in 1911. We’ve seen neither, but we’re still below tree line.

It rained for an hour during this first morning so we proved we’d not forgotten any rain gear, both of us donning jackets and rain pants. Forecast is mostly sunny for the next five days, so we’ll see how accurate the Metro Weather forecasts turn out to be.

No other hikers on the trail that we saw, however a solo European guy from our hotel this morning showed up at this one as well this afternoon. Trail was mostly in heavy woods with one long wooden stairway out of a ravine. We lunched on our salami, cheese and loaf at a crossroads water trough common throughout Switzerland.