Jamie Thingelstad

I’ve really not cared for Outlook Express for quite a while now so I’m giving Mozilla Thunderbird a shot. So far, it’s pretty good. Have to change some of my habits around keyboard shortcuts and the like. The news reader is much better than the Outlook one, but that isn’t saying much. We’ll see how this goes.

Many of you know that I’m a gear junkie. I record my heart rate on all my rides and runs. Why? Because I can, not because I need to.

Polar just put up a webpage with heart rate data from a few riders in this years Tour de France. It’s really interesting. It’s also amazing to me how low their heart rates are even on the hard climbs!

I just finished putting the journal entries that I kept while we were on the hiking portion of our trip up here in the blog. I linked in a number of photos from the trip as well. Took a little bit more work than I thought it would to get it all on there, but wanted to get it done soon. Tammy and I are still suffering from jet lag so making it past 9:00 pm is a little hard.

We spent most of Saturday on buses and trains working our way from Soglio to Zurich. We took a round-about way to make a trip back to Zuoz, one of the towns we had visited on our hike, to get this cool goat sculpture that Tammy had really liked. We made our way fairly easily.

When we arrived in Zurich we were greeted with absolute chaos. Unknown to us Saturday was Zurich’s Street Parade. This is from what I can see on the Internet the largest techno gathering in all of Europe. The train station had a stage setup with pounding techno. The streets were filled with people in various forms of crazy dress. Large man in fishnets and white leather shorts? Group of interesting folks? More fishnets? It was a little bit much coming from the trail to this. More pictures of Street Parade are on their site…

We wandered around after dinner a little to take some of the Street Parade in, but then retreated to our hotel to get some rest and relaxation.

We got up on Sunday and had “the longest day in the world”. We flew from Zurich to Amsterdam. Then from Amsterdam to Minneapolis. My mother came and picked us up at the airport and instead of going home we went straight to the Uptown Art Fair. We go every year, and didn’t want this year to be an exception. We finally got home and crashed very quickly.

This trip was simply awesome. The hiking section was particularly great. I’d love to go back to Switzerland soon.

I’ll probably take a little time off from the site here. I’ll be back in a bit though… see you soon!

Today’s Stats:
Moving Time 3h 54m
Distance: 9.2 miles
Ascent: 1,656’
Max Elevation: 4,822’

We had the dessert course of our hiking trip today. Today’s hike was an easier hike with some great views and a wonderful trek through history. We started our trip by grabbing a bus from Sils Maria to the small village of Casaccia. This bus descended down the Molaja Pass which is perhaps the most winding, twisty road I’ve ever seen. The bus has a special horn that it blows from time to time as it goes down to let traffic know it’s there, as the bus requires the entire road to make it around the hairpin switchbacks.

We got off in Casaccia and started our hike to Soglio. The hike was fairly easy. We slowly ascended a little then descended a bit too. All in all I think we descended more than we ascended today. Yesterday was a tiring day and Tammy and I were both feeling some tenderness in our knees so Tammy and I didn’t feel like burning up the trail. It was a nice final day of hiking.

Soglio is very close to the border of Italy and it seems Italian is as common here, if not more, than German. I noticed that the trail signs switched from German to Italian. Another difference that denoted the Italian influence was the near universal use of rock roofs on the houses.

As we were hiking along the trail and passed through a small village we saw this table on the side of the road with preserves for sale on it. We we’re confused at first. It looked like this stuff was for sale but there wasn’t anyone there and there were no prices on things. Annica translated the sign for us and it simply said the preserves were for sale and leave whatever you felt they were worth. How cool is that? We grabbed two jars and left some francs in the money jar. It’s nice to see such trust in your fellow people.

The trail was very nice and we passed several water flows. We even passed one relatively good sized waterfall that I took a moment to climb up a little bit on and get some better pictures.

Another really cool thing about today’s hike was a section of the trail that is an ancient Roman road. It was constructed forever ago by the Romans to help them get around their land. It was really amazing to walk on these stones that were laid literally thousands of years ago. How many people have tread on them.

We got our first glimpse of Soglio and it was so picturesque. Soglio isn’t in the valley and the first glimpse from the trail didn’t give the details of the ancient city inside. I’ve never seen a town with such narrow alleyways and corridors between buildings. It feels like you are walking in another century as you walk through the village.

Tomorrow we start our journey back home. We head to Zurich and then the following day fly back home to Minneapolis. It’s been a great time. Memorable in so many ways. The hiking trip was just great. Six days of hiking and 63 miles later I can’t believe that I wish it wasn’t ending.

This is a map that shows our six days of hiking all together. You can see the gaps in the first half of the trip that were taken by train. The last half of the trip is all on foot.

Part of Europe 2004 collection. Also see Hike to Soglio from Switzerland & Italy 2023 collection.

Today’s Stats:
Moving Time: 5h 4m
Distance: 9.5 miles
Ascent: 3,589’
Max Elevation: 9,124’

Shirley left us this morning. Shirley is one of the happy members of our hiking group and she’s a pretty incredible lady. She has no problem talking but luckily she’s got a wealth of stories that are interesting to back it up with. Shirley has done something like 20 Ryder Walker hiking trips and just keeps on coming back. She sets a pace on the trail that is hard to keep up with. I can only wish that I’m as healthy and fun when I’m retired and kicking back (if you can call what she does kicking back!)

Anyway, onto our hike. Today was awesome! Simply great. Best day of hiking I’ve ever had.

We started the day at 8:30am and stopped at a bakery in Sils Maria to get some lunch for the trail. No huts on todays hike. I didn’t even see any water springs now that I think of it. We hiked out of town and up into the trees. We took a route that was relatively gradual for a few kilometers to get some altitude. It was a very nice way to get up. Not too tiring and gave us time to get our legs warmed up for the day and let breakfast get down. We only had 7 people in our group (including Annica and Julie, our guides). There was another hike that wouldn’t go as high as we were that had a few people in it and several people decided to take today off and go to St. Moritz for the day. We are only a few minutes by bus from the famous resort town and people wanted to check it out. I think the note in the itinerary that today would be the hardest day of the trip also helped tip the scales for some.

We ascended fine out of the tree line running into a few groups of cows out eating grass. The cows in the Engadine region seem so happy. They just hang out on the mountain sides munching on grass in small groups. We hiked straight through several groups of them today.

The clouds were very low today and as soon as we got a couple thousand meters up we were looking down on them. They were also moving at a good clip. Looked like some bad weather was heading our way, but nothing too severe. There was no sign of thunder or lightning, just some precipitation. We stayed on the trail and got pretty darn cold. Everyone put on every layer they had, and even with that the wind was whipping us all into a pretty frigid state. Visibility was at times less than 50 feet. In my opinion, it was awesome! I know some may think that sounds awful, but I was loving it.

We headed along the trail to our destination which was a lake up the mountain. We spent about 30 minutes on some fairly exposed trail, but it wasn’t too bad since the visibility was so terrible we didn’t really see how big the drops were. That’s looking on the bright side eh?

We finally reached the lake and everyone was very cold. We found some windbreak and planned to have a very quick bite of food and head down. It seemed that the option of summiting the peak was out of the question. Then all of a sudden the sun peaked out just a little bit. We extended our lunch stay to warm up some, still thinking that the peak was out of the question. However, the weather just got better and better.

Annica decided that if we wanted to give the peak a try we could, but if the weather got bad we would have to turn back. Three of the others decided not to try it and just went down with Julie. Annica, Tammy and I headed up to the Piz.

It was a great ascent. We got to play in the snow as we went up to the Piz. I was a little concerned at times mostly as I considered how we would get down this route. The route that we took was a scramble on boulders with many big steps up. There were several times where I was grabbing anything that felt scure and pulling myself up the rise. Tammy on the other hand did simply amazing. She bounded up the side of the peak like a mountain goat! We made it to the top and there was a small gathering there with 3 Belgians that had just made it to the top as well from the other side.

It was just great to stand on the peak and look around at all the mountains. What a sense of accomplishment and a fun time. We took a different route down that turned out to be pretty great for the descent. Part of the descent was this really mushy gravel, dirt mixture that was sort of like bug muddy sand. It was great for the descent since we could just slide in a controlled way down. We also ran into good snow banks still on the mountain and we were able to “ski” down them on our hiking boots. The descent was a blast. Lots of laughs from all.

After completing the summit we did the long and steep descent down to Maloja where we caught a bus back to Sils Maria.

What a day! Such fun, such a great time.

We have a fancy dinner tonight. The Hotel Edelweiss is having a “konzert diner”. There will be a small orchestra playing music in between the courses. Pretty neat! Tomorrow looks like it is a pretty mild hike with some really great scenery and things to check out on our way to our final city of Soglio. Soglio is supposed to be great. Can’t wait.

Part of Europe 2004 collection. Also see Sils Maria - Maloja Loop from Switzerland & Italy 2023 collection.

Today’s Stats:
Moving Time: 4h 58m
Distance: 11.9 miles
Ascent: 2,506’
Max Elevation: 7,437’

There is something really fun about waking up in one village and walking out of your hotel with your pack on and walking right into your next hotel in another village having used nothing other than your own two feet to get there. The tiredness in your muscles, the dull ache in your feet and the layer of sweat mark a good days work.

The hike today was a very pleasant hike. I didn’t think it was as hard as some of our other hikes but our guides keep saying that we are just getting used to the effort and the body adapts quickly. I know the body adapts quickly, my legs feel strong and it just seems normal that one would wake up, have a big meal and then walk ten miles in the mountains.

We hiked up to the restaurant by Lake Hahnensee. We hiked up through the forest and above the tree line for the lunch stop. This wasn’t a trail hut, but instead a real honest-to-goodness restaurant. Again I was amazed by the number of locals that had hiked up for lunch. If you put a restaurant in the states on top of a 700 foot steep ascent do you think you would need a reservation for lunch? You do here!

It seemed like we ascended more than we descended but I think it was just that the descent was much more gradual than the ascent. I was grateful for that as my right knee has been feeling a bit sore and the decreased pounding on it from the gradual descent was appreciated. The hike was very different from the others since a lot of it was in the trees. We had great views however of St. Moritz as we hiked it’s perimeter at a couple thousand meters. The last 2 miles or so was a trail hike around the city lake to get to Sils Maria.

Tammy got a picture of an Edelweiss flower today. The edelweiss flower grows in the mountains and used to be the way that a man would prove his worthiness to his to-be wife by going up into the mountains and bringing an edelweiss flower back. Perhaps as a sign of the propensity to marry in Switzerland it is now illegal to pick an edelweiss flower and you can be fined if caught.

Tomorrow is the hardest day of hiking on the trip. I’ll let you know how that goes!

Part of Europe 2004 collection. Also see Hike Pontresina to Sils Maria from Switzerland & Italy 2023 collection.

Today’s Stats:
Moving Time: 4h 19m
Distance: 8.5 miles
Ascent: 2,526’
Max Elevation: 9,061’

Last night at dinner our guides presented two different hike options for today. One would be a relatively flat hike for those looking for any easier day. The other would be a day similar to the day we just had with good distance and good up and down. Tammy and I opted for the harder day, along with a guy named Matt who is the son of a family that is on the trip with us. The hike and day were great.

In cycling they often talk about riders who get stronger over multi-day events and those that are worn down. I feel like I am getting stronger on these hikes. My legs feel better today after the hike than they did yesterday. My knees are holding out strong as well. I am eagerly looking forward to my massage that I’ve scheduled for tonight though. A good rubdown on my calves and thighs will feel exceptionally good.

Our hike today started with a short train ride to a very small village that houses a funicular. Never heard of one of those? Me either. Essentially it is a rail system used to get up the side of a mountain. A couple of things are relatively unique about it. First, the rail car itself is built at about a 25% or more angle. Think of a rhombus. The other unique thing is that there are two cars that counterweight each other. There is only one rail however, and right in the middle of the track it splits in two and the rail cars quickly jump on different tracks to pass each other and then resume it’s way up the hill. I enjoyed the ride. Much better for me than any gondola ride.

After taking the fernicular up to the mountain we started our hike for the day. The day started right off ascending a descent grade that we didn’t punctuate in any way, we simply went over the top and then started descending down into the valley. Tammy had some blister problems on the way up that required some attention. Midway down the valley we took a moment to appreciate a small lake that is fed by the annual melt and then continued down our way into the bottom of the gorge.

Once we reached the bottom we started the big ascent of the day. We had the great luck of being able to stare at the real work of our hike the entire time we were hiking. The trail took a steep switchback laden path right up to the top of the rise where we had lunch at the hut there.

This hut was rockin! There were more people here than we’ve seen at any other hut, yet it was probably the most rustic hut that we have visited. In fact, we got to see the hut getting it’s supplies via helicopter as we were hiking along the ridge. Some huts are so inaccessible that they are only supplied by helicopter, and the helicopter will then fly out their garbage as well. Pretty neat. Anyway, there were a lot of people there including a huge crowd of what I believe were Italians hiking for the day. They were picnicking, drinking and singing songs on the side of the hut. It was so cool!

The other great thing at the hut was the special of the day, fruchtkugen! What’s that? Well, when I was a kid – I think in 3rd or 4th grade – we lived in a very small town in North Dakota called Napoleon. Napoleon was essentially 100% German. The local cafe served knefle soup every day. The school had sauerkraut every day. I’m talking German. One of the things I really liked was “kugen” and I’ve never had it since we lived there. Kugen is this baked custer desert with fruit in it. Not very sweet, but very good. And here it was in the hut on the top of this mountain. You bet I ordered a piece to go with my barley soup!

After our lunch we started a very long descent down to the village of Pontresina. It was a long decent, lasting about 2 hours. I got a bit exhausted on the decent after seemingly going down forever. See, going down is in many ways harder than going up. Your knees and legs absorb the shock of each step and it can really wear on you. Some parts of the descent were exposed meaning that there was nothing between you and a fair amount of a fall if you happened to slip and fall. It wasn’t as scary as it all sounded though.

Pontresina is a very nice town. I got myself a haircut which was a little interesting not knowing any German. Tammy got a huge “brezel” as well!

Part of Europe 2004 collection. Also see Hike to Segantini Hütte and Pontresina from Switzerland & Italy 2023 collection.