Aug 11, Sat: Special hike thru Swiss National Park

One last surprise arose last night.

• Met two men at the Hotel Alpenrose last night. They wanted to know when I needed to return to Klosters and I stated not til tomorrow night.
• Their response was 'you are in our village of Scuol and need to hike through our countries National Park' which has a trail head 30 minutes out of town by bus.
• So, my plans immediately changed.
• 7 am breakfast
• 7:45am day pack with food, water, and parka (still low clouds but expected to clear as the day progressed). Took bus to the Minger trail head to the National Park. Took about 30 minutes as it wound up, around, and through some very steep v-shaped valleys. Very special trip.
• Got dropped off (along with 4 other folks).
• Proceeded from 1500m up the Val Minger (followed the water drainage all the way to the pass). Elev. 2317m (around 7500 feet).



• Hiked solo right from the beginning as my day pack was light and my legs were on go mode. Very peaceful trek winding up through the steep valleys and across the pass.



• Descended through the Val Ploona.



• Was hoping to run in to Philippe, Lisa and Beppe who were hiking up from the other side to where I started from. Actually ran in to them around 10:30 which was kind of fun. They were quite surprised to see me walking towards them.


• I told them that when I carried my parka on the outside of my pack that it never rained, so decided to come up from the other side to assure them good weather.
• They told me of several trails to take upon descending that would be free of people and stay high on the side of the valley. They were easy to find and definitely made it more fun.
• My legs felt so strong and the gentle descent was calling for a run, so I ended up jogging about 3 miles back down into the town of Tarasp. Took time to take a 360 degree panorama. Hope to post it eventually.
• Ate lunch in Tarasp (bananna, juice, cheese, jelly sandwich, nuts).
• Walked the last 4 miles back to town passing thru the same villages as yesterday. Stopped at an Internet Cafe to update this log and get a cup of koffee. Nice break.
  
• Will take train from Tarask back to Klosters later this afternoon. It passes directly under the Vereina Pass which we trekked over several days ago. It is the longest 'local train' tunnel in the country. It looks to be many miles long and I understand it is only 12" to the walls of the tunnel.

12 miles today with 5000 feet of ascend/descend. Would be nice to spend several days in this national park. Nice way to finish up the trip.