Meien Valley (Meiental) on the East Side of the Susten Pass (2304m)

Sunday July 8, 2018 -- This Sunday was a day of Superlatives: Super Weather (just enough cool wind so we didn't feel the summer heat), Super Landscape (as usual, cows, meadow flowers, freshly-mown hay, quaint hamlets, and barely-just-melted-winter-snow-alpine landscape), Super Cheap and Very Tasty Alpine Cheese purchased directly from the farmer, and a little bit of Adventure crossing another patch of late-melting avalanche snow followed by a difficult crossing of avalanche-ravaged forest... because who wants to take the easy trail when there is a challenging one! And if we hadn't done that, we wouldn't have encountered the forest goats, of which there must have been 50, who so desperately wanted to follow "Peter the Goat Shepherd" that they continually pushed me off the trail.

The Reuss Valley (one of Switzerland's major river valleys) which stretches directly South of where we live to the Gotthard Tunnel has loads of hidden side valleys formed by glaciers which previously flowed onto the one which carved out the Reuss Valley. We've walked many of them, and added this walk down the Meien Valley to our repertoire. The road into the Meien Valley from Wassen is a popular one with motorcyclists, as it is one of those winding pass roads which crosses the Alps (Susten Pass) to the Gadmer Valley to the West, and unfortunately the roaring of the motorcycles was really the only thing that could dampen the perfectness of this day. The best place to walk was near the Meienreuss river, as its roar drowned that out of the motorcycles. Fortunately, the noise does not come across in the photos.

Never happened to us before: The bus along the Reuss Valley (the main valley, not the side one) picks people up who do a variety of hikes in this popular area. Even though the bus was already "full" by the next stop after we got on at Wassen, at each stop another dozen people entered the bus! There were literally people piled on top of people, and kids hanging off the support bars. (This bus runs once an hour to the Erstfeld train station, so it's not like anyone wanted to wait.). A 35-minute ride!!!!

On the way up by bus we can see from above the alpine pastures we will cross: On the left is where we stopped to buy cheese. And the start of the hike was at the road at the back. 

We started the hike at Sustenbrüggli, a popular motobike café. This is the last stop before the actual pass. Our trail was covered with avalanche snow, so we had to improvise and crawl under the road barrier here to the right.

 

This avalanche snow actually covered the trail we were supposed to walk on, so we came down from the road to the left.

Superb high alpine landscape

Superb variety of meadow flowers, as usual

And the view to the East. We are headed to the river and out of this valley. Total 15 km.

Every few minutes I had to look backwards to the stunning line of mountains

Every few minutes I had to look backwards to the stunning line of mountains

A couple of the many bridges on the zigzag road up to the Susten Pass

What would a hike anywhere in Switzerland be, without the cows.

From the dairy farm, this is the view Wesward toward the Susten Pass Road, where we came down from. 

Buying cheese at the alpine dairy farm: Alp Hinterfeld

Our trail crossed back and forth over the Meienreuss River, and passed through a few tiny hamlets. This was the old Susten Road, and in the village below (Färnigen) is an old hotel that was the main rest stop along the route.

Hamlet of Färnigen

Not just beautiful flowers, but also lots of pretty butterflies

Nearing the entrance of the Meien Valley, which merges into the Reuss Valley

The little cluster of homes below is simply called "At the Chapel" Across from the church is a school

Another crossing of the river, looking back up the valley.

This group of houses is called Fürlauwi

Just passed through "At the Chapel"  (Bei der Kapelle)

At this point we would have had only 1 hour 15 minutes to our destination, having already come about 3 hours from Sustenbrüggli. But why take the easy way when you can take the hard way: Cross the river, navigate around avalanche snow, beat your way through avalanche-devasted forest, and walk with goats? My way took 45 minutes longer....

Navigating the avalanche snow that we actually saw from across the road on our way up with the bus.

Turning a corner, we ran into the goats, who immediately joined us for the rest of the hike... until we locke the door to the next bridge...

Whenever we run into goats, they join us on our hikes.

They looked so sad when we closed the door to the bridge!

And now we've reached the Reuss valley, and it's only about 20 more minutes to descend to Wassen, the destination for this hike, which took 5 hours, and worth every minute....

14-km walk out of the Meien Valley, took us 5 hours.

We have done many hikes in the side valleys to the Reuss Valley.