Arosa (9/18/1982)

Saturday, September 18, 1982

Train day pass

It had rained with lightning and thunder last night, but was drying up today with a high cloud cover. Left at 7:45 to walk to the train station, passing the market at Burgplatz. Took the 8:23 train to Zürich. A woman sat next to me in Olten and made occasional comments in dialect. One remark was that there were so many people on the train today because it was such a nice day! Well, relatively nice since it wasn’t raining!

Arrived in Zürich at 10:00 and changed to the 10:07 train to Chur. Before Ziegelbrücke I saw the large pyramid-shaped stones sunk in 3-4 rows in the ground; anti-tank barriers?

Also saw a pen with several deer in it. The sun was beginning to cut through the haze.

Arrived in Chur at 11:40 and hurried out to the Bahnhofplatz/Station Square to catch the narrow gauge railroad Rhätische Bahn/Rhaetian Railway, with shiny brand new red cars, to Arosa. It was scheduled to leave at 11:40 but was held up for five minutes.

Across the aisle was a black woman from California who was with three Swiss ladies. One of the ladies appeared to have had polio and walked with a cane. Another had a daughter with spastic diplegia cerebral palsy.

I was on the right side of the train as it left the city and started up a really deep valley. I spent most of my time looking straight down through the trees at the mountain stream. At one point there was a waterfall on the opposite cliff. As we crossed a deep ravine, there was a waterfall on the left side. Soon the valley had open meadows on both sides. The farmers were out cutting the long grasses to store in the numerous log huts. Many of the huts had metal or tile roofs, but many still were made of stone with grass growing in the cracks. We passed through a couple communities with the flower-bedecked chalets.

At Langweis we crossed the valley on an aqueduct-like bridge on super tall abutments. You could still look straight down into the tumbling stream. From then on, my side of the train looked at the broad side of the mountain, but on the other side you could look into the valley. Sometimes the mountainside was covered with gravel, and there was logging in other areas. We passed through many tunnels and switchbacks. At about 12:40 we arrived in Arosa, which was full of hotels and holiday apartment buildings. A typical Swiss resort.

In front of the station was a lake with a fountain in it. I found a map and located Eichhörnliweg/Squirrel Path, which would take me to Maran. I walked beyond the station (the end of the line) and followed the road switchbacks through a residential neighborhood called Seehalden. I saw a beautiful old chalet with flowers.

Seehalden chalet

I went on a gravel road off the main road into a reserve area: Do not bother the animals, wild or domesticated!

I walked into the woods and found a Vita Parcours.

Parcours station

The path was rutted as I passed a couple exercise stations. The parcours turned back, but I continued on a gravel path up a hill out of the woods to the Maran depression.

Maran view of Grisons mountains

There were meadows, hotels, a tennis court, and even a golf course. Up on the surrounding mountainsides I saw cattle grazing. They haven’t gone back down into the valleys for the winter yet.
I followed a gravel road switchbacking up the mountain, and once took a shortcut straight up to a bench to sit and let my heart rate slow down! It was hot and bright hazy. I continued along until I came to a herd of cows, just them and me in the meadow; no fences!

Swiss milk chocolate cows

Maran area

Maran area

Mountain brook

View of Arosa

I figured I had hiked uphill enough, and started downhill. Saw sub-alpine growth that was hardy with big straw-like white flowers and purple bells, and dandelions! Returned to Eichhörnliweg/Squirrel Path and was back at the parcours. Passed a group of four hikers one at a time, greeting them in Swiss-German, only to hear them speaking English! All along the path were carved wooden log benches with names of sponsors inscribed on them, and each was accompanied by a new trash can.

When the path entered fairly thick woods, I was just wondering why this was called squirrel path, when a black squirrel with perky ears came right up to me. He followed me and was joined by two others. Later I saw a nun standing perfectly still on the path with her arm outstretched. Chickadees would fly to her hand to get birdseed. Saw several more squirrels, but they did not attack me.

I heard a hum and some chirps, and looked up to see the cable of the Weisshorn aerial cableway. Passed under a ski lift and found myself at Parcours #1, which had a plastic box with cards showing the course.

Walked down into Inner Arosa and I could see the church and clock tower, but after circling around, there was no good vantage point. I tried following a road below the church, with no better view.

Inner Arosa late Gothic church (1493)

Saw a wedding party leave a house in a dune buggy-like vehicle.

Continued down the road towards the lower lake and decided to wait at the railroad tracks for a train to emerge from the tunnel/overpass. I knew one had to be coming because the signal light turned from red to green!

Railroad underpass

Rhätische Bahn/Rhaetian Railway

After taking a photo, I circled around the lake to Ausser Arosa towards the train station. I continued to the Weisshornbahn and arrived with two VW bus loads of tourists from local hotels. I followed the crowd to the ticket entrance that had an automatic door that closed in my face. I must have been too slow.

Bought a half-price ticket for 10 CHF/$5 for a round trip.

The cable car could hold 61 people as we crowded in and left at 15:20. Less than 10 minutes later we were above the tree line, and had to change with the operator to the next aerial cable car. I looked straight down at the mountainside and saw several holes. Marmots! Sure enough, I saw a fat furry thing crawling across a rock.

At the top of Weisshorn were craggy rocks, and above the restaurant was a refuge hut, where I climbed to the very top for a hazy view in all directions.

View South from Weisshorn

View of Arosa from Weisshorn

Below you could see hiking trails, cow meadows, and scattered little log barns. Saw alpine lichen on the rocks and rusty red lichen.

Weisshorn craggy rocks

Lichen on rocks

It started clouding over. Having wandered around the mountaintop, I went to the station, having to push a button to open the door. When you go out it opens by itself which was a surprise because it opens like a regular door.

I had the same operator going down on the Weisshornbahn. As we started down, an older woman teased, asking what would happen if we didn’t have tickets. The operator pointed at a trapdoor on the floor! I got off at the Mittelstation/Mid-station to walk around amongst the cows who were grazing under the ski lift.

Viw from Mittlestation

Swiss cow

Caught the next cable car down with some guy playing a twangy banjo. Lots of people were hiking. At the train station I waited for the 17:15 train to Chur. It began to rain. I sat on the right side of the train to be able to look in the valley at the pale green lake with swans and logs floating on it. This is where the mountain stream seemed to begin. We crossed the high bridge across the valley and looking back you could see a rainbow. In a couple ravines, erosion had left a couple hoodoos or needles, with a little patch of grass on top. They were pale gray and not much of a sight after being in Bryce Canyon in Utah!

It was clear when we arrived in Chur at 18:15. I caught the 18:24 train to Zürich. The lights in our car didn’t work, so we went through all the tunnels in darkness. In Zürich I got the 20:04 train to Biel, arriving about 21:30.