Up to the pass

So
Back packs have water, off we go
Step, sweat, breathe...liam says
"And this is fun, dad?"
We talk and walk
A couple of hikers pass us
We take breaks
Its totally incredible
We pass over snow fields
We step over tiny Brooks
The wildflowers are amazing colors
And we keep walking.....
Finally 2 1/2 hrs later the Bhutan death march is over we summit the pass!
And the Swiss hikers have been 10 minutes behind us the whole way, with bigger backpacks and carrying their bikes!
The view is mind blowing
One of the bikers lights up a cigarette!
We eat snacks
The bikers say good bye, jump on their bikes, and start down the other side. its
More gradual in places and longer..
We pack up turn around and we're back at the farmhouse in 1 hour.
We have an ice tea pay our bill, buy a fresh cheese round 2.4 kilos for 22 Swiss Frank's.
Then we get a tour
They have 18 cows
The get 120 liters of milk a day
They use the cream to make butter, hand turned every day
They boil most of the milk in a huge copper vat in their tiny kitchen.
The cheese takes 4 weeks to process in their cold cellar.
Their electricity is solar, backed up by a small portable generator.
They have a couple of pigs for garbage disposal, a couple of goats to clear shrubs the cows won't eat.
The government pays most farmers to cut invasive bushes off the hillside.
This way the Swiss hills look green with grass.
We say goodbye and thanks.
Liam gives gramps, who is back from setting fence posts, a couple cigarillos and gramps is ecstatic! And immediately lights one up and rattles off a paragraph of German thanking him!
Down to the tram we walk, no sweat!
It's in the high 80's the van is a hot box.
We drive to burger king to use wee fee ( wi fi) to email the friend of a friend were suppose to hike with tomorrow in laterbrunnen. We need to coordinate a mtg place for tomorrow ,he is taking a train and bus 1.5 hrs away to meet us, and we don't know where we will be camping and we're 2 hrs away .
We start the drive
Oh BTW we pass through about 10 tunnels from 100 meters long to 5 kilometers. This is a daily thing for us in switzerland, bridges and tunnels. The Swiss will put a road or train track anywhere.
We hit another downpour!
This is bad, windey uphill tiny mtn road packed with traffic and the wipers don't do anything. We go real slow, we stop, we go again, for 45 minutes.
It finally let's up.
We stop at a grocery store, stock up
And head toward lauterbrunnen.
The rivah next to the road is chocolate from runoff, and I don't even think marq box would run it! It's screaming!
We roll into the valley and it reminds me of Yosemite valley.
We wiggle thru the main st
Find a campground , it's a large place and organized, and park the van.
There's waterfalls on both sides of the valley falling from the top, probably 100 + meter drop.
Showah, cook dinnah, relax, plan how to get to our morning meeting chris to hike.