On Your Feet

Salbit hütte, Göschenen, Lucerne

This trek is for beginners to advanced barefooters.

The Salbit Hut was our last overnight hike for the 2013 season.  It’s perfect for those that are just gaining their footing on barefoot hikes, as well as for those more advanced barefooters that want to enjoy a good day with their feet exposed.  The trek is not too easy or too difficult, nor is it too long or too short.  In Goldilock’s words, “it’s just right.”  For barefooters new and seasoned, this trek offers all opportunities to expose your feet to an array of natural elements, from water to roots, cool dirt and rocks, grass, brush, leaves, and even big black ants (but don’t step on them- it’s bad for them,  and even worse for your feet).  I could easily do this entire trek barefoot all the way up.  

We took the most direct route - past the Regliberg restaurant & hütte.  On the first part of the trek, the trail was decorated with garden gnomes here and there; great to keep up the spirits, and to encourage children to continue on.  If you are trekking this one with small children, (or with those new to these types of up hill walks) the Regliberg hütte is a great place to take a break on your way up.  We encountered light rain for the last part of our trek - from the two-lakes up to the hütte - but this just made barefooting all the more pleasant, and the warm welcoming hütte all the more appreciated. 

Kesch Hütte, Graubünden, Bergün, Heidi Land

This trek is for intermediate to advanced barefooters

We did this hike as the first day of our three-day tour through the Bergün valley of Graubünden.

This was one of the most colorful and varied hikes we have enjoyed so far.  This valley had such amazing variations of greens and unusual flowers.  We felt as if we were walking through a Dr Seuss book at many points, complete with swarm of butterflies landing on us from time to time, and a small lake to enjoy soaking my feet in.  For the Swiss, this is their famous Heidi Land, and it’s revered for good reasons. Barefooting here was a pleasure, and any intermediate to advanced barefooter would appreciate all the ground textures this trek has to offer. 

After a taxi ride from the Bergün train station to our starting point at Tuors Chants, I took off my shoes immediately, and was able to (almost) barefoot the entire trek.  As this is a gradual climb up, it was relatively easy going in regards to pressure on the balls of the feet - another plus for this route.  There was soft grass both short and tall, smooth stones, cool dirt, water patches and mud, and a few places where the rocks were smaller and less pleasant - but these small stretches weren’t long enough to make me put my shoes back on.  

About ¾ of the way there - while running gleefully through a lush, lumpy grass area - I hit a rock (covered by grass), and bloodied my toe.  As I continued on after this unfortunate incident, I realized it would be nicer for the smashed toe if it were protected from any further bumps, and thus I put my shoes on for the final ascent up to the hut - a stretch that is covered with smaller rocky stones, which would cause an advanced barefooter to slow down.

After arriving at the hut and washing my feet, I put them up for about a  half hour, and the damaged toe went back to it’s normal size.  But because the toe remained nicely bruised, I opted to continue the rest of our hike with my shoes on - mostly.