Ah, a shortish pleasant day. Only 600m or so climbing on a mild day.
We had a bit of a discussion, ahem, on how to find the walkway along the railroad tracks. We found it (duh, it's hard to miss a train track) and followed it southwest from Sargans, eventually through Mels, and then up and up into the hanging valley of Weisstannen.
The uphill was a bit tedious, but not too terrible, along some old Napoleonic era horse track, long abandoned, and with great views down over Sargans. Bonus: the uphill sections were generally in the shade! And generally bug free!
Once we'd climbed up 500m, we entered the valley proper, and walked along sunny grassy hillsides. In the little hamlet of Schwendi, we stopped for a little snack of apple cider and sausage at a trailside feast aura that, then kept walking another 30 minutes up valley to our lodging at Hotel Gemse. I felt I needed a beer (well 3, ahem, over three hours), and needed to do some blogging and writing. So here I am doing that blogging and writing.
Tomorrow: the first high pass. Weather looks good. Excited to get in the high country!