August 27 Tuesday – Sam wrote in his notebook that the hotel was a pleasant contrast to the villages and roads. But it was close to a village church which messed with their sleep:

St. Nicklaus Aug. 27—Awakened at 4:30 by the clang & jangle of a church bell wh rang 15 min. Went to sleep no more. At 7 it rang again 15.

It is an ugly little whitewashed church with a queer tin dome like a turnip growing with its root in the air.

Damn all ch bells! At 7.25 they rang again!

Still that ringing goes on. I wish to God that church wd would burn down.

At 8 the bell rang again. Let us hope there is a hell.

Left St. Nicholas at 9.15, 27th.

Sam and Joe tramped twelve miles up the gorge to Zermatt. It was a nine hour hike with changing views of the Matterhorn and inspiring scenery pulling them on [Rodney 108]. From Sam’s notebook:

“About half way to Zermat we saw on top of a near mountain a perpendicular wall of ice (pale green) & were forced to reflect that if Strasburg Cathedral, stood at its base, a man on top of the wall could reach out & hang his hat on top of the spire—& he could look down on St Pauls or St Peters or Capitol of W[ashington]” [MTNJ 2: 150].

They “reached Zermatt at 3 PM and did not feel like trying the 3 hours to Riffle” that night [MTNJ 2: 161]. They checked into a comfortable hotel at the base of the Matterhorn, uplifted by making their goal.