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Journal: |
I tried to stay awake to watch the Spain vs France soccer match
but, by half-time, with Spain leading and in control, I couldn't
stay awake any more and had a relatively early night and slept well.
I was keen to put in a reasonably long day and get to a hotel with
internet and TV (England vs Italy tonight) by the end of the day, so
was prompt for breakfast at 7:30am and left the Pension shortly
before 8:30am. As I was walking through the village the church
bells were tolling for the 8:30am service (there was also a 6am
service announced the same way that woke me up) and many villagers
were heading for the church, some in what I presume was traditional
Sunday Tyrolean dress. A woman walking down to the church
struck up a conversation as we walked along and wished me a good
day's hiking. The weather was superb with clear skies and cool
temperatures and I was optimistic that it would be a good day's
hiking.
After crossing the Lech River, my route followed a
forest road climbing steadily next to the Rotlech River. It
was steep enough that a mountain-biker crawled past me, making
almost no ground on me, as I walked along. The river was
descending through a narrow and rocky gorge as the trail ascended
through the forest but, as commonly happens in the Alps, while you
think you are heading into the wilderness, all of a sudden you
emerge in a civilized higher valley. This one included the
new-looking resort village (traditional buildings with flowers
cascading from flower boxes along the multiple level verandahs),
Rinnen, which seemed to offer plenty of expensive-looking
accommodation. My route continued to climb, now paralleling a
road carrying the usual plethora of touring motorcyclists, and
emerged into a beautiful archetypal Tyrolean rural valley, with
cows, wildflowers, verdant hillsides, conifer forests and snowy
rocky crags. It was clearly a popular area and there were lots
of cyclists and walkers out as well. I descended through the
resort village of Berwang, keeping an eye out for anywhere that
might sell rolls for lunch, but it was all cafes and restaurants.
From Berwang, the trail followed a forest road popular with
mountain-bikers for a while before turning up the Stockach and then
Weittal valleys. The trail was much quieter, though I was
amused to meet a motley group of "lads" hiking down the steep
mountain track, the last one carrying in his arms a beer keg,
presumably empty. Further up the steep single track trail, I
reached a small group of mountain cabins, Bichlbachler Alte, only
reachable along the foot trail. I would guess the "lads" had
hiked up yesterday and made a night of it. There was no power
in the hamlet and just a central spring and water trough, but a
number were occupied by people enjoying their holiday shacks in this
special location. I had my lunch on a bench next to the spring
and savoured the scenery.
The trail continued to climb very
steeply after lunch and the sun made it a very sweaty affair.
I finally reached a saddle, Sommerbergjochle (2001m), soon after 2pm
and enjoyed the view in both directions. Ahead was the
impressive massif of the Zugspitze (2962m). I was making good
time, despite the 900m ascent in 4km, and having a good day.
The descent from the saddle was quite technical and slippery and I
sat down hard once. Then it reached a large snowfield and,
after tentatively working my way down for 10m, I decided "what the
heck!", and sat down on my butt and slid down the concave slope,
using my trekking poles to maintain speed as the gradient lessened.
I ended up with very wet shorts, and snow in a few places it didn't
need to be, but it was cooling and saved me some time as well as
being fun. I think I'll add it to my repertoire when safe.
The trail continued downhill for another few kilometres until I
reached a junction where I decided to detour from the Via Alpina
route to take in the town of Lermoos which, I guessed from the map
by the ski lifts there, was a resort village likely to have
accommodation and wi-fi. I reached the town, which was indeed
a resort, around 4:30pm and picked a hotel that didn't look too
expensive and which, from my iPhone, appeared to have wi-fi.
They offered dinner, bed and breakfast for 81 Euros, which isn't too
bad. Pity I won't be using the pool, sauna, tanning bed,
fitness centre, table tennis or billards, which are all available
gratis (except for the tanning bed - 5E). Pity also that the
wi-fi only works in the bar and the restaurant, but I'll make do.
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