Wednesday, 27 June 2012

Weidach

Falken Hutte

34.5

1117.2

Mostly sunny and warm

Falken Hutte

Rolls, ham, cheese and jam for breakfast; two filled rolls for lunch; Wiener schnitzel, salad and potato, and cake for dinner

Left patella tendon sore (probably from hills yesterday)

I made a relaxed start to the day, leaving the Pension around 8:30am after the 7:30am breakfast and stopping in at the bakery next to the supermarket on the way out to get a couple of fresh filled rolls for lunch.  I wasn't anticipating a particularly tough day with the route fluctuating between 1000m and 1800m, connecting a series of valleys over relatively low passes.  It was quite warm early, though, and I quickly raised a sweat as I climbed along a forestry road over my first saddle and then down to the rural valley in which the small town of Scharnitz was situated.  I had to pass by a number of fields to get to the village and hay cutting was the order of the day for the locals.  I didn't really need to buy anything in the village, but walked past a bakery and couldn't resist an apple strudel which I ate for my morning break on a bench by the river in town around 11am.

After a short sharp climb out of the village through a pine forest, my route joined a forestry road for the long trip up the valley through which the Isar River descended.  The gradient was easy and I enjoyed looking at the high mountains on either side and the occasional waterfall tumbling down.  It also passed by a couple of grazing pastures with the obligatory cows and tinkling bells.  The road was leading to Karwendelhaus, the alpine hut I was aiming for tonight.  It also seemed to be the target for a lot of mountain-bikers and, from the signage, it became apparent that the next series of valleys was a popular mountain bike route.  The bikers came in all shapes and sizes, some obviously serious and others on their one trip a year, I suspect.  I saw one novice misjudge a corner on his descent and lose control before saving himself.  The fact that most would have ridden up to Karwendelhaus first and enjoyed a few beers before the ride down could also have been a factor.

I reached Karwendelhaus just before 4pm and then couldn't decide whether to go on to the next hut, Falken Hutte, about 12km further on, or stay put and check in as planned.  It seemed a waste not to keep walking on such a nice day and, if I stopped early, I was probably just going to end up reading my book in the sun.  I decided to keep going, but stretched out a bit to make sure I wasn't too late.  The warm afternoon sun was on my back and illuminating the valley and mountains ahead of me.  Nice.  The route involved a steady single track descent down one valley and then a steeper climb up another.  I passed a few groups, some with teenagers, heading the other way and clearly ready for the day to end.

I made good time and arrived at Falken Hutte right on 6pm and quickly settled in. There were probably about fifty people staying in the Hutte and the dining room was buzzing.  I shared a table with a German woman on the first day of her first hike (four days) and she spoke enough English for us to have a conversation.  Somewhere in the dining room a guitar was being played and on the next table a family was playing a noisy game of Uno, while other groups were poring over maps and planning their next day's hiking.