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Journal: |
The Hutte seemed slower to get going than previous similar
accommodation, and I was one of the first down to breakfast and to
leave, just before 8am. My German table-mate at dinner last
night had told me that a run of warm days had been forecast, and
that seemed likely for today with clear blue skies and a warm sun
already.
I was aiming for the town of Schwaz, just downstream
of Innsbuck, in the hope that I could get a hotel for a shower,
wi-fi, and European Champs semi-final (Germany vs Italy). To
do that, I needed to have done the extra kilometres I did yesterday,
and to have a good day today, so I wasn't short of motivation.
As it turned out, I did it fairly easily time-wise, but the warmth
of the day made it quite hard work. The first half of the day
involved two sections of spectacular single track across the face of
a steep mountain with extensive views up valleys to the north.
There were only a few patches of snow to cross, but I got a fright
at one. There was a small glacier that was breaking up and
melting and I picked a route through that wouldn't involve climbing
on any ice but, as I crunched through scree between two huge blocks
of ice, the one on the downside suddenly decided to move downstream
about a metre. I was glad it wasn't the one on the upside.
In between the two single-track sections, the trail descended to
a rural valley which also had some holiday accommodation and there
were a lot of people setting out for a day's walking or riding,
probably up to one of the huts for lunch. I'm sure it was
going to be a struggle for some of them, particularly as it warmed
up, but I admired them for getting out and doing it. Later in
the day, there were a lot of guys travelling topless and women in
bra-tops. The hills were really long and steep for
mountain-bikers and I saw a couple of them pushing their bikes.
Around noon I reached at Lamsenjoch Hutte (1957m), the highest
point of the day. There were already about 20 people lounging
on the sun-deck of the old wooden hut enjoying a drink. I
stopped to refill my water bottle. I never carry more than
about 1.5 litres (of water or Coke!) and have water purification
tablets with me if I'm desperate for a refill and there's no clean
water. However, it was too early for my lunch and I started
the long descent that would end in Schwaz, 13km away and 1500m
lower. The first part was quite exposed to the sun and on a
hard rocky 4WD trail that hurt my feet, so I was happy to reach the
forest at a lower elevation and found a convenient picnic table in
the shade where I enjoyed a quiet lunch.
The rest of the
journey to Schwaz continued steadily downhill, mainly through
forest, getting warmer all of the time. The trail marking has
deteriorated, and there were many forest trail intersections where
it wasn't always clear where I should go. I had to backtrack
twice, but never more than 400m. As I neared the Inn River
valley, the trail spent more time in the sun and by the time I
reached the valley floor to cross to Schwaz, I'm sure it was over
30C. Shortly after reaching the town, at around 3:20pm, I
spotted a sort of business hotel down a side-street, and went down
to have a look. It was closed up but had a facility for
self-checking-in which I managed OK. By the time I had had a
shower and washed out my gear, I was feeling quite wiped out.
I guess it's been two solid days in warming weather. I went
for a slow wander around the well-preserved old town, dominated by a
castle and stopped in at the supermarket in their new town mall to
buy some drink and muesli bars and treated myself to a tub of
ice-cream. For dinner, I wandered down to the town again and
found a pizza.
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