A Hiking We Will Go!

The following morning, the weather was nice and we decided we wanted to hike while we were there (how could we not hike in the Alps?) and so that was our chosen activity for the day. Mike's blog really covers the day in great detail and so I will post a link to his blog here for people to read. Here I will add my commentary on "our hike" which was pretty close to the Pennock's, but as he points out, they move much faster than Rob and I. Some "excuses" for this lag include Rob and I are not in the shape that Mike and Amanda are and in conjunction my heart acts up if the physical activity is intense. With those disclaimers, this is my tale.

We spent a good amount of time trying to figure out what hike we should go and on what map would actually have the information we needed (length, difficulty, etc). It would have been easier if we could read fluent German, but alas, it is a skill that we didn't have. We headed out with backpacks loaded for a jaunt around the valley. Like the Pennock's mentioned, we thought we would not be able to hike into the mountains there so we planned for what we thought we could do. Even given our ultimate route, we faired a little better on planning than the Pennock's, but kicked ourselves for forgetting things like sunscreen which we packed in our big suitacses, but didn't make it to the hiking bag. We had a camel back with water, another full water bottle, a granola bar, and 7 crackers.

After spending some time wondering if we could really hike through a farmers gated cow posse 5 minutes into our adventure, we were off! Shortly after that we found this sign which we were trying to decipher when the nice German came up and explained in good English what to expect.

From Leutasch Valley, Austria - Hiking

Mike wanted to know, in not so many words, if we would die trying to hike this and so he asked the nice German man if it was difficult to do. "Difficult dangerous or difficult hard?" "Difficult dangerous." "Oh, not really, only a few small narrow spots, but kids hike here without a problem." I think we collectively all shared the same thought, if kids can do it, we are so going to do this and kick this mountain's ass. This is what the "difficult" trail looked like to start:

From Leutasch Valley, Austria - Hiking

Feeling positive, we set out. For about the first hour, it was like hiking stairs on loose gravel. I had to stop every so often and let my heart wind back down, but we slowly made our way up and enjoyed some of the views through clearing in the trees.

From Leutasch Valley, Austria - Hiking

We finally made it to the clearing where the Pennock's were enjoying the views and resting. Right up until that moment, I was questioning my sanity, but the moment you pop out up there, it is 150% worth it. I know that pictures will never do it justice, but it was just breath taking.

Gorillapod was handy to have so we could get a nice group shot. :)

From Leutasch Valley, Austria - Hiking

Our view from the bench:

From Leutasch Valley, Austria - Hiking

The trail onward:

From Leutasch Valley, Austria - Hiking

We continued to poke along lagging the Pennock's by a decent distance, but still within radio range. As we moved along, we started to theororize about what the hut in the far off distance contained. The hut is in the middle of this photo to the left of the dip in the mountain.

From Leutasch Valley, Austria - Hiking

We were starting to feel the toll that the hike was taking on us. Even though we still had enough energy to get back down the mountain, it was getting questionable how much more up we could go and still go back down ok. We radioed up to Mike and made a deal, we would poke along and they would venture on to see what the hut contained. If it really was a hut with food, Rob and I would continue upward, get lunch, rest, and head back down. If it was empty, we would just call it a day and go back. Mike accomplished his task and gave us the disappointing news that it was just a cow hut. Then he went on to say that he was being attacked by a cow. That crazy Mike.

So we started to head back down and just enjoy the views.

From Leutasch Valley, Austria - Hiking

From Leutasch Valley, Austria - Hiking

Gorillapod really came in handy! I am glad I brought it with me.

From Leutasch Valley, Austria - Hiking

It wasn't too long before the Pennock's caught back up to us and passed us.

From Leutasch Valley, Austria - Hiking

Mike also wasn't kidding about the heart stopping moments on the hike back down after leaving that meadow. It was treacherous!

From Leutasch Valley, Austria - Hiking

It was the best hike I have ever done and I am sorry we didn't have more time to recover and hike some more. Of course if we were in better shape, that would have been nice too. :) The weather turned to rain the next few days, so we were lucky to do our hike when we did. Truly an amazing experience.