2024 Sept 10 Tuesday

Ehrwald to Fernstein

Today began with rain. It was billed as a day to see five lakes, and we expected it to be a tough day—it was every bit of that. Rain stayed with us until early afternoon so trails were wet and slippery. We had some rest periods, but the long day threatened to get us in past sundown. We were very happy to finally get to the hotel.

9:13 am to 7:20 pm. 11.68 miles, 27,249 steps. Elevation +3680 (this may have included some from the day before but was still a lot).

Click here for Richard’s Relive video: https://www.relive.cc/view/vr63gWB5wd6

The forest was wet muck at the beginning of the hike so our boots were wet immediately. Happily, our route soon became a road.
After a couple of hours of up and down, we came upon a summer entertainment area with a downhill sled track, ski lift, and ropes course (Richard’s term—my term is torture chamber.) in order to keep folks fed, we found Otto’s where we had a very delicious lunch.
The proprietors at Otto’s.
We kept hoping for clearing weather but clouds were still heavy and we still had rain. Slogging on.
One of the first lakes we came to was Weissensee. The green color was striking.
This is Mittelsee, a bit further along. The rain is finally slacking off.
This was the biggest lake, Blindsee. The path required us to travel close to the lakeshore, sometimes climbing up or holding chains as the trail was quite narrow. Not my favorite.
The trail, like many we’ve come across, has some vicious roots to watch out for.
Another view from the other end of the Blindsee.
Here is some of the trail traversing the lake.
Wet steep steps and chains to hold on.
Finally we are around the lake and ready for more climbing. There is a restaurant we can see about two-thirds of the way up our climb—anxious for a break!
Bed news: the restaurant is closed on Tuesday. Luckily, the bathroom is not locked and the gift shop sells drinks—just what we need.
We’ve climbed through most of the forest, and the mountains seem closer than ever.

The turn-by-turn instructions are very clear where we should leave the road to follow the creek. However the way is roped off. We search for an alternative but find none, so we decided to go under the rope. The pathway has suffered some erosion but is doable. We are descending quickly, but the river is descending even more quickly. The sound is deafening!

Finally we have reached the last lake on which our hotel has a park-like setting. We’re just wandering—will we get to our room before dark?
The hotel is decorate for a stylish past. This picture celebrates a visit by Ludwig II during his lifetime.
Wednesday morning was clear enough to view the hotel environment. The ancient castle (schloss) is above the hotel that is right next to a major thoroughfare.

4 Responses

  1. Beautiful but very rugged looking hike. Interesting but also scary to find the trail roped off with no alternative. Someone should be in charge of updating the trail information if they are encouraging tourists to take part in these treks. Glad it worked out!
    Dan

    1. This was a rugged hike. Most of it was a regular trail with markers. The last few miles were turn-by-turn instructions from Macs Adventures (our contracted tour group) to get us to our nightly hotel. Most people drive there, but we came in from the back side. Knowing all that, we could make some judgements and would have had a plan B if necessary. The trail had suffered with severe erosion but we take it slowly and were fine. The biggest laugh was instructions to “turn left at the pine tree” when we were in a forest of pine trees! However, we figured it out!

    1. You know your brother loves every one of these hikes. I have had a few that I’ve said “one time only.” These Europeans are so used to walking and handling the “gotchas” but we are not. We go very slowly and Richard is patient and helpful for me.