Start: Geraerhütte (2324m)
Finish: Hotel Weisse Lilie in Mühlbach
One of the challenges of hiking in the height of the season is hut availability. I have the entire trail pre-booked. That was my choice - not carrying a tent, I was not ready to risk not having a bed avaiable at the end of each d
ay.
Taking an unplanned rest day throws the whole plan off. I could try and move all of my reservations by a day, or I can improvise, and try to catch up.
Today is catchup day.
Originally I was set to go to Pfunders, and not being able to find a place there (the hotel didn’t respond to my emails nor did they pick up the phone when I tried to call), I made a reservation in the nearest sensibly-priced hotel I could find in the valley: Hotel Weisse Lilie in Mühlbach. The plan was to reach Pfunders by foot, as it's on the main trail, and then catch a bus to Vintl, down in the valley (something the Ciceron guide is very proud to say is recommended by the German guide, a recommendation he himself cannot endorse. What an ass. I hate guidebooks that make you feel bad). From Vintl, I was to take a short train ride to get to the hotel, and then return to the trail the next day.
But of course, now i'm a day short, and with the sections from Geraerhütte to Pfunders being long and challenging, there is no way I can double down and complete two sections in one day. I'll need to get to my hotel by other means.
Yesterday I checked the bus timetable and saw there's bus that leaves at midday from Innervals, down the valley. This should give me plenty of time, particularly with breakfast in the hut served until late. I wake up early, enjoy my lay-down until the hut starts waking up around me. I lazily walk down the stairs to the bathrooms where my sleep addled brain hears a snippet of a conversation and I realize: today is Sunday. I rush to the bus timetable and find that today’s bus leaves at 09:47. It’s now 06:40. And the descent takes 3 hours.
I make it in 2:10. Turns out I can run down the mountain when I need to.
Even with 2 buses, 2 train rides (Innervals->Steinach->Brenner->Brixen->Mühlbach) and a 45 minutes wait in Brixen I make it to the hotel by lunch time. Somewhere along the way I’ve crossed into Italy, but you wouldn’t really know it, as this is south Tirol, so still heavily German. The town is on a popular bike trail and I stand out among the bikes and motorbiking groups sitting in the small church square. They don't seem to get many thru hikers here. I sit in the town square, just outside of the hotel, refelcting on the first week of my hike with mixed feelings.
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