Sterzing to Feltre Day 2: Niederflans to Schabs

Saturday June 15: Niederflans to Schabs

I'm starting with the "ta da," because this was a long, wet day. 18.75 miles, 4,250 ft elevation gain, 5,840 ft descent. That's, like, 1.1 miles of descending, which our knees say is a lot. The 4,250 ft of ascending was a lot too, but easier on the knees. The first 14 miles were from Niederflans to Schabs.

Turns out there's nowhere to dine out in Schabs, so we walked another 4.75 round trip to Mühlbach for dinner. Our Pension host was vociferously opposed to us walking anywhere for dinner--he wanted to drive us, and was disturbed that we insisted on walking--because the freeway that runs through this tiny town is very pedestrian unfriendly, but we were able to walk on bike paths most of the way to Mühlbach. (The bike paths aren't super pedestrian friendly either: we saw two different drivers pull into bike lanes because who knows why...)

Our day began by heading downhill out of Niederflans. Down...

...down...

...down.

Our next goal was to head up to Valler Jöchl (Valler Pass-let).

After turning left at the chickens, ducks, peacocks, and guinea hens, we began heading up. 

S found some wild strawberries.

Our route up briefly joined a Parcours trail for bow-and-arrow target shooting--thus the polyeurythane wolves with bullseye targets carved into their sides.

Go Pack! 🐺 

Wildflowers were abundant.

We could see Niederflans behind and below us after we passed through the village Ritzail.

Niederflans is in the middleground saddle

Above Ritzail was a small chapel with a bench in front, where we paused for a snack. The chapel interior was lovely; I'm a sucker for stars painted on ceilings.

Real marble is expensive, so it's common to see it faked with paint.

Then clouds rolled up the hill and stayed with us for the rest of the day.

We hiked up and up and up some more, eventually reaching Valler Jöchl. Jöchl is a diminutive version of Joch, meaning "pass."

The view from the pass-let:

We continued upward. Here's a view of the gondola station and restaurant en route to the peak we were heading to, Stoanamandl.

This is the season of Blasmusik (wind band music). Indeed, every season is the season of Blasmusik. Yet it still came as a surprise to hear strains wafting across the saddle in the fog. We're guessing the tubists, at least, came up by gondola rather than on foot.

At last, Stoanamandl, with it's panoramic view.

And in the distance: Dolomites!

We didn't exactly soak in the views, but we did get soaked. Having reached our highest elevation of the day, we started our long descent toward Schabs.

Perfect spot for lunch in the drizzle

Eventually we descended into Spinga, where lo, through the fog, we saw a church tower.

There, that's better...

After a few more miles and steep descent, at last we arrived at our hotel in Schabs.

Long time, no see, 1970s decor...

After being horizontal for a while, we headed to Mühlbach for a much needed pizza.

After walking back to Schabs in the rain, we were serenaded to sleep by the strains of more Blasmusik from a field near the hotel, because neither rain nor sleet nor dark of night will sway woodwind or brass musicians from their appointed rounds of ensemble playing. But more about that in the next post...