I had three different options pre-planned in Komoot for our hike from Rottach-Egern to the Spitzingsee. We settled on one, and were headed out of town when a gentleman spotted us and said, "Stoppp! Are you hiking? Why are you on this ugly busy street instead of the scenic route thattaway that we locals recommend?" So of course, we took the scenic route instead. And while walking on the scenic route, we spied a sign pointing to Bodenschneid, our peak of the day, thisaway, so we decided to be spontaneous, ditched the planned route, and followed the signs instead.
This fortuitous change meant that we not only passed the Bodenschneidhaus below the peak, but we passed it at just the right time mid-morning to fortify ourselves with tasty Kaiserschmarrn and Schorle while enjoying live music. The musicians were supposed to be at the hut on Sunday, but played on Saturday instead because the forecast for Sunday was for rain all day. Oh dear.
It took a few attempts, but the carefully framed photo below captures many essential aspects of the ideal Bavarian hiking experience: mountains, of course, plus livestock grazing nearby, plus good company, plus Kaiserschmarrn, plus trusty hiking gear, plus live songs auf Bayrisch (that I could understand, no less!), plus beer in cup holders attached to the music stands.
After refueling, we continued up...
...and up...
...and up some more. That's the Tegernsee behind us to the northwest...
...and the Bodenschneidhaus down in the meadow to the north.
A more explicit than usual metal Gipfelkreuz marked the peak...
...while storms brewed above the next mountain to the south.
Since lingering next to a metal lightning rod on the highest hill around listening to thunder seemed like a bad idea, we skedaddled down...
...and down...
...and down some more. We ran into some other hikers who were heading up, who alerted us to a trail closed for forestry work, but they noted that the trail was passable because work was halted for the weekend. So we continued down...
...and down. My camera, as always, failed to capture the steepness of the descent.
 |
| Looking down... |
At the bottom of the hill was a sign noting the trail closure. There was no sign at the top of the hill. This seems to be the norm of trail-closure signage in Europe. Perhaps if I hiked in the other direction, the signage would have been unhelpfully at the top of the hill instead of the bottom. (This happens to me regularly in Durham too. Maybe signage-too-late-to-be-helpful is my superpower.)
We emerged from the woods to this view...
...then continued down, now on a gravel road rather than wooded trail. Once the road leveled out, the hike past the Spitzingsee to the Albert Link Huette was relatively straightforward.
The hut host's first question for us, upon noting we were from the U.S., was "you have a big election coming up, don't you; are you going to vote? And are you going to vote for the right person?" He had studied abroad in Alabama for a year. We assured him YES and YES.
After a short break in our room, we went outside to the garden for dinner. Our server had lived for a few years in Chicago, a city she loved, and she too noted the world was holding its breath for the upcoming election.
After dinner, we took a backpackless stroll as the skies prepped for Sunday's rain:
Back at the hut, we enjoyed the decor, both manmade...
...and Earth-made. The mountains in the distance are in Austria, where a pot of gold waited to be found.
