Sterzing to Feltre Day 4: St. Georg to Rifugio Resciesa

Monday June 17, St. Georg to Rifugio Resciesa

Our most varied day so far.

It's grass mowing time on the hills of Südtirol. Zoom in to see the angle of the mowing machine:

It's also prime season for stinging nettle, Europe's genteel menace.

We descended from St. Georg to a creek, crossed the creek, then headed up the next hill. Our first 1,000 ft ascent today was ~28% grade.

Bark beetles--now thriving in places they've previously never thrived in before, thanks to warming temperatures--have been killing swaths of spruce trees. To control beetle spread, the infested trees are usually clear cut and removed. We passed through a few stands that had been cut but not completely cleared from the hillside. 

Oozy shroom

Here's a view looking back across the valley at St. Georg.

The trees were occasionally problematic. We had to crawl under these logs to continue on the trail. I crawled through first; then S passed me the backpacks and hiking poles over the logs; and then he crawled through. It was a tight fit.

Still steep. But what's that red and white tape up ahead?

Ah! "Don't use this trail without permission." Well dang.

Glad that section of trail was done, we met up with a road and descended into the next valley. The mountain to the right in the photo below is Resciesa, our destination for the day.

We passed through the pretty village St. Magdalena and ran into an enthusiastic group of tourists from Taiwan exploring the panorama trail. We encountered them again atop Resciesa: we hiked, while they got there by funicular.

From St. Magdalena, we hiked up, up, up toward the Brogles Hütte, following a creek with waterfalls almost the entire way. The promise of food at the hut was great motivation.

In theory, 2 hrs away, but we took breaks

Round about here, we thought we were getting close--but we were only halfway up. After this meadow, the trail became quite steep, maxing out at about 33% grade.

At last--the Brogles hut! But it was shuttered, so no cake for us.

Half a mile past the hut, the trail leveled out, and we enjoyed stunning views of the Geisler group. Also views of stunning horses.

The mountain to the right is Seceda. If you use Windows 10 or 11, you've probably seen a photo of Seceda on your welcome screen, although from a different angle than shown here. We're planning a side trip up to Seceda tomorrow via gondola lift, weather permitting.

Langkofel and Platkofel to the right, Sella massif to the left:

Carly came out of the backpack for the view

Four miles later, we finally arrived at Rifugio Resciesa. Most huts require that you leave your boots and hiking poles in a room specific to that purpose, but you can borrow "house shoes" during your stay.

Our room with a view

After dinner, we took a short backpackless walk.

Der Wanderer unter dem Nebelmeer 

Rifugio Resciesa

Ta da! 13.5 miles, 4,850 ft elevation gain, bulk of which is shown below. We're wiped out.

Sterzing to Feltre Day 3: Schabs to St. Georg

Sunday June 16, Schabs to St. Georg via Brixen

The sound of Blasenmusik from afar this morning enticed us off route to the field south of our hotel. Apparently every 5 years, Schabs hosts a re-enactment of the second battle of Bergisel (1809), in which Tyrolean rebels eventually forced Napoleonic and Bavarian contingents to retreat. We missed the sacking of Schabs on Friday, but heard a lot of gunfire and Blasenmusik on Saturday. On Sunday morning, much of the encampment laid down their replica weapons to attend a church service in the field...

Tsk, Bayern

Creative anachronism

After gawking for a bit, we caught up with our planned route. We passed abundant apple orchards...

...and vineyards.

Look! Blue skies!

S was much enamoured of the house shown in the center of the photo below. It was built into the ground, with skylights and stacked stone walls. From the patio, the occupants presumably had an excellent view, but from the road below, the house looked like all of the other stone walls supporting the hillside.

We descended through the vineyards toward Kloster Neustift, an Augustinian monastery established in 1142. 

Fascinating acrylic and LED art on the lawn

The organ looked surprisingly small for such a big space, but the interwebs explained that the pipes are "distributed over two cases placed on the side walls of the gallery, so that the two main facades (with curved floor plans) face each other and only the small facades on the narrow sides are visible from the main nave."

From Neustift, we followed the roiling Eisack river into Brixen. We zipped through the Altstadt, did a quick walk through St. Michael's...

...and the Dom...

...then tanked up for our steep hike up the hill in the afternoon.

Look! It's a Spar! And it's OPEN on a Sunday! What is this world coming to??? We went inside and bought a deck of playing cards, because our backpacks weren't already too heavy.

We lugged those cards up past multiple waterfalls...

...past a huge stack of logs of misc. diameters, located on the site of a former Bronze Age settlement where, perhaps, the bronze-ageians also stacked wood.

Passing through Klerant, we enjoyed spectacular views of Brixen... 

...as well as a stop in the early 15th-c. church of St. Nikolaus. It should be pretty clear by now that I like to look inside old churches when I'm hiking. They're cool and quiet, and like free mini-museums, with interesting (if largely mono-thematic) historical art and architecture.

St. Nikolaus didn't disappoint.

S noted the devil outside of the apse:

Is this an elephant?

A sea serpent:

Notice the soul of the convict to the left of Jesus leaving the mangled body and being welcomed by an angel:

The stones on the exterior are fake--they're painted onto stucco.

It makes me tired just thinking about this, but there's a marathon from Brixen up to the top of the Plose (Brixen's "Hausberg"--the local high peak). Elevation gain is 2,450 meters, and the record is 3 hours 22 minutes. Oof. There's also an 84 km ultramarathon route, the benefit of which, I guess, is that it's only half as steep.

Our route was steep too. The Reisebüro, as S likes to call me, chose a straight shot up the hill, for some reason I can't remember. It was strenuous, but fun, since the terrain was mostly pine needles and moss and a pebbly trickling stream. Perfect for Hobbits not wanting to be heard, assuming Hobbits don't pant audibly.

Baby pine trees

This photo makes it look flat, but it was a ~25% grade.

After about half a mile at a speedy snail's pace, we bailed when the trail fortuitously intersected with a much less steep road. We took the road more traveled, and were rewarded when we turned a corner and caught our first view of the Dolomites.

The road took us through St. Jakob and past this wooden motorcycle.

We dutifully returned to the trail near the church of St. Jakob.

After another mile of trudging, we finally tilted downward and into St. Georg, our destination for the night.

Room with a view

For dinner, we both had the most beautifully plated fried eggs and pan fried potatoes we're ever likely to encounter.

Ta da! 14 miles, 3,630 ft elevation gain. We're feeling it.