Lofer Alm - Wed, Sept 17 (UK trip day 36)

Well, I'm exhausted and exhilarated. We hiked the wasserfall (waterfall) way up almost to the top of the mountain after hiking to Lofer and riding the lift as far up as it went. Beautiful views.

We are the crazy Americans, everyone else speaks German. We go between saying Hello, Hallo or guten tag, and just nodding. We are getting along by pointing and guessing, with their little English, the German I remember hearing when I was growing up and the German that I've learned. 

We walk in someplace and say Hallo or guten tag, and after their reply of Bitter, Jim and I stare at each other like deer in the headlight then looking lost turn back and quietly ask "English"? Once I even asked "spreckenzee English?", they seemed to like that. Menus are extremely problematic so we just guess and point except when I order Wiener schnitzel or goulash.

FROM THE BEGINNING:  We took a new path to Lofer this morning, a longer walk but very interesting. Went thru the camping area behind the castle property, which is packed with camping trailers, many with portable radar dishes!  Walked across the bridge, turned left to walk the trail along the river, then walked up someone's driveway and beyond  thru yet another cow pasture - but these two had horns and no fence between us and the cows! That is why Jim is in front of me in the picture so he wrestles the cow and I get away quick!   LOL.

Lofer is a very quiet town right now, just us and locals.  They are a big snow ski area. We came in today to take their Lofer Alm ski lift as far up the mountain as it went then hike the various trails near the summit. 

DETAILS: At the ticket booth, when  Jim bought us 2 round trip lift tickets he tried to ask if the waterfall trail was on the way down because then we would just ride the lift UP the mountain. The man had no clue what Jim was asking.  I remembered seeing "wasser" on a sign yesterday so asked "wasserfall?" to which the clerk said "nein, up".

In this off season, the main lift only operates twice an hour for 15 minutes.  So Jim rushed to a nearby shop to buy a hat to protect from the sun that was now shining brightly.  The 12 minute lift ride was incredible although we vowed to face downward on the return for the better view. 

The Alm Bahn I (main lift) ends about 2/3 up the mountain, then many hiking trails and smaller ski lifts branch off in all directions.  The smaller ski lifts only operate during ski season but there was a shuttle bus almost to the top.  As we stood deciding whether to take the bus or not, it filled up and left making the decision for us.

We ended up hiking the "Erlebnisswanderweg Nr 50 Wasserfallweg"  - waterfall trail 1.9 miles with a 1/4 mile altitude differential - details in the box on the right.  Then continued up another 100 m altitude to the Haus Schonblick for lunch.

We've come across so many older folks with walking poles, obviously used to lots of walking since they would pass us on the trails.  It was a beautiful day so everyone was out and about, young on bikes, young families with backpacks to carry kids and seniors.  Just about everyone except us took the shuttle bus to the top, hiked around the summit and took the bus back down to the lift.

Walking up was the correct decision because as steep as it turned out to be, we would have had LOTS of problems coming back down.  Going up was ok, in fact there were several places where red ropes were secured around trees as a handrail/haul-yourself-up-rail.  Yesterday's trek up to Maria Kirchental was great practice and a lead in to today's hike. 

WATERFALLS:  As promised, we encountered waterfalls!  Sometimes, just after we'd completed a steep climb the path would plunge back down taking us to the edge of yet another river or waterfall.  The forest cover was even heavier and the path closer to the water so it became quite challenging to stay dry and not walk in the slippery areas.  Of course it took us much longer than expected and I was stopping more than yesterday but my legs were happy going up to counteract yesterday's going down.  Several times we thought we'd reached the summit only to discover the trail turned and continued along, crossing and joining with other paths on it's route up the mountains.

LUNCH: We finally reached the intermediate lifts and looking up discovered we needed to walk almost straight up along the road to reach the restaurants.  We'd just about arrived at the first one when we spied what appeared to be the one on the summit - affording a 360 degree view - so we kept going.  Jim went ahead because it was nearing 3pm and he was concerned that they would close before I got there.  Almost!  We enjoyed bratwurst and sausages and beer on the deck, looking at the panorama of sky, mountains, valley below with cow bells ringing as the small herd grazed just below our deck.

It was now approaching 4:15pm and the last run of the shuttle bus to the last run of the lift back down the mountain and the pickup spot was below, at the first restaurant.  Were just leaving when we spied the bus coming all the way up to our restaurant.  Jim went running out to the parking lot, got his attention and asked where we pick up the bus.  As I came running around the corner, gasping for breath, the nice young man asked "would you like to ride back down"?  Yes, please! 

Back in Lofer, we immediately ran to the sport shop to tell our experiences to the young man who helped us the other day and to thank him for giving us all the tips.  Then to the Apothoque shop for Tums and sunscreen. They spoke VERY little English and hadn't heard of Tums.  Sunscreen was sixteen euro! That's like $21 US! Needless to say we didn't make any purchases.

DINNER:  Stopped at Billa Supermarket on the walk back to our room. I picked up frozen peas and corn, Jim purchased bratwurst and a half rotisserie chicken from the grill in the parking lot. We LOVE eating on our patio.