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Today, the four of us who had crossed the ridge the day before started off together again. Jenny wanted to stay with the other two hikers all the way to Innsbruck. She tried to get me to tag along as well rather than my intended destination of Hall (several kilometers apart on the same valley floor) but I had to say no - their hike would take them up a further 500m of elevation, then down almost 2000m; whereas my planned hike would "only" take me up around 300m, then down 1600m. And 1600m was already quite monumental as far as I was concerned, and more so, as far as my knees were concerned. So I ended up still hiking with them for the way up and a bit of the way down, until the trails forked; and then they continued along the mountainside (and would ascend again a bit later, and only descend afterwards) while I descended straight away.
A mixture between sleet and snow had been falling for a while, but none of it stuck to the ground. After I got below the treeline, sleet and snow changed to rain, and the trail changed away from the rocky paths I had grown to loathe that morning already, and turned into a muddy contraption I'd grow to loathe even more. Progress was slow at times, because it was very slippery - treacherously so in fact.
Still, I made it down one step after another, and finally arrived back on a paved street. The rain had stopped, too. I still had half of the day's 14km ahead of me; and the elevation loss was still quite dramatic. At that point, the muscle in my left leg, or rather, closer to the back of the knee (hard to describe) started to act up; and my walking started to become somewhat more erratic. I sensed that it was probably just a muscle that had cramped up because it wasn't used to all the ascending and descending I'd done the previous days, but there wasn't much I could do right there but push on. When I arrived at the hotel (which was still at least 1km away from the end of the official 14km trail as described in my guide book), I almost couldn't walk anymore. I retired to my room and only left for a quick shopping trip to the Turkish-owned shop next door (with no brands that I recognized - and all I really wanted was a Snickers bar, but I had no such luck).
[Fortunately, the next day my leg would be better again. I'd walk to the train station, take the train to Innsbruck (a few minutes), then another train to Munich (two hours) then another train to Lenggries (an hour) then the bus to Jachenau (thirty minutes). I'd retrieve the car, fuel up, eat a burger meal at McD, and then spend the next six hours driving home. My hiking in the Alps would be over for the season.]
Written Tuesday December 25th 2007 in my apartment in Bivange, Luxembourg; based on notes written down on Thursday, 17-Aug-2006
Accommodation: Random hotel in Hall in Tirol
- Kilometres hiked: 15km (9.3mi)
- Ascent: 350m (1148ft)
- Descent: 1550m (5085ft)