Mountains Apart: An Alpine Adventure

In a rare buddymollys moment, Jeremy and I spent the weekend apart. While he stayed in Weiden to sharpen his domestic skills (he baked muffins) and take his first ever guitar lesson, I hopped in a van offering free candy and headed for a weekend hike in the Alps.

Six of us embarked on this grand adventure with our guide Todd “Tad” Trivisonno at the helm. You may remember Tad from such blogs as this one, that one, the WAQ one, the funny Christmas one, the scary swan one, the New Year's one, the one where he tried to kill me and one that rhymed. Oh and this one. This one too. 

We began at 5 a.m. and drove 5 hours to the Berchtesgaden National Park to hike in the Bavarian Alps, skirting the Austrian border.

The weather was sunny and beautiful, which is very suspicious for Germany this time of year - but no complaints.

We took a gondola ride up to the mittelstation, bypassing the first 3 kilometers of the trail and started our hike at 600 meters above sea level – in this case, the Königssee (which literally translates to King's Lake).

After a few miles uphill, our route changed from a wide, well-groomed trail to a single track rocky path, but not before passing numerous cows.

This one violated me. I can honestly say it was the first time I’ve ever been licked by a cow. 

Mountains created the backdrop as we sauntered across rolling green hills much like the Von Trapp family.

Our group was moving and grooving at a good pace, so not too many stops were taken, although the last hour and steep incline of the gravel path was a bit taxing.

We hoofed the total 9 kilometers in 4.5 hours and ended at the Gotzenalm hut, located 1,685 meters up (that’s about 5528.21522 feet, approximately), conquering about a 1,000-meter elevation change the first day.

 

We bunked closely, as you can see, with numerous other hikers and rewarded ourselves with a hearty dinner and dark beer. 

 

 I was asleep by 8:30 p.m. 

 

We awoke to the sound of mooing cows and the ringing bells draped around their necks (note: cows wake up about 6 a.m.) and began our descent down the mountain.

 

The 6-km trip down took about 2 hours, where we stripped down to our underwear and jump in the cold yet refreshing lake.

 

Somehow the drive home only took about 3 hours, although Todd swears he was going the speed limit, or lack thereof, the whole time – bless you, autobahn. Perhaps it was because we were in a tightly compacted van with 6 very stinky hikers – the desire to get home was great.

 

Overall, it was a fantastic experience and another adventure has been placed neatly under my belt. 

 

The hike was sponsored in part by reconstituted Snickers bars.