Saturday, June 24, 2023
Lechweg Day 5 – Elbigenalp – Stanzach
Step Count: 41,550 Anika, 40,271 Nathan
The high of receiving our international Fedex with brand, spanking new ATM cards was rather short lived, unfortunately. Last night at dinner Nathan received a phone call, didn’t recognize the number and let it go to voicemail. Once we got back to our room, he checked for messages and it was the City of Longmont calling. The sewer service pipe leading from our house to the city’s main is 100% blocked. The gal calling was surprised we hadn’t had a back up yet. I’m sorry, WHAT!? You gotta be kidding me. Lovely.
Apparently, the city was doing maintenance and scoping their main, and looked up our pipe (!) and found it to be blocked. They even sent a picture (we’ll spare you the evidence). So our options are this – figure out how to get a quote and, with a neighbor’s help, have a rooter service come and clean it out, or come home from Austria, move into a hotel, and then get quotes and have the pipe ridded of the excrement blockage. Hmmm, is there an option where we stay in Austria and sell the house ‘as is’? I vote for that.
I repeatedly asked Nathan how worried I should be. Were we coming home to a house full of poo water? Or, since nothing’s on and no one is home, can the little amount of faucet drips and condensate make it past Donald the turd-dirt-hair-ball, and while an inconvenience of epic proportions, the poo stays inside the toilette? I got no good answers. No confidence-inspiring answers at least.
Restless sleep was had. Donkeys tinked their bells all night and brayed at some ungodly hour this morning.
Reception had told us to have our bags downstairs for the luggage transfer by 8, and the breakfast buffet also starts at 8, so we showered and got ready, packed up, had our bags downstairs by 7:30 and hovered until they opened the breakfast room doors by 7:40. We have a solid 14-mile day ahead of us with a lot of elevation gain, and I want to get a jump on it.
We set off from the hotel and it was misting ever so slightly. Not really enough to get anything wet, but just enough to mess up our eyeglasses.
The hike today started along the river, through a flat and damp forest, and wouldn’t you know it, we ran into Liz again. We chatted a bit and then continued on, hopscotching with her throughout the morning. We made it to Häselgehr in good time and then started our first climb of the day up to Doser Waterfall. Not the biggest waterfall, but it does come with some mystery. Every November, it disappears, to reappear every April. There was an additional hike up and over the waterfall, and we hiked those steep, steps as well. Because why not?
We met back up with the regular Lechweg trail, and Liz, and continued through the forest. There was a lot of hot, exposed climbs today, definitely not my favorite parts, but they do provide for some fantastic panoramic views. We were in serious need for lunch and a bench, and at 12:30 we stumbled across a pair of benches. We sat and ate, first with a German speaking couple, then with Liz, and another fellow from Hamburg.
After lunch was maybe the worst of the hot, exposed climbs, and we powered through, and eventually made it to a road and hiked back towards towns and the river. At Martinau, we detoured a bit and dumped our Camelbak water for fresh, cold water from a fountain.
We have been on the look out for lady’s slippers, and the internet claimed the area around Martinau was the best place to spot them. It’s a little tricky though, because if your eyes are on the wildflower fields, searching for lady’s slippers, they are not on the road and you run the risk of stepping on and killing the copious amount of slugs and snails on the road, which we are trying to avoid.
After Martinau, the signage for the trail was a little lacking, and we made a few minor missteps and back tracks. We also saw another snake. Yuk.
By 3:45, we ambled into Stanzach, tired, hot, with achy feet. We could have walked straight to our hotel, but we’ve eaten most of our snacks, so I suggested a slight detour into town to go to the SPAR. We found it, but it had closed at noon today. Damn.
Trudged back to our hotel, checked in with the nicest innkeeper, grabbed a beverage from the cooler, filled out the honor tab for the drinks, and checked in. 14 miles is a long way and our feet want out of our boots, we want out of the sun, and good heavens, someone please wash this shirt!
