So we heard about a lookout point in the German Alps the gives you a clear view from about 3000 ft. up – about a kilometer. Staying true to form, we wrote a check we knew would hurt to cash and only took a cable car up one way. This means we had to walk down the mountain. To be fair, Malc and I were the ones advocating the ride up/walk down approach, while Tanasi and Shefali were more than happy to just pay for the ride. When they told us it would take us about 3.5 hours to walk down, Malc’s response was “so we can probably do it in an hour and a half.” This does not bode well. We started on our way down and immediately made all the wrong moves. From ignoring the “pleasure trail” (which admittedly sounds like a euphemism for hair that leads “down there”) to climbing up instead of down (kind of obvious but whatever) to drinking beer beforehand (also a bit obvious) and neglecting to bring water for the way down (ditto on being obvious), we punished ourselves for 17 kilometers zigzagging down a steep grade across uneven terrain, dirt paths and trails along rock faces with nothing but a rope for a handhold and grass for a guardrail. It started out fun and adventurous, and the view keeps you going. You have a goal at which you are steadily chipping away. And then there’s Tanasi who, at seventeen, was nearly impossible to keep up with. I think if he didn’t have to wait for us seniors he actually may have been able to do it in Malcolm time. But we hiked and hiked and hiked some more, to the point that it was no longer entertaining, but frightening. The sun is beating down on us, the lookout point is still clearly in sight and the ground isn’t getting any closer. This is no longer fun – this is an attack on our endurance. Fatigued and drenched in sweat we came across two welcome sights – packed snow and natural, running mountain water. Ice cold and lightly sweet, it was the greatest drink of water I’ve ever had in my life and is tagged as such in the galleries. And that wasn’t even at the halfway point. We continued down and the terrain changed from rocky ski trails to heavily wooded dirt paths. I never really understood hiking or nature activity as a hobby but here in the woods so far removed from civilization I think I finally get it. The whole forest droned with buzzing and stridulation, and you really get an understanding that nature is alive. This is again something that should have already been obvious but what can I say, I’m a city person by preference. Quickly it becomes evident that the Sun is setting and soon we’ll be in complete darkness with nothing but hive-like buzzing and irregular topography to keep us company. This is no longer an adventure – this is a race against the clock. By the time we finally hit sea level we had been walking about 5 hours and were grateful to see flat land and a little civilization. We celebrated with a tiny airplane bottle of vodka and were in surprisingly good spirits walking another 2 kilometers into the sunset toward what would be perhaps the most restful sleep any of us had had all summer. We got a great deal on a hotel (two apartments for the price of one room, free wifi, ballin’ breakfast buffet, tickets to a local water park and loads of other stuff we didn’t even have time to use – Shefali’s the queen) and hung out in the town close to the mountains (Garmish-Partenkirchner) while waiting for the lactic acids to build up and punish us for our hubris.
Vijay