Monday 24th June: Weather: 19°C to 29°C: Blue skies Hooray! warm and sunny sunny all day
Bach to Steeg: 13k: 9.00am to 1.30pm: 4hrs 30mins with 2 x 30min breaks
Accommodation: Haus Franzi, Steeg
Blue skies days hooray!!
Highlight today was getting our blue skies back! It’s been warm and sunny but overcast for the past week, but today, it’s a magnificent alpine day. Next highlight was the hanging bridge above Holzgau, not quite as well engineered as Highline 179, but a hairy scary trip over a flimsy wired footbridge. Then the pretty painted village of Holzgau. Our day was magnificent all day, but only a short 13k to Steeg.
Awake at 6am and a lazy start knowing we only have a 13k day. Time for an early morning cuppa in our apartment, and breakfast of our own muesli and yoghurt then a cup of milky coffee (because we have a very large bag of powdered mil left) before leaving at 9am on a sunny blue sky day when the temperature is already a warm 19°C. Our walk across the meadows below Gastehaus Hauser was a picture postcard walk with blue skies above the surrounding alps.
Snowy alps, pine trees and meadows
Village of Holzgau in distance
On the way to the hanging bridge
200m span Holzgau hanging bridge
View midway across hanging bridge
Hitch hiker on my cap
Blue blue skies
Painted houses Holzgau
Lunch near the waterfall
Waiting for Haus Franzi to open 4pm
View from Haus Franzi
Our twin bed room Binsalm
Our twin bed room Binsalm
Following the signs to the Hängebrücke Holzgau (hanging bridge at Hokzgau), we’re soon walking uphill to a panorama path above the valley and meeting dozens of day hikers, most in their late 70’s. coming our way. In fact this end of the Lechtal Valley, around Bach and Steeg is older hikers heaven - magnificent walks and not too much up and down. Soon we see a distant view of Holzgau and it’s church steeple, surrounded by meadows, no cows in sight, and snow capped alps in the distance. At 10.30am we arrive at the hanging bridge, a 200 metre suspension bridge spanning the Höhenbach Canyon, 105 metres above the valley floor. The bridge feels flimsy compared to Highline 179, and sways from side to side as we cross. A lady comes towards us carrying her 30kg dog who was too terrified to walk across.
On the other side, a butterfly latches on to my cap and hangs on for the next 50 metres down towards the village of Holzgau. It’s full of day hikers and guest houses, with many painted houses adorning the streets. It’s warm and at 11am we’re looking for a seat in the shade for a cup of tea. We’re soon away up the valley following the Lech River Trail, looking for a bit of shade as it’s a very warm 29°C with no cloud cover. The L trail follows the banks of the Lech River with a cool breeze flowing off the force of the water as it rushes past, with several kayakers trying to gain control over the rapids. By 1pm, there’s a seat by a lagoon near a waterfall where we sit for our lunch of a fresh bun and tomatoes bought from the Holzgau Mpreis.
It’s only another one hour's walk through the narrowing valley to Steeg, another busy oldies day hiking centre. Haus Franzi doesn’t open til 4pm and it’s only 2pm, so we look for a seat in the shade by the River Lech. I go for a stroll to check out the local supermarket ADEG and the backerie and return with a fresh bread and chunk of apple strudel for morning tea tomorrow, a long 20k+ day, with a bit more up hill than the past few days. In previous years, we’ve bragged about the metres ascended and descended. This trip, we’re lucky to walk up and down more than a few hundred metres except for our week in the Karwendel Mountains.
At 3.30pm, I see a car return to the garage at Haus Franzi, and going over, we’re pleased that our room is ready before 4pm. Franzi manages the guest house and has a few school age children so understandably, the guest house opens after pick up time. She’s a lovely host and shows us to our studio apartment with a view of the alps from our window, and offers us 2 cold beers. The studio is perfect for us. It seems to be the norm that so many Gastehauses here cater mostly for the winter ski season with stays of days or weeks and they are happy to let out the room daily to summer hikers.
Dumping our gear, we’re back to the supermarket ADEG just 100 metres down the road, to buy cheese, butter, 3 Bratwurst sausages, 3 different beers, a lettuce and another tube of mayonnaise. After showering and washing and hanging our clothes out the windwow, it’s dinner time - sausages heated in a frypan, with lettuce and tomato swamped with mayonnaise, washed down with a cold beer or two. A bit of time to plan for the day after next and we’ve decide to continue following the Lech River to it’s source at Formarinsee, 13k up the valley from Lech, but this means catching a bus back into Lech then another bus into St Anton. We’d been a bit concerned about the last stage from Lech into St Anton where the track is quite high and snow bound so this is a good solution, and a quick phone call to the tourist office in Steeg confirms that the buses we want are running this Wednesday. An early night at 9pm ready for an early start.