Der Traumpfad: Day 7

Start: Pezzé, Ponte Schmied (1150)

Finish: Maurerberghütte (2157m)

10km, 1100 up, 5 hours.

The book says the ascent from Pfunders to Kreuzwiesen Alm is 1500m, and I still don’t trust myself to be able to do that. So I plot an alternative trail, one that will be ‘only’ 1100m. I will later find that the apps say the original trail was actually only 1200m ascent. It pisses me off, and I’m pissed off that I’m pissed off. I did 1100 anyway, so I could have done the original route, with only 100 more meters. This gets the voices in my head arguing, the good angel insisting on the quality of the experience, and the bad angel preaching on the importance of keeping to the planned trail. I'm working hard at ignoring the bad angel, but it’s hard.

Bus 401 takes me from Mühlbach to Brixen in about 30 minutes. Getting off at the central bus station, I have 40 minutes to spare, so I spend them walking around the narrow alleyways of this pretty old town, thinking I would like to come back one day when I'm not carrying a backpack and dressed in hiking gear.

Bus 325 leaves from the Brixen Autostazione, and I take it all the way to the last stop. Pezzé, Ponte Schmied is a rural stop with nothing but a few farmhouses and a road. I'm walking on a paved road much of the way up, but I don't mind. There are occasional houses, but nothing more, and I'm mostly by myself. Eventually the road connects with trail no 13. It's badly maintained, so much so that I wonder if I'm actually on a trail, but it's clearly the only way up, plus there are lots and lots of raspberries, so I'm happy.

Almost 1000 meters of ascent through the forest and I'm meeting my original trail at the Lüsner Joch, a nondescript pass. It is here that I see other hikers for the first time today.

I arrive at the Maurberg hut just in time to see the lunch hoards. The hut's lawn and balcony are full of people. No wonder - the view from here is breathtaking, with the Peitlerköfel looming in the background. I have arrived in the Dolomites, and it couldn't be clearer - everything here is sharper, more dramatic.

I get a private room, and surprisingly, I'm one of the very few people staying here tonight. It's a shame - as the lunch crowds leave, the hut quiets down. It's a perfect location to just sit and look at the view, watch the sun setting over the Dolomites. The food is great as well, and dinner is served on the terrace outside. I go for a walk, everything bathing in soft light, before heading to bed. Tomorrow I'm in the Dolomites.