NASSFELD TO OBERE BISCHOFALM: COWS DON’T SLEEP
VIA ALPINA DAY 13 – SATURDAY 4 JULY 2026
NASSFELD – OBERE BISCHOFALM:
DISTANCE HIKED: 25.6 km
ELEVATION GAIN: 1,525 m
TOTAL DISTANCE HIKED: 327.2 km
TOTAL ELEVATION GAIN: 17,760m
Nice to wake up in a clean bed. Breakfast was included in our room rate, but it wasn’t being served till 8am. The Alberque manager agreed to put breakfast on earlier for us so that we can get an early start for the day.
Breakfast was amazing. Endless cups of good coffee, fresh croissants, fresh bread, ham and cheese, muesli and fresh fruit. We were in heaven especially after a great night’s sleep.
We got underway at 8am on a beautiful clear sunny day. A cool breeze and sunshine, perfect hiking temperature conditions. With pep in our steps we set off on the climb up to yet another chairlift. We were feeling so refreshed we made the climb without too much sweat.
It wasn’t too far off from leaving the summit that I took a tumble when my foot slipped out from under me. Banged my left knee, right hand and right cheek bone on a rock. Luckily the rock was rounded and not sharp. My left knee has been doing great so far, held together by kinesio tape. Hopefully just a flesh wound. The fall could have been a lot worse. These rocks are so different to what we’ve hiked on so far, so much more slippery underfoot.
No obvious damage but it shook me up especially since we had a long rocky traverse over a mountain ridge. The main damage was to my trusty Canon Powershot G7 camera, which refused to work. I hope I can recover todays photos from it, especially the photos of gracious Alburge manager with her beautiful ridgeback dog, who reminded me so much of our dog.
The traverse of the rocky ridge was slow and adrenaline spiked at times for me but so spectecular. I kept thinking what am I doing here, I’m thinking I must be a valley person, I love looking at interesting houses and barns and how people live. We met quite a few hikers on this section of trail. They all looked so comfortable on this terrain. We came off the ridge and stopped for lunch soon after. Nice to recover from that effort before continuing on.
From here we had a section of boggy ground before starting to descend through a sweet smelling pine forest. We continued to descend towards Straniger Hutte, to the sound of tingling cow bells.
We were happy to arrive at the hut in reasonable time. It was a popular stop for hikers and motorbike riders. A big group of quad bike riders drove past raising dust. We enjoyed a rest and a cold drink before setting off towards Zollnersee Hutte.
A steep couple of kilometres before the trail leveled and we had a relatively easy hike to the hut. We discussed staying at the hut but decided against it as we were still feeling relatively fresh and had plenty of daylight.
The descent from the hut was through a narrow gully. It was slow going. We really felt for the couple of hikers we met coming up.
Once we came out of the gully we passed a big herd of cows grazing up in the mountains.
We hiked on another kilometre or so, found a flat spot off the trail. Just before the sun dipped behind the hill, as we were beginning to settle we could hear cowbells getting closer. One cow, we called the trouble maker, started to approach the tent. Hammer got up and stood his ground till the cow gave up and went down the hill. She soon returned from the other side of the tent bringing another cow with her. They kept getting closer, I was not comfortable. Hammer eventually got them to keep moving on. As I’m finishing this post, I’m hoping the cowbell sound keeps moving further and further away. Hammer assures me that they’ll settle for the night. I sure hope so.
