Day 11 – Wahlen & Kandellen

Jan 22, 2020

Today’s Blog Entry

Cindy and I were both ready for a relatively easy day, so for our Wednesday outing we stayed fairly close to Dobbiaco. We left the apartment on foot (no bus, for a change) and walked north out of town to explore the San Silvestro Valley. We had not yet ventured up this valley so we were rewarded with some lovely views down over Dobbiaco and into the heart of the Dolomites.

Using the winter hiking map provided by the tourist office we followed the sidewalk out of town where it turned into a nice trail near the village of Wahlen. The trail didn’t last forever, though, and it wasn’t long before we were simply walking along a lightly-used roadway heading into the relatively steep and narrow San Silvestro Valley. We topped out in the hamlet of Kandellen, which in reality is not much more than a few farms, some with lodging rooms and/or small restaurants. What Kandellen does have in quantity is great views!

After exploring Kandellen (and their ubiquitous tiny chapel) we headed west in search of a similar hamlet called Frondeigen where Cindy’s research indicated that we would find a berghaus with a good restaurant. It was a great plan, but unfortunately the mostly wooded trail from Kandellen had sustained some significant damage during recent storms. Several steep areas, including a section where it looked like there used to be a bridge, were completely washed away and/or blocked by fallen trees.

At this point we decided to turn back because there didn’t seem to be a safe route to get around the damage. We also had no idea what the rest of the trail might look like even if we took the risk and pushed on through. We headed back down the now familiar trail and picked up the same road that we had used for our trip up the valley earlier in the day. We arrived back in Dobbiaco a bit after 1:00 PM.

Our hike today totaled seven miles with about 1,300 feet of vertical. This included sidewalks, roads, marked trails, and even some good old-fashioned dead reckoning across fields and through the trees. It was a spectacular sunny day, so even our unintended change of plans wasn’t a big deal!

After arriving back in Dobbiaco we stopped by the apartment and dropped off our backpacks. We also shed a layer of clothing because the temperature was finally above freezing, seemingly for the first time in days! We then walked down the main street to a local restaurant called the Pizzeria Hans (https://pizzeria-hans.com/en/). This is not like any pizzeria you’ve ever seen; the two brothers that own it have pushed the menu and decor to a much higher level than you might otherwise expect based on the name.

After a leisurely lunch we came back to the apartment to make plans for tomorrow. It will be our last full day in Dobbiaco so we’re hoping that this outing will be very special!