Week 5: Getting lost in the Alps

On our decent from the top of the mountain, we could either take the second tram back down to the bottom of hike the rest of the way, which would take about 90 minutes. Five of us girls decided that we had a lot of time before dinner and that it would be really pretty to hike down, which would also take us past this gorgeous lake. So the five of us, having no guide or real sense of direction of where we were, with only the simple instructions of walking straight until you can either go right or left in which case go left and then go right, set of to walk down. The decent was pretty steep and very winding- not exactly the “keep going straight” directions we received. But we kept walking hoping that we would eventually come up to the sign that lead us to the lake. But after about an hour and no idea where we were, we stopped next to a chair lift to figure out how to get to the lake. We figured out where we were somewhat on the map based on the chair lift and headed towards the direction of the lake (no where which was where we though it was based on our directions received). So we kept walking and walking and finally we came upon the small sign. So we went down the small trail and kept walking and walking until finally we came to the “lake”. I really wouldn’t call it a lake at all more like a large clear pond with a restaurant on it. We were all really confused if this was the right place and so we walked around it and saw the sign that proved that we were at the right lake. We had been walking for around 2 hours now and were a bit disappointed that that was the lake that we walked down the face of a mountain for. So we took some pictures and decided to keep going down so we would make it in time for dinner. We came to a crossroads and the majority decided that we should go left (when we should have gone right). So we kept walking and walking and once we finally got to the bottom we realized we were very far away from Cortina by about an hour walk. We couldn’t be late for dinner so we had to run all the way back to Cortina. We went to dinner with aching legs and feet, being very exhausted.

At the time the lake was a let down to what we were all expecting and the time that we put into the hike to get there, but looking back on it after we got back, I was really happy that I spent the time hiking with some of my friends and getting to be outside enjoying the beauty of the Alps. It was nice to be able to laugh about being lost and get to talk for a couple hours with no cell phones or distractions.

Until next week folks,

McKenzie Boyle