Day 1
We started our hike at the beginning of the Rappenalptal, a gorgeus mountain valley located south of Oberstdorf which is itself the most southern village in Germany. Planned for two days the Mindelheimer Hütte, a mountain cabin high up at the end of the valley and quite near to the Austrian border appeard as a perfekt spot to spend the night.
But first we had the make it there until sunset and so we started our hike in the small town of Birgsau. Soon we entered the forest and made our way up a very steep and rocky path. Altough we had to pay full attention to the difficult but still wonderful trail it didn´t stop us from enjoying the absolutley beautiful surrounding wildlife. After leaving the forest we wandered on a small path surrounded by deep green grass with fields of colourful mountain flowers and high peaks hidden behind some grey clouds. The mood was simply awesome and we forgot about all the ascents difficulties.
We arrived around three hours after starting in Birgsau at Lake Guggesee, just in time for a decent lunch break. We sat ourselves down on a big rock right next to the shore and enjoyed our first delicious Forestia meal really comfortable without bringing extra cookware. While waiting for the meal to simmer a herd of cows stumbled across the corner to enjoy some delicious green and mellow grass. We just finished eating when suddenly heavy rain started to pour down so we hurried up getting our stuff together to continue our hike and not to get completely soaked by the rain. Ironically it stopped raining just at the moment we set off.
Continuously we ascended higher and higher but the trails most difficult part was already over and we enjoyed the following section with destination Mindelheimer Hütte. It turned out as a gorgeous varied path with some wonderful scenic views at the opposite side of the valley and its no less epic mountain range. Meanwhile more and more clouds appeared, the fog began to roll in and even a little rain started to fall down. But the worse the weather went the bigger the smiles in our faces were. We love this kind of weather, especially when were in the mountains.
We reached the Mindelheimer Hütte around 6 p.m. and enjoyed a fabulous dinner after taking an ice-cold shower outdoors with water straight out of the mountain. The rain just stopped after we finished eating so we went outside getting some good shots. Happy, content but really tired we went straight to bed afterwards to be fit enough for the next day’s hike.