Hiking Down and Returning to Freigericht (Fri 7/23)

Today we hiked down from the Schachenhaus. We woke up to the sound of heavy rain, but we continued on with getting ready to leave- including trying to pack all of our stuff so it wouldn't get soaked! After eating breakfast, we set out in the rain.

Our original plan was that Sascha, Dad, and I would take a steeper, more difficult route back down and through the Partnachklamm so that we could see it again and we wouldn't have to do any taxiing between Elmau and Garmisch (one car was in each place, and the first plan was to all go to Elmau and then wait while some went to get the other car and come back to get us). Because it was raining, we decided to all stick together- the steeper route probably wasn't safe with the rain. The weather began to clear and the fog lifted, making the landscape once again amazing. Below is a video of one place we stopped to rest:

As a compromise, we took the same trail for a while, then split so that we could still see the Partnachklamm again and wouldn't have to taxi back and forth. It turned into sort of a race between the two groups to see who could reach their respective car first. Dad, Sascha, and I even did a little jogging when we reached a good downhill section. 

Then we hit a dead end. We had read the map wrong and had to backtrack up where we had just run down. It seemed so much shorter running down it than walking up it and none of us realized how steep it was! We realized when we got to a sign we had previously passed that we needed to take a smaller trail that branched off the main road. There was a sign next to it that said that no one was liable for what happened on that trail... meaning it wasn't maintained.

Turns out it wasn't really that bad, just a little narrow in some places. It was sorta steep but not horrible. Once we crossed the river, we reached another gravel road that was really easy to walk on. Right after we started on the road, we got a call from the other group that they had already reached their car, only 50 minutes after we had parted with them. About 30 minutes later, we reached our vehicle.

Once reunited with the group, we cleaned up and ate a delicious meal at the restaurant near the Olympic stadium. The rest of the day we spent mostly driving to get back home. It rained most of the way. We got lucky with our dry window that most of the hike took place in!