July 24, Tuesday (descend from Simony Hutte)

Spent night up at the Simony Hutte. Slept great and breakfast was amazing for a summit hutte. Juice, coffee, cheese, meats, yogurt, granola, bread, apple and jams/honey. Left at 9am to descend 5,100 feet back to Hallstatt. For reference, that´s about the distance from the summit of Mt Hood back to Timberline. Full cloud cover on summit so decided to work the downhill pretty hard to beat the incoming weather system before it hit the valley floor.
7.5 miles, 17000 steps, 3 hours downhill (a little more than half the 5.5 hours we needed to ascend). Legs felt great and we´re recovering quickly. We took several detours on the way down. In one area we discovered a little tree house platform. Not sure what it was for.

We had several great peeks of town from above so hopefully the pics will do it justice.

Just as we hit town the rain, thunder and lightening began. Perfect timing.

Our hostel was closed from noon to 2pm (or that´s what we thought we interpreted from the German note on the door) so we stopped at an outdoor tent restaurant and had lunch next to the lake. Also updated this blog. The guy here is a computer enthusiast and likes new things so we showed him about blogging. He also told us that our buddy (Steve) had stopped by and emailed us. Steve´s feet are pretty trashed so he did a salt mine tour and some lighter hiking. Anyway, it turns out that our Hostel decided to close down for the day even though we had reservations. Steve checked around town and found us another place to stay.

Had a great meal at a little restaurant right on the lake looking up thorough town. See pic.

Summary: this little trek out of Hallstatt really shows off the best of the Dachsteins and the town, although a little touristy, is very picturesque and fun to visit.