Trail Running: Schneckenreits - Kaprun, Austria

 find your personal trainer and local guide in the area of Zell am See-Kaprun

The first part of the today's run - follow me through the Sigmunds-Thun Gorge in Kaprun 
I left the gorge and I continued my solo adventure taking the path to the left, through the rain. Trail running. Emotional run. Meditative run. Run for Life, if you want. 

"Almvirtschaft Schneckenreith" is an old farmer household which I discovered back mid of April, as I firstly run this trail and I found the fascination of the area!

The picture above: Mid of April.

The picture below: Begining of June.

On the left side of the picture you can see a zig-zag path. That is the Bürgkogel.

The Bürgkogel - a hillside at the end of the valley of Kaprun - is protected by the Sigmund-Thun-Gorge. It is that hill crossed by the zig-zag path. I climbed the hill in April from the other side, as the nature just started to get green, but it was still a pretty desolated landscape. Now I see the new perspective over the hill ..... I could have descend directly to the lake. The path along the lake on the other side of the lake is the path I run today on my way back.

Chapter: "Moments of Life":

I am for the 4th time on this probably nameless mountain ..... this is how it looks from the other side of it:

It seems not so high and not so steep indeed, but it is steep. I use to run-walk until the edge of the forest, where it seems to be a choice: a small path leading to the right and one to the left, but no other indications. 

I like wide spaces, open fields - so entering the forest in this area seems pointless for me ..... this is why this here is the last point where I turn back and descent on the same trail.

I am pretty sure, the hill belongs to the farmer here, because he keeps his cows on it.

The line downhill is the road between Kitzsteinhorn and Kaprun - only 7 km long.

Before I reached the highest point of my run today it started to rain. Still sticky air, warm water falling from the sky, so I didn't felt the urge to take my rain jacket I was carrying on the backpack. I missed my sun cap .... I never go running without head protection. When is it hot, it helps me to save energy, the head, the eyes, the face need calm and the shadow of the cap offers that calm.  When it's raining, it protect me also.

 I spend some time on the hill as I didn't want to return ....

but you always go back ..... always .....

This is an electricity gate, the cows know they cannot go further. It is a manner of keep control and avoid accidents, I suppose. The cows are free everywhere, but everything is managed and controled. Anyway, I am glad to see them living free and not kept closed all day and all seasons, as I saw in Low Austria :-( terrible animal cruelty!!!

passing through for humans .... if you are overweight, you have no chance to pass through

I decided to run a bit longer through the rain, so I followed the road descending to the right and crossing the river and then running back to the gorge, but on the opposite side of the lake.

looking back to the hill I just descended

Still raining, still beautiful, still energetic and medidative in the same time ... the forest road on the other side of the lake and along the road leads through a different landscape which I enjoy every time, again and again .....

An apparently simply, but efficient Fitness Parcours is included in this segment and I stayed some longer moments in the area ..... 

I actually never do the entire parcours, I do not have enough patience for it, but I find the idea simple excellent. You get a good opportunity to real strech after a good long run and now, as I write these words, I get appettite to go out and run and stretch again .....

As my life is still on slow-motion speed ..... I ask myself sometimes, when and if I will get back my "before" shape ....

or how it will be to meet me then again ....

 Many are missleaded about seeing me "running all the time" .... as in fact I just stagnate from several points of view, but growing from inside.

I find quite interesting to watch yourself going in a direction where you just came from - take the above picture as a huge symbolistic image and ask yourself: Where am I going to? Back or forward? You get the chance to see, once again, how relative everything is. In your life and around you. For you and for everybody else. Are you going back or forward is just a matter of the stand point, right?

I reached the gorge again .... and the tranquility inside the water force .... still raining ....

Still raining and me watching over an incredible beautiful water color ending into the Kitzsteinhorn Glacier ....

On my right the handmade waterfall wall ....

I finished the trail run for today - 10 km - still having about 1300 km to run (or walk) back to my car.  I looked once again to the water under my feet .... I was there, deep inside of the gorge just about one hour before ....

I run along the gorge, not through the gorge, on the opposite side as I always did - a new trail segment through the forest.

 Lush vegetation all over the place, marvellous green nuances and a lot of life inside the wet forest!

I started trail running back in 2012. Before trail running came into my life I used to say that "running on a mountain is like a blasfemy, because you don't have the time to enjoy the mountain and everything around you. Why would you want to run on a mountain actually?!"

But I tell you something, now, after 6 years of trail runnig, race or non-race runs:

You enter new dimensions, you meet new emotions, new perspective ..... you enter something you cannot imagine it exists and this brings you to different levels and impressions!

After 2 hours and 12 km I was finally tired :-), but happy!!!!!

Zell am See - Maria Alm - Kronreith - Saalfelden etc. by bike

I wrote here more about the Rocky Sea mountain range here in the area.

After I've read the results of my exams yesterday I decided to celebrate on my own way. 

So, late in the afternoon I took the mountain bike and go for a ride from Schüttdorf to Maishofen.

I knew it was late as I started, about 4 p.m., but I said to me, I still have plenty of time for a 2-3 hours ride.

A gorgeous day to be outside. Not too warm, not windy, just perfect sunny with the proper protection.

I was going along the lake in Zell am See, the sunny part of it, having the entire well-known panorama of the Rocky Sea  Range. Breathtaking, as always!

After about 7 km I reached the other end of the lake at Pielau Castle - now a restaurant - and took the road on the left to Maishofen.

Happy horses family resting in the green gras, touching image ...

I knew the route very well from my last August, as I had a short time job in Maishofen while looking for a living solution in this area. I also did the route to Maria Alm in January, on the snow, on a icy ground, even falling with the bike. Marvellous sceneries ..... I have tones of pictures of these mountains, so today I kept my camera for different surprises along the ride.

I combined riding with running and I stopped a lot just to admire and to breath all happyness molecules :-)

The route I did was about 85% asphalt. The Austrian infrastructure is simply amazing and this is a reason why this country developed at this level, being also blessed with a sensational landscape diversity.

 I was running here for the first time in August 2017 and the mountains behind me give a special input to the pictures.

Then, in August, I felt here I could get the chance to re-start and re-find myself. I had no idea how long time it will still be needed ..... ten months with a lot of issues and shocks passed away since then. But I am here. But I am happy. But I enjoy and go my path, doing the best of everything I can.

I even was looking for the same bank where I meditate in August last year. The bank was taken from here during the winter, protection reason I can imagine.

After I left behind me Maishofen, Kammerschloß (where I worked last year and experienced one of the ugliest life experiences in my life related to human behaviour and cruelty) und Gerling I pointed to Almdorf and on the way I started to ask about a renting appartment in the area.  Here are small communities of farmers, big farmer houses and rural hotels. They do not have rent appartments to rent on long term, they rent them per night, week, month or season, much more money to get and of course, much more work. But asking is still free of charge even in Austria.

From Almdorf I descended to the left, crossed the main road and the river and pointed uphill to the right, entering Rain (asking here too and having a very friendly talk with a local farmer, letting him my contact data in case he hears something), a very small farmers community with a huge, huge and beautifl golf terrain!!! I never saw something like that in my life, soooo beautiful!! What you see in the picture below is just a drop of the entire surface maintained for golf playing!!

The different green color nuances is so fascinating ..... isn't the Nature the Perfect Painter of this World or what?! Only green you might say .... but such a diversity .... and those fields of yellow flowers which bloom all over the country now in May.

Without any intention and having no map with me I decided to leave the asphalt and to take a road uphill which lead me to a path finally and so I had to walk and run along with my heavy bike. Good training, by the way! I was now along a segment where riding is not allowed, of course and I had to take and rise the bike twice over two fences until entering a forest and following the narrow path to the main forest road which theoretically I could ride if I would have been so strong to climb the mountain :-)

Then I rest for a while ........... looking back from where I was coming .....

and in front of me to where I was going: Kronreith

At this time of the year most of the cabs and pensions and hotels in Austria - at least this part of the country which is based on tourismus - are closed. Kronreith is a animal farm with a big building where you can drink and eat, they probably open end of May or so.

I was here on Sunday with a new friend, so I knew the place. He parked the car about 800 m below the place and we came on foot for the short distance. Hier stops the asphalt too. Now I was coming from a slighlty different direction and the entrance appeared suddenly spectacular from the forest:

I took a rest here not because I felt tired, but because .... just wanted to stay, watch and feel and taste the water.

Then I continued my journey uphill when the road curve entered the forest again and after about 10 minutes I reached a huge private domain with a small lake and a beautiful panorama.

I passed by the private domain going further steep uphill through the rich shadows of the forest.

No wind, no sound .... just the sound of the air and insects and trees and the sounds of my steps on the rolling ground. Feeling blessed to can choose being here, doing this, seeing all these. Yes, the place we live influence our life and life and thinking style, this is why I struggled so much, so hart and so long to change places. Loving each single place I lived in a different way and by different intensities and from different reasons.

From this point I had three options: going right to Fürstenbrünnl and I had no idea what that is or how long could it took and it was too late for prolongued adventures. To follow the descent narrow path through the forest back to Maria Alm - I started, but then it was much to crazy because having the bike with me. Or to ride back on the same road at least until the Kronreith and then to follow the asphalt back to Maria Alm. 

I stopped and entered the private domain taking place on the bank beside the lake and enjoying the feeling of living in such of place, free of worries, writting my books and coaching. Dreams never may die or be ignored.

Such a domain needs a lot of perpetuum work and life and love .... I saw no sign of life today or on Sunday as we rest here for a while.

The descent to Maria Alm was steep, not very long and enjoyable. I returned then to the same forest road along the river and in Rain I found this good map. So I've got an idea where I am and where I was (blue point marked).

The way to Saalfelden is marvellous beautiful and almost suddenly I found myself in the town very close to Ritzensee and  Ritzen Castle. 

Now I started to look out for the way back to Maishofen over the fields, avoiding the main road, of course. 

I thought, I find the way and in one hour I am back home before I loose the day light. I had no light with me, nothing at all.

My adventure prolongued for another three hours!!!! Oh yes .... incredible .... because I couldn't stop me to go there and there and there, to see, to take pictures .... 

I was soooo lost in the scenery. The evening came slowly and I had some clothes with me, so I had no worries I could be cold.

I took just "by smelling" the open wide forest road to the left and wow ..... wow .... wow .... 

 I am speechless ..... so I took me time to stay here, I decided I find back home anyway, but he NOW moment was me soooo important ....

 It was very windy here on the top and the sun began to take its path to the night sleep ........

Going back down from that hill .... isn't it magnificent?!

So, back to my bike, downhill, curve to the left, to the right, high speed, chilly evening coming .... entering a forest again, but not for long ....

 And then .... then I saw a place and a house which could be one of my dreams in fullfilling :-)

Heavily hearted I left the spot, I took a wrong way,  I lost a bit for a while and then I finally found the right road back to Maishofen wie Gerling, a very small place with few households and a small high church. About 12 kilometers still to ride .....

 As I reached Kammerhof again - that wonderful old old domain with a castle and a church, but unfortunatelly my connection to that is fullfilled of suffering, humiliation and new aspects of cruely, rude, hearless human behaviour - it was about half past eight in the evening.

 Closing Pielau Castle with the old small church just about 300 meters away from the lake in Zell am See ....

And still one km to home, reaching my bed at 21:30, happy and GRATEFUL!!

Worth to read it too:
Weißsee - Uttendorf
Maria Alm, Wings for Life
Goldegg