Ötschergräben via Vorderötscher...

Since Gina's hurt pads had been healing up nicely it was time to take her for another hike. Since the temps were going to be in low 70's I thought it would be good idea to take her for a hike to Ötschergräben. For some reason I wasn't able to book Gina's ticket online and had to do it at the railway station. Turns out that Mariazellerbahn is considered a private train and therefore I have to purchase Gina's ticket on the train. But that meant we were unable to catch the earlier train. So we had ti take the next train 1 hour later. But this was no biggy. Took us about 1 1/4 hours to reach Erlaufklause for where we were going to start the hike. But I really didn't remember how slow this train was traveling. But you get a good impression of the countryside. We had to head down from the train station before we could walk across the dam of Erlaufstausee. Gina and water is a different story. She really is drawn to water and it's sometimes not that easy to make it clear that she can't go swimming any time she feels like. We started our hike via Hagengut on the forest road. I had decided that I was going to take the forest road all the way to Vorderötscher. That way I could check on how good Gina was doing with her paws. But she was being perfectly fine. My knee that had been bothering me a couple of weeks ago was giving me no problems at all. About 2 hours later we made it to the trail to Vorderötscher. But shortly after the decent my knee started to bother me. I did think of taking the same route back.

But on the other hand the decent into Ötschergräben was only short and the canyon hike itself was pretty much a hike on flat ground. We did take a break of about 1/2 hour to rehydrate and I had a soup as well. We then continued the decent into the canyon. And of course Gina had to walk twice into a creek nearby. This dog just loves water and there's apparently nothing better than drinking out of a creek. The rest of the decent was pretty much uneventful. But of course it was not exactly fun, at least as far as my knee was concerned. The hike through Ötschergräben was fun as it is always. Meeting way too many people on a narrow path not so much. And a lot of them just didn't know the proper hiking etiquette. And Ötschergräben being part of this years "state exhibit" wasn't exactly helpful either. The thing I noticed, that they had been doing a lot of work. The path is much more convenient now that it used to be. There are much more iron cables to hold on, but this definitely takes away lots of the wildness of the canyon. So as far as I'm concerned it's not a improvement and I don't really like it. We made our along the narrow path trough the canyon and although my knee was bothering I still did enjoy it. And Gina definitely had lots of fun and she was

doing very well. Always interested in her surroundings but doing very well with the narrow path. And it was always fun watching her to have mentally figure out were the path is going. We did take a break in the shade in the canyon and just enjoying nature. Gina also got another chance to cool off in Ötscherbach and she did have way too much fun.
We then made our way to Ötscherhias. But I decided not to take a break there. Since we did have a train to catch. We climbed slowly out of the canyon and my knee was even bothering when hiking uphill. But we did make it out of the canyon and made our way past Hagengut back to the train station. And we did make it to the train station with 10 minutes to spare. Otherwise we would have had to wait for another hour for the next train. By 7.30 pm we were back home.

Waxriegel Haus via Preiner Wand...

Today I was going for another training hike to Rax. I planned on testing some additional gear. Of course I knew Gina would not be able to join me, since her paw injury is still way too recent. That meant I had to head out on my own and that was a weird feeling from the beginning on. When I was getting ready in the morning Gina was all excited, but as soon as she realized that there was no doggy back pack and no harness, so was looking all sad at me. Tail straight down and a terrible sad doggie look. But there was nothing I could do about it.

Again I was heading out from Vienna's Matzleinsdorfer Platz where I cached the train to Payerbach-Reichenau. From there the bus to the Rax Gondola. Like the last time I missed the first gondola. But this time they made us wait till 8.30 for the next ride. On top of Rax plateau temps were nice between 60's and 70's and that makes for great hiking. I headed out beating the majority of the pack of people. I'm just not a fan hiking in large packs of people. Not my idea of hiking fun. I prefer the solitude of the mountain. Makes for a much more memorable hike ind reconnects you with nature. I did make good time. At Ottohaus I opted to continue on Seeweg. Apparently I remembered wrong. I always thought there was a second option to hike parts of Preiner Wand. Either I remembered wrong or I just missed the intersection. During hiking Seeweg I realized that my knee was acting up. It didn't have any problems on even sections. And hiking upslope wasn't too bad. But hiking downslope really gave me pain in my knee. No idea why. Maybe I didn't warm up enough before heading out or something more serious is wrong with my left knee. Either way I wan't going to let that stand in my way hiking the 20 minutes to summit of Preinerwand. It was an technically easy hike, but having a knee bothering you isn't really helpful. I reached the summit and spent about 20 minutes on the summit. Took pix and video and helped out a few hikers getting a pic at the summit. And from up there I got amazing view of the surrounding montains, of Preiner Wand and of the recent hike down Trinksteinsattel I recently took with Gina.

When hiking down from the summit I saw a several chamois fairly close to the trail. Such experiences are always fun. While hiking down my left knee was even acting more up and starting really to bother me. So I stopped at Neue Seehütte for a Radler and a 20 minute break. At that point it was equally far hiking back to the gondola or hiking down Göbel-Kühn trail to Waxriegelhaus. And of course I opted for the latter. I figured it will get better as time goes on and the trail to Waxriegelhaus really didn't look that steep, at least as far as I could see it. At first I was very right with that assumption. But than the trail starts descending. First not so much but than there are fairly steep sections and that really bothered my left knee. Good thing I never head out without my trekking poles. And the really got some heavy usage. I can only say I love my Black Diamond Trekking Poles. Without them it would have been much, much harder on me. It took some time to figure out the right stepping technique to make my knee hurt

as little as possible. It means that you're actually baking fairly slowly. I was very grateful about every even section on the trail. So I made my way slowly down to Waxriegelhaus. It was supposed to take me about 1 hour, but I made it in a little over 1 1/2 hours. And thats not too bad considering the circumstances. 

This entire hike felt very weird. Me hurting and not having my Gina, my hiking buddy with me, just didn't feel right. But I did take a stop at Waxriegelhaus. I ordered a Goulash and a Radler, took a half our break and enjoyed the company on other hikers and enjoyed the view. Shortly before 2 pm I started the descent to Preiner Gscheid. Very quickly it was clear that my knee was still hurting. Especially after exceeding certain grades of steepness. Good thing that there are 2 options. The more direct route and the forest road. I did take the forest road since the grade of the road worked much better for my knee. While hiking the road I was almost pain free. I made it to Preiner Gscheid in a little over the usual time.

And still had about 1 hour to kill before my bus left. Edelweishütte was packed and so I decided to chill in the shade a few large trees relax and have a snack that I had brought with me on the hike. This was actually very relaxing and peaceful. I chatted with a couple of hikers at the bus station. I took the bus from Preiner Gscheid to the strain station from where I headed back to Vienna to a very excited Gina. 

While this was supposed to be a training hike it turned into a training hike of a different kind. It really tested out how much determination I have to finish a hike and how much discomfort I can put out of my mind while willingly taking it. It was not exactly a fun hike, but is that going discourage me from hiking...certainly not. It's one of those things only a passionate hiker will understand. 

GoPro Hero 4 - My Review...

There is another item I got to test during my recent hike to Rax. I have been having issues with my camcorder for the past couple of month. The most likely culprit is probably the memory card. That would be an easy fix. But I wasn't really happy with the size and the weight of the camcorder. So I did my research and figured that the GoPro Hero 4 would most likely do the best job for me during hiking season.
On top of that I got my Hero 4 on sale with about 100 bucks off the regular retail price. The Hero 4 is a really tiny camera and does both great pix and great video. And it's really super light. Fits in every pocket of my hiking shorts easily. And the additional housing makes it pretty much waterproof. And that can be a good thing when hiking in Austria's mountains. The downside of the housing is, that you have to take the camera outside when recording vlogs of the hike. That's something that I still have to get used to.
Another thing that I still have to get used to is the wide angle lens. It's great for taking pix while hiking, but it means that you really have to keep your fingers off the front side while shooting or you end up having your fingers in the picture. This happened to me which several pix during my recent hike.
Still can't say much about the video quality. This will have to wait until I get around cutting the first video segment together. Supposedly it shoot 1080p. But as far as the quality of the pix go, I'm very happy with that and it is definitely worth the investment.
And love the thing that I just plug it into my MacBook Pro and it transfers all the media to my iPhoto or asked me if I rather have the media stored on a cloud service instead.

LOWA Renegade Hiking Boots - my review...

Another item that I recently bought were the LOWA Renegade light hiking boots. These got their first test during my recent hike to Rax.
For many years I used to be firm believer in medium-heavy to heavy hiking boots. They just have more stability when it comes to stabilizing your ankle. While that is entirely true it also means that you have to deal with much more weight of the hiking boot. I do have a medium hiking boot, but during the pas 2 summers I haven't been wearing them too much. The hikes I have been doing were rarely easy and really didn't justify a medium heavy hiking boot. And of course the heavier a hiking boot is, that warmer it will be. That is all well and nice when temperatures are moderate, but with temps in the 90's I really I wanted a boot that is lighter and not as warm as my medium heavy boot. So I had done my research before heading out the Bergfuchs. I had lowered it down to LOWA Renegade and a comparable model made by Meidl.
I tried both boots.They were both quite comfy. But in the end I went with the LOWA Renegade. It is the boot that goes a little further up, maybe giving you an tad more stability. And the most important reason was, that I just felt more comfy on the LOWA. On even stretches they were absolutely great to wear. During passages where the trail was climbing up the mountain, they were light but great to wear, giving you enough stability without sacrificing traction on the trail. Downhill passages especially in the limestone mountains require a little rethinking of your hiking technique. With medium heavy booths you don't have to think on how to step on rocks. It just doesn't matter, your leg is being completely stabilized. So you really don't have to think about out. But with a light hiking boot, you sacrifice some of the stability for the weight. What essentially means, that have to adjust your stepping technique in order to adjust for the loss in stability. But this adjustment didn't take too long, in fact it went rather quickly.
And the best of all it's another hiking boot were I didn't get any blisters although I ended up doing an 8 hour hike. And that's definitely a huge Plus I'm my book. All Pro's and Con's considered I definitely can recommend the LOWA Renegade.

Mamut Crest Heron - my review...

Those of your guys who read my blog regularly know, that I recently added some new gear items to my hiking stuff. Either to replace missing stuff or to substitute for worn out stuff. During my recent hiking trip to Rax some of those stuff got it's first usage. 

I bought a Mamut Crest Heron 40 liter back pack. It's not the biggest one, but will do nicely for one-day hikes and weekend hikes. I really do like the fact that it is water bladder compatible. That it has an extra compartment were you can keep your dry cloth of for stuff that you need quick access to is definitely a big Plus in my book. The rest of the back pack is pretty much average. At least there is not much special about that back pack than other packs I have owned. The shoulder straps are much thinner than those of my old back pack. But they divide the load surprisingly well, without hurting or cutting into your shoulders. The hip belt has an extra pouch to out surf in, like a camera, phone or GPS. That will come in very handy in the future. The designers of this back really put a lot of thought into the hip belt. Because this belt does carry the majority of the weight, thus releasing your shoulders from carrying weight and making the hiking experience much better. Even a full bag doesn't drag you down on the shoulders and gives you lots of free movement. I like that very much about my new back pack. I just wish this back pack would come in greater variety of colors.

When it comes to the drinking system. It's fairly easy to put in. I can see the usage of carrying and additional supply of water especially on dry stretches or when hiking in limestone mountains. But that is at far as the drinking system goes, at least as far as I'm concerned. Using a water bladder like the Platypus it just doesn't seem to work for me. It's just too much of a hassle. Of course there is as well the possibility that this water bladder was just a cheap rip off of the original Platypus, since it only cost 15 bucks. During me hiking Rax it was just easier taking my pack off and drinking out of my regular 1,5 liter drinking bottle. Not sure yet if I'm gonna try it with a original Platypus water bladder and see if it works any better. 

Passing my Cost Analysis Exam...

Today was the day, that I was going to find out my grade of my cost analysis exam. Those of you guys who read my blog regularly know, that I thought after the exam that I should have at least a passing grade. Since the exam was mostly easy for me I was hoping for a better grade than just a passing one. But having done my share of written exams in my lifetime I know, just because the exam went easy doesn't mean that you actually passed it.
Of course the grades weren't going to be released till 3 pm. So it meant to wait. But work was kinda busy, and that made the time pass by much quicker. Shortly after 3 pm I logged on to the WKO main site, but couldn't find my exam results. I know regardless how you did, you would be seeing your result anyways. I found that rather strange, since I never had that issue before. But decided to give it another 30 minutes. After that time had passed I logged on again, just with the same result. I didn't see my result. So I called IT-Support to see what the issue was. Got a hold of someone in under 2 minute. That was quite surprised. Told them my issue. The representative I was talking to logged into my account. Took her just a minute to figure out where the result was. Usually the results show up in finished classes. But the recently changed something around, so that the class they just released the grades for still shows up under booked classes. I still think that could use some reprogramming, but I was just happy to see my final grade.
Not did I pass my cost analysis class, but I passed it with over 85%, what makes it a B!!! OMG I was totally excited. So all that learning over the last couple of month really paid off. Sacrificing most for my free time and taking one week paid vacation just to learn for the cost analysis exam. It turned out, that this was the right decision. And what makes that B even more awesome is the fact that this class was giving me so many issues, and sometimes I thought there's no way that I will pass this exam.
So yes I'm still very excited. Now I get to relax over the summer and classes will be starting again in September.

The Aftermath...

Those of you guys who read my blog regularly, that Gina had a mishap while hiking Rax. When I got home I checked her paws and she had ripped the of her front legs 2 pads really bad. The tiny scratches on one pad of the right leg is pretty much not too much of an issue. And it really doesn't bother her much. The pads on the front legs are an entirely different story. Those are bothering Gina and they're definitely hurting. But of course this being the weekend there was not much I could do about. And since it was not an emergency I wan't going to call the emergency department of Vienna's VET University.
The plan was to take Gina to my VET. I checked if he was there, but don't you know it, he is on vacation. Fortunately I've a second VET close to my apartment. With Vienna currently experiencing a heat wave, I wasn't going to make Gina walk on the hot pavement. After all it was still 95+ F outside, when we had to head out to the VET. So I called a cab and went there. We had to wait at the VET for about 30 minutes. When he finally took a look at Gina's paws, she was surprisingly cooperative. And it was exactly what I thought. He trimmed back the edges of the ripped pads. Gave me ointment for the pads and some neoprene doggie boots for when she has to walk on the pavement. And as I suspected, this is an injury that will take  couple of weeks to completely heal. When I talked about how Gina had hurt herself, he told me that this is not exactly an uncommon injury when dogs hiking limestone mountains. On the other hand Daisy never had those problems. And I'm not entirely sure if there wasn't some preexisting condition. Not sure if there wasn't a small blister when the dog walker walked with Gina during the current heat wave. And it really doesn't take much to burn a dogs pads on the pavement during a heat wave. But I can't be sure about that. And in the end it really doesn't matter. That's something we have to go trough.

Hiking Rax...

Today Gina and I started out on our hike to Rax, on of the mountains fairly close to Vienna. It was a good way to beat the heat in the city. After all it was supposed to at least 35 C (95 F). So Gina and I left with the train around 6 am. It did take Gina a little time to get used to her doggie pack bag. We boarded the train and headed for Payerbach-Reichenau. Took a little under 90 minutes. Next we took the bus to the gondola. Had to wait for about 10 minutes. Af course Gina's ticket was abut half of the price of mind. It's funny anywhere you show up with her, she makes immediately new friends. The ride in the Gondola was no big deal for Gina. For her that's just like a ride in a train. We then made our way towards Ottohaus. But didn't go there. I really wanted to take a trail off the beaten path. So we took the trail via Dirnbacherhütte and Klobentörl. I put the tracking leash on Gina and let her go ahead. After all she should have the option to explore and figure out the way the trail was leading. A little brain work for her is important as well. And she did an amazing job. Of course there were a few instances where I had to point her in the right direction. The way all the way down into the ravine was fun. Hiking trough the forest, temps nice and around 22 C (71 F). But after Dirnbacherhütte came the ascent to

Klobentörl. One switchback after the another. And all of it in direct sunlight. Very little protection and no breezy at all. The sun was burning down. Gina was painting I was sweating like a pig. (Not exactly sure if pigs sweat though). This was not exactly fun. We had to take several breaks in the shade of a tree. But we finally made it to Klobentörl. We took a rest. Gina and I rehydrated. Gina found her self a great place in the shade. I had an sandwich. The came the next part of the ascent. I didn't remember how steep that climb was and how long it was. The sun beating down on us. And I was sweating like crazy. And in the last third of the climb the muscles of my upper thighs, right above the knee, started to cramp up. This was neither good nor fun. So we had to take way more breaks than I would usually have. But we finally made it to the plateau. Of course it is a beautiful hike away from the beaten path, but it certainly did take a beating on me. The hike on the plateau itself was great and relaxing. Gina got to explore a little and she did exactly was Daisy used to do, find herself a special spot a eat grass. Shortly thereafter Gina got to meet cows and bulls for the first time. She wasn't exactly sure about them. I think she was a little intimidated about the animals size. One young bull took special interest in Gina. He probably just wanted to figure out what she is all about. But Gina just hid behind me. Having hiked for many years I know how to make a

young bull keep his distance. Gina is very different from Daisy, as Daisy would have wanted to meet the bull. The bull followed us for some time. But eventually turned around. Shortly thereafter we got our first glimpse of Habsburg Haus. But it was still about 30 minutes away. We did make up to the mountain hut. Gina found herself a place on the shade right away. I gave her water and she just chilled. I ordered 2 large glasses of apple juice mixed with water. I even considered having lunch. But didn't feel all that hungry. What did surprise me that I was having a cell reception. So I knew that it was way later than I would have thought. It was about 1.30 pm. I checked the free Internet at Habsburg Haus, but at Karl-Ludwig Haus there was still no space available. So that meant we would have to make it back to the Gondola by 6 pm at the latest. So we started to hike towards Trinksteinsattel. On the way we met some of the hikers we had taken the gondola up the mountain with. We made decent time and did make it to Trinksteinsattel in the time posted on the signs. Then we started the decent to Neue Grünseehütte. This descent was a little tough on Gina. It did take some encouraging. We stopped for a quick rehydrating at Grünseehütte. I knew I had to make the last Gondola and it would take about 1 3/4 hours to make it there. And the time that had left was about 2 hours. So we started out and I

picked up the pace. Gina was always walking about 5 meters behind me. It did occur that something wasn't quite right. But there's nothing I could do about that. I knew if I don't make the last gondola I will have to hike down Törlweg and that's going to add at least another 2 1/2 hours. And that won't do Gina's legs any good. So yes I did force her somewhat to pick up the pace. I did let her hike in the grass whenever possible. And this kinda "hiking sprint" didn't do anything good for me either. My feet, knees and thigh muscles were hurting, but there was no way I was gonna miss that gondola. If I would have had my sleeping bag with me, it wouldn't have been an issue. I would have just camped on the mountain. But this was not an option. I even considered carrying Gina, but she did fight that attempt either. So she had to walk. Of course I felt bad for her, but at this point I couldn't do anything about it. We finally made it to the gondola with about 45 minutes to spare, which means we won somewhere along the 45 minutes. We took the next gondola down the mountain. That gave us the option that Gina could relax and rehydrate until we had to head to the bus. Took the bus to the train station and 5 minutes later we boarded the train. At Wiener Neustadt we managed to catch the Railjet, which shortened the train ride by about 20 minutes.
Once home first thing I did check paws. Turns out she must have torn up 2 pads along the way. In retrospect I think I know where it happened. Must have been the way down Trinksteinsattel. She wasn't going around the rocks, but had to go them down. Still not sure if it's that alone or if the major contributing factor was the added weight form the doggy back pack. After all she had to carry about 2 Kilo (4 lbs) in weight.
Besides that mishap and the fact that I'll be having sore muscles form the "hiking sprint" it was a great hike. I felt tired but otherwise amazing. The feeling that you're a little sore but you feel happy and reconnected with mother nature. There really is something of hiking on your feet trough forests, grass and rocks. Keeps you centered and of course it's always fun to chat with other hikers and Gina definitely is a showstopper. Everyone wants to know what kind of dog she is.

New Back Pack and new Hiking Boots...

With the planned hike approaching with huge steps it was definitely time to get a new back back. My current back pack probably would have done for a day hike, but I really wanted to replace it. It has taken me a long time to come to a decision. The 30 liter back packs were to small as far as I'm concerned and the 50 liter back backs are too big. So in the end I went with a 40 liter back back. But of course there are still a lot of options. I really wanted a pack that has an integrated rain protection and is ready for a water bladder. That of course limited my options. And to make things even more difficult there is always the question of the empty base weight. I really wanted to keep as close to 1,2 kg (2 lbs). In the end I went with the Mammut Heron. The color would probably not be my first choice. But it meets my requirements and I got it on sale for 40 bucks off. Not

sure how it will do on a long hike. Guess only future will answer that question.
In addition to my back I replaced my trekking poles as well. I used to have Leki poles, but I never was happy with fiddling around to get them into the right length. I was almost every time a hassle and I really wanted to avoid it this time. So I found those poles made by Black Diamond. They cost pretty much the same as the Leki and when I saw the easy way they allow you to adjust the length I was hooked on them.

Next up were my hiking boots. I do have hiking boots that are a compromise between heavy hiking boots and light hiking boots. They do very well in steep areas and gravel. But for flat areas and long distance hikes, they are just a pain in the butt. I could never get as comfy to them as I was with my old heavy hiking boots. So this time I was going to got for light hiking boots. Goes very well for the terrain I have currently in mind. I did my research and the LOWA Renegades seems to be the best choice. But of course you can only tell that when wearing them for the first time. So today I went to the store. Tried them on and compared them to other models. But in the end I went with the LOWA Renegade. Just felt really comfy in them. And at a price for under 200 bucks. But of course I would never ever short change myself on a hiking boot. The big question is how all that stuff is gonna going to do on a real hike.

Maps in the Mail...

While it is true that I do know some Austrian mountain groups very well and probably wouldn't need a hiking map, I just don't like to head out with them. As long as I stay on my planned trail, I most likely won't need them anyway. But as soon as something goes wrong or certain changes are required, I really wouldn't want to miss them. So for my planned hike this weekend I had to get some maps. With my work schedule being quite busy I just didn't have the time to go to a store to get those maps. So I ordered them online and today they arrived in the mail. For most part I'm happy with them. But one map in a scale of 1:50.000 just isn't my thing. Don't know if it is the scale itself or the print of the map. So I'm thinking of replacing it with one in a scale of 1:25.000.