We set out to hike yesterday in a somewhat remote region o

f the Dolomites hard by the Austrian border.  In fact, as the buses cease running after August to this place, we had to pay 50 euros to take a cab.   After hiking for almost 8 hours yesterday- we skipped lunch and never left our feet- I could not believe I actually paid extra to do it.

Some of the people in the remote area seemed a little eccentric (notice the shoes)-

Sometimes we found the trail blocked by exotic wildlife-

We went to see these rocky spires called the Oodles (or Needles) which were dramatic- and the perspective changed as you moved-

And the walk had a lot of interest, showing off much of the beautiful South Tirol countryside -

The problem was that we essentially were cramming a 2 day hike into one day and we hiked non-stop on 1/2 powerbar rations for almost 8 hours and near the end we had to hike over this high pass with howling winds-

By the end, we were famished and could have used this place-

  We ended up hiking over 14 miles and about 5000 ft of vertical, though it wasn
t helped by the fact that we went the wrong way and had to retrace our steps uphill for a nonplanned additional 500 ft.  Where is Craze when you need him?  It was not amusing, but it is a great hike if one could do over 2 days, as it has a lot of Dolomitic variety.