Lago di Braies’s beauty is apparently not a well-guarded secret. Its stunning location and road access mean that anyone who can afford the 6 euro parking fee can come here and enjoy the lake. And they do…

On the shores of the lake there is a fancy resort, with restaurants and souvenir shops and a short walk from the hotel there is a dock with boat rentals.

 

There are also quite a few hiking trails winding up and away from the lake, so I decided that in addition to walking around the lake, I would take one of the trails and explore the area away from the lake.

Oh, but the crowds! As beautiful as this lake is, the number of people walking the trail around it got me to detour quicker than I was planning on. Wanting to get away from the humanity I quickly veered off the around-the-lake trail and took a narrow path up a hill.

But I didn’t know where I was going. Before long it became clear that this path was taking me back towards the parking lot from which I came. So, I did a bit of a loop and started the around-the-lake treck once again.

However, I did get to snack on some wild strawberries, so it wasn’t a complete waste of time.

The side trail I wanted to take was 58 towards Weisslahnsattel (I can speak neither German nor Italian, so the dual language signs here were of no help to me).

When I finally got to it, I went up. And up and up. This proved to be a rather steep climb on a trail full of loose rocks. Still, I’ll take the rocks over people any time.

From the top, I could catch glimpses of the lake, and far off cattle grazing fields.

I eventually did come down the 58 trail and rejoined the pilgrimage around the lake. I petted a few dogs, helped a couple of families with their pictures and learned Italian just by listening to it (wish Danish worked like that).

Despite the throngs of people I encountered, I did have fun on this hike. And quite the work-out too.

(Please note that although I’m capable of doing a lot of things, I still haven’t learned how to walk to water. The GPS signal must have glitched for a while there and unfortunately, it shortened my hike by creating a shortcut across the water! Still, I clocked in over 11 km.)

This hike:  11,21 km; 396 m of elevation gain; 2 hrs 35 min moving time.

YTD Hiking Km: 36,35