Polina Day 5 - Walk 5 Down and Down and Down

The quads, the quads, they shiver and quake. That is how I expect them to react when I go down the cobblestones this morning in an hour for breakfast. They will still be reacting to the huge descent we had to endure on this walk. But I am getting ahead of myself.

We were pretty sure the run of clear and sunny days was coming to an end when we woke up Tuesday morning we found an overcast sky with some patches of blue gamely hanging in there to cheer us up. They did not last. When we left the hotel the clouds had conquered and the temperature was about 58F. Not much wind but it was clearly going to be a different day. 

The walk is supposed to be about 18km with 500m ascent and 1,500m descent. There is a shortcut you can take that cuts up up to 2km (I have my doubt) and 140m ascent/descent. We started at 08:45 and tramped down the 300m driveway to the highway where the first 900m would take us to where we would enter into the mountains  along paths that would first take us up and down and up through the valleys behind the Pomieri hotel. Once again cowbells rang in the distance and dogs barked as we went by. It is not the most scenic of sections but if you squint you can find something to admire. 

By late-morning the clouds couldn’t retain their  watery loads any longer and a light rain began to fall. It was not much of a bother but we did put on rain-gear and kept marching up and down through the grazing lands. A large group of German walkers caught up to us coming from someplace else. We’ve no idea where they were going.  We kept heading on and found the odd low shepherd’s hut with quite a few men and one woman hanging out. I assume they were the ones to build the crackling warm fire in the stone fireplace. We could not really communicate with them. Made things feel a bit odd.  It was here we decided to skip the climb up to the top of Cozzo Luminario as we figured the views would be limited at best even though the rain had stopped. After all the clouds were still low in the sky.

I think the shortcut we took saved us a bit over a kilometer as we walked down the sometimes steep mountain road through forests of perhaps oak and other trees. We aren’t sure if we took the “official” shortcut as the directions left us confused but we found the Refugio.  The smell of wood smoke drifted to us on the breeze and it was, to me, a lovely welcoming aroma. They were open. We found people inside by the fire having hot drinks. We learned you could have a hot lunch. Dad and I did. Mom said the sandwich from Pomieri was decent but our pasta was a real treat. Two pasta dishes and a glass of house red wine for 20 euros. We enjoyed the food and company of a german couple and swiss twosome for 45 minutes. We learned they , at least the Germans, were staying at the place we are at. They had driven up to this refugio to go hike to the top ofCozzo Luminaroo (they did and had some views). 

When we left the refugio Maggie and George, who had gone to the top, were just arriving. We set out to deal with the remaining 8km. At this point we figured the walk would be all downhill.  We figured we had upwards of 1,000m descent still to do. That is a lot of descent. Much of it was on a mountain road or two-track. Some of it though was on a nasty, not quite a kilometer, steep rocky section that wound past animals with high-pitched bells. Too add annoyance the views just were not that much to  look upon. Down and down and down.  A slog. A tiresome slog. The sun would pop out briefly on one 2km stretch of gentler descent on a soft dirt two-track that was great underfoot but that was a lull before a final treacherous bit of trail.  The path down into the valley where this farm/hotel sits is in horrible shape. Narrow, rocky, poor footing and steep in spots. It was a real pain to push through those couple hundred meters to reach the valley bottom. At which point we still had the last 300m or so to climb back out though that was a relief. Still, surely a better way in exits - mustn’t it?

In many ways I think this walk would have been great had it ended at the mountain refugio. The endless descent is just no fun.

Stats: We walked for just over 7 hours and took about 95 minutes in breaks with half of that enjoyed in the mountain refugio. The temperature started around 58F and I expect it dipped a bit during the rain but rose back into the upper 60s by the time we finished the walk just after 17:00. Total ascent 271m; descent was 1,312 (that matches well with the book numbers since we did not climb to the top of X which would have added 140m up and down). Total distance: 17.35km which either means the shortcut was not that long or the real long walk is well over 18km.

Photos

1. You can see Pomieri hotel in the distance as we work our way across the mountains of the far side (as sen from the rooms we had been in) of the valley.
2. It is a misty morning but right now the rain had ceased and Mom and Dad can add some color to the washed out mountainous world we are moving through.
3. THe mountain refugio where we spent an enjoyable lunch.
4. I am not sure what town you can see in the distance but it may well be part of Castelbuno and perhaps where we will go Wednesday.