Pomieri Hotel Day 4 - Walk 4 Up and Down in Parco della Madonie

Perhaps this will sound familiar: the  morning dawned clear and bright promising another fine day.  We started our day off with so-so breakfasts of a distinctly limited Continental-style variety.  At least the croissants had  some nice flavor.  Our examination of what the hotel provided for our lunches did not inspire joy either but you eat what you are given. We shouldered our packs and headed out the door again just before 09:00.

The Inntravel book does not count the 300m long, descending some 30m along the hotel driveway as part of the walk. Personally, I think that is a mistake since you do have to trod that path too. I think the book claimed the walk would be 13km though I am not sure as I type this of the full stats.  We strode along the elevated highway, which looks really pretty from a distance, to where we would pick up the path into the Madonie mountains. 900 meters of paved road walk, a very quiet road, but a paved road walk nonetheless.   Cows mooed and their bells jingled, dogs barked and birds sang as we walked. A pretty morning.

We left the road to join a track that would gradually ascend for perhaps 500m before becoming more like a mountain trail and beginning the real steep ascent. Sweat poured off me as we pushed upward along the sometimes rocky, always steep, twisting trail. I would have to check the map to be sure but I think we gained the bulk of our ascent, say 200-220 meters,  in considerably less than 1km of steep trail.   Once in a while a view showing the spectacular highway, mountains, and Pomieri Hotel would present itself. What a climb.

It was a relief to reach the top and find an undulating trail that would lead us for another km or so to a forestry-style road that we would follow for over a kilometer. That might sound dull but we were treated to some expansive views of arid  steep mountains and deep valleys as we worked our way  south and west and eventually down into a valley we were going to circumnavigate. The road would fade away into a trail in time (why it stopped I have no clue) and we wound down good trail through the densest forest I think I have seen so far. I believe it is filled with a type of fir tree but other species are no doubt present. 

As we worked our way towards the halfway point we encountered over a dozen people coming the other way. Our notes suggested it would be unusual to see anyone. Well, today at least, the notes were very much in error.   Somewhere not that far away on a mountain road is a “trailhead” people can use to make a valley circuit of a few hours and I think that is what we were seeing people doing. Only Mom, Dad, myself, Maggie, and George had come from Pomieri Hotel. 

As we ate our mediocre lunches in a dry stream bed we watched clouds visibly move across the sky. Even some sizable heavy dark grey clouds passed on overhead. The temperature had risen to perhaps 70F but as we left the lunch spot to start the ascent out of the valley, continuing our clockwise journey, a cool breeze came up from the valley to push us along.  For the next couple of kilometers we climbed along an old concrete single-lane mountain road with unusual water capture and diversion emplacements nestled against the mountainside. 12-15 foot deep basins would capture water and send it under the road to exit the far side. Why were they so deep?

We closed the loop , about 6km, in early afternoon. Leaving the mountain road with fine views for the upland forest  to work our way back to the steep section that would plunge us down along path 3 back to the highway and the 1,200 meters (remember the driveway counts) to the hotel.  I had not been looking forward to the descent but it turned out that Mom would be right. It was tough taking the better part of an hour  but despite loose stones and one slip and semi fall it was not actually that bad.   We plodded down the highway and up the driveway  looking forward to what refreshments we  could get as the hotel came into view just a little after 15:00. This had been a very nice walk and even though it had the steep section it was well worth the effort. It is too bad it has the lengthy highway walk but we only saw one car.

Stats: The day started out almost cloudless but clouds , including some heavy ones, grew more common as the afternoon progressed. The high was about 70F though it was cooling as we returned to the hotel. Total distance 12.6km with ascent/descent of about 610m. This walk had 2 major ascents and 2 major descent: a nice change from simply a long  up and then a long down. We took 58 minutes in breaks; walked about 5 hours 20 minutes.

Photos

1. Not that much farther to the top but here is a view back from where we have been. You can see the Pomieri Hotel to the left of the second curve of the elevated highway.
2. I am not sure if the valley is called Polizzi Generosa or if that is just the region we are in. But this is one example of the vistas we saw walking along the forestry road before returning to the forests and the descent into the valley.
3. We are climbing out of the valley and this was an early scene along the way. The mountains are special.
4. Coming to the end of the mountain-road part of the ascent. We are about to close the loop which means we still have about 3km to go including the more than a kilometer of big descent