We woke to heavy rain today. After breakfast, one of the hotel/restaurant owners drove us 6.5km down the road to Bossalaschetto to begin our walk. It wasn't really cheating as it was an option offered in our Utracks literature. It was worth it as it continued raining all day.
Cutting off the 6.5km we still had a walk of 14.53km/9.03mi ahead of us. It was a slog. On steep 4x4 tracks, we slipped around on the clay trail. Dan and I each took one hiking stick to remain upright. I didn't remove my camera from my pack so the photos today are all from my cell phone.
At one point, while looking at our maps and trying to decide if it would make more sense to walk further but on the roadway, a tree limb fell not more than a meter from where we were standing. It was crazy.
We did decide to stay on the slippery, steep trail and keep our distance down.
We walked through hazelnut and oak forests. The white truffle of Alba is found in this area.
As we were walking through a muddy, wooded trail just before reaching the small town of Feisoglio, we heard a low growl, twice. We looked but couldn't see the source of the sound. It could have been a dog, but it was definitely bear weather so that's where my mind went. There are small populations of brown bears in the nearby Alps.
Lunch was at a small cafe in Feisoglio. We had hot chocolate and shared a ham and cheese sandwich on fresh focaccia. When we left, there was a puddle of water around where we sat. We weren't there long enough to get dry.
We stumbled into Cravanzana in the late afternoon. We were so covered with mud that the hotel made us remove our boots and gave us slippers to enter. We were soaked. My rain pants seemed to channel rain into my hiking shoes so I walked with wet feet all day. Our room had a heater and a towel dryer in the bathroom so by morning, our clothes were clean, dry, and ready to be saturated with rain again.
Comments
Post a Comment