Pea festival

Sunday, May 31st, Casalborgone (TO).

Pea omelette, Voul-au-vent with pea sauce, Lasagne with peas, Gogu (pea-stuffed ravioli) with butter and sage, meat stew with peas.

I, Maddie and Mr. Bentley at Casalborgone

"Madam, has it been a long time since they make this festival?" I ask to the nice elderly woman that is having lunch with another lady friend right in front of us. "Uhm... it could be atleast thirty years" she says thoughtfully. It looks like in these little villages they all know each other, in fact, sitting next to us, an old man that wants to tell us his opinion at any rate intervenes: "No way! it is atleast fifty years!". After that they say something in Piemontese dialect that i cannot understand. Then the lady, facing me again, adds "Here, for this event, in the past they also used to sell a lot of peas. Then the Lancia factory [car industry nereby] came and the young people preferred a reliable job to the pea plantations. They sold up to two-three hundreds quintals [1 quintal = 100kg = 220lb], you know?" and the elderly man "Two-three hundred? They passed also one thousand quintals!". I love chatting with these people! "I heard there are also guided tours in the historical center town. Is it nice to see?". "It's wonderful" she says, "...it's worth to go to see, although, in only 20 minutes by foot you can see everything there is to see" - "20 minutes? - It will take at least one hour and a half if one wants to see really everything!"... and so on, tit for tat for the whole duration of the lunch.

The festival organization is really good, you pay before at the cashier, choosing from the displayed menu, they give you some tickets with the names of the dishes. When you sit at the table, the efficient volunteers for the local tourist board collect those tickets, and soon they come back soon with the chosen plates and drinks.

For the guided tours at the center town, there is an electric tourist train with three or four wagons ("in the past there were 20 wagons" the elderly man ensures). We preferred to go by car to avoid waiting for the next run. The center is actually very small but it looks carved in History. Every garden is full of colored flowers, every lane opens on a new landscape in the Monferrato hills.

At the typical products market we bought a couple of kilos of peas and some other products.

A lovely day passed in a place of peace and harmony.

website

Pass Pertüs and mount Ocone

After a couple of days with a strong wind, the cold coming from north, Sunday was promising a very clear day.
Maddie and Mr. Bentley were already excited when i was still clung to a nice dream. "C'mon, Fajah, wake up and let's go for a hike!" they incited me shaking my arm with their front paws, dangling tongues and standing ears.
Still snuggling under the covers, i first open one eye, but i close it back all of the sudden, pretending to ignore them. But they insist. Howling and barking they convince me that it's time to start the day.
The sun is not yet risen from behind the mountain, but the sky is really clear. Let's go, then.

Mr. Bentley

I open the door and let them out in the garden for their morning pennies to spend. One freezing wind blast almost convince me to go back to my bed. But the word is done, it's a matter of honor, now.

Maddie

With a quick talk we decide to follow a path that is the natural continuation of the one that climbs up mount Tesoro. Infact if from the end point of that excursion you continue on the same path, you reach, at Forcella Alta, a parking lot in a panoramic view point next to a hotel, a couple of houses and a little lake (frozen) used to water the oxes.
In this point, reached by car (i drove), there is the start point of this excursion. Some people (not really sporting looking) is there to shoot photos and to buy mountain cured meats and cheeses from the usual merchant on his van.
Maddie and Mr. Bentley are already very excited, while i am still a little regretting my cozy pillow... but stop dillydellying now, lets go!
The hike starts on a dirt road that after a few ends up in a wood. Then the path is not very clear, but there are visible signs of red and white paint on the trees. The difficult thing, in this season, is due to the dry leaves on the brushwood that completely hide the harshnesses of the ground under, which thing makes it easy to subside with an ankle between two rocks.
Maddie and Mr. Bentley had the worst of it, and some times they looked almost drown in the leaves accumulations.
Soon, anyway, the woods opens in a nice meadow, where you must coast the ridge next to the valley. Then you go back in another wood (the path now is more clear) where you meet some buildings used in the past for fowling. You reach then a disused convent which

View from the peak of mount Ocone.
From the bottom you can see the lakes of Garlate,
Oggiono, Annone, Pusiano and Alserio.
The highest snowy peak in the background is mount Rosa

little church is being renovated. From there it starts another dirt road that goes down very steep, but we follow the signs towards pass Pertüs (in the local dialect this name means "narrow opening"), and infact after about ten minutes we reach a little bridge that links the two faces of the pass. Here there are some other ruins of structures used in the past for catching migrating birds, activity that is well described on some uselful display signs.
Till this point the path was entirely in a light descent and enough easy, but now it begins the steep ascent to the peak of mount Ocone. Sometimes the dogs aren't able to jump up to the rocks and i have to help them, obtaining in change wide licks as thanks. After twenty minutes uphill here we are finally on the peak. A breathtaking sight. I shot a set of photos and i put them together with Photomerge of Photoshop to create a 360 degrees panoramic picture (click on the photo to enlarge).
It is very cold, every pond we meet is completely frozen, but right for that reason the air is really clear enough to see mount Rosa on one side and the Piacenza's hills after Milan on the other. In the panoramic photo, the peak that look higher, on the left, just after the TV antennas at Valcava, is mount Tesoro.

Ten minutes of rest, Maddie, Mr. Bentley and me, snuggling each other listening an almost deafening silence, contemplating the rest of the worlds, just under there.

The way back on the same path, in the opposite direction.

• Total time: 2:09 (1:22 ro go, 0:53 to come back)
• Round trip distance: 5.3km [3.3mi]
• Difference of level: 20m [66'] (140m [459'] downhill, 160m [525'] uphill)
• Altitude: from 1305m [4281'] to 1325m [4347']

GPS track:
A: Peak of Mount Tesoro; B: Little lake of Forcella Alta; C: Convent; D: Pass Pertüs E: Peak of Mount Ocone

Mount Tesoro

Mr. Bentley

view along the path

There it goes another weekend as a single guy (R. went for a period to her homeland). Saturday it was a cloudy day, and i used it to make some shopping and some works in the house, which maybe i will tell you about in another post. Ah, and i also planned some other works for the day after.
Yesterday morning i woke up early enough and, as a first thing, i looked out of the window. It was still a little dark, but i could see the sky completely clear, in the crisp air. I decided for a change of program, and all of the sudden i called a family meeting.
"Pack mates, did you see what a beautiful day? What about a hike up to the mountains?" - Mr. Bentley started jumping enthusiastically left and right, and with his baritone voice: "Oh yes, Fajah..." (Mr. Bentley and Maddie call me "Fajah" because... Well, let's not start with digressions... maybe i will tell you about this story another time). "Oh yes, Fajah, let's go hiking, you and me, and leave home the stupid girls. We are boys and we always gotta stick together. Then we could also stop for a beer someplace..." (Mr. Bentley is a little male-chauvinist, actually...) Maddie instead doesn't take me seriously, and, irritatedly swinging her eyes goes: "You are really dumb, Mr. Bentley, Fajah is not serious... Majah is not here, and everybody knows you stupid boys give up soon for laziness and you stay all day with your butts on the couch and a beer can in your hands watching the soccer match." (Majah, obviously, is R.).

Maddie at the peak of the mountain

So i took the floor to clarify. "No, no, i am very serious" i reassured Maddie, who begun to wag her tail: "Fo... fo... for really?!?" "For really!" I tell her, and then, to Mr. Bentley: "we ALL go to make a hike... as for the beer, maybe we can speak about it later". Mr. Bentley, a little deluded, but still excited for the hike: "Mmmmh... mmmmh... stupid girls... okay, Fajah"

So, i decide to give up with the home works, backpack on my shoulders, full water bottle, hiking boots, hiking sticks, GPS and photo camera (Mr. Bentley and Maddie, who go much lighter, always look to me with curiosity in this preparatory stage), and go, for a short excursion, just ten minutes by car from home.

Olginate and Garlate lakes
(bulges of the Como lake, at south of Lecco)

With R. and Maddie (Mr. Bentley was not born yet!) i already made this excursion in a snowy day, following then for a much longer distance on a path that, from south, approaches the southern slope of mount Resegone. This time, with the pack, we were happy with the ascent till the little chapel at the top of Mount Tesoro. In my memory the path was longer, maybe the snow did make it much more difficult.
Walking in the snow is really very nice, and it gives a strong sense of silence and peace. In the fall, instead, colors are really touching, from deep green to yellow and red of the leaves, to the brown of the undergrowth, in contrast to the limpid blue of the sky. This path, following the ridge, has views both on the Adda river valley of Lecco, on one side, and Orobie Alps of Bergamo on the other.

It is impossible get lost. The car can be parked in a little lot next to the hairpin bend (shown on the map). The path to take is well marked with arrows to "Monte Tesoro". After a couple of hundreds yards there is a fork on a mule path. This is the only tricky point (in fact we took the wrong way, ending up at a private property). A left must be taken, but just after the fork there is the start point of the path, a little hidden, towards right. The path is partially in the woods, partially on the rocks, til a first peak, where there is the stick for a flag, then it goes down for few feet and then up again till a higher peak with the little chapel of the Alpine soldiers, the war memorial, a little cemetery and a little heliport for the alpine aids. Time for some photos and back at once by the same way.
At noon we were already back home, and in the afternoon i also managed to make all the works i planned. Efficient eh?

other views of the path

• Total time: 1:42 (about half an hour of walk uphill and twenty minutes downhill plus the rest break)
• Covered distance: 3.94km [2.45mi] (round trip)
• Difference of level: 115m [377feet] (214m [702feet] uphill, 99m [325feet] downhill)
• Altitude: from 1301m [4268feet] to 1416m [4646feet]

GPS track
A: parking at the hairpin bend; B: peack of Mount Tesoro; C: Olginate lake; D: Garlate lake

Holy cow, what an excursion!

The cow, Maddie, Mr. Bentley and me
(I am the one wearing sunglasses!)

In the Adamello National Park there is a pass named "Passo della Vacca" ("Cow's pass"), because right there, there is a rock which shape reminds one of an ox.
Next to the pass there is also a little artificial lake that has the same name, next to which, after the dam and the plant of the Electric Company, there is also a building for the Alpine emergency and the refuge "Tita Secchi".

One option to arrive to that place is to walk the path signed with marker #19, starting from Malga Cadino (an alpine farm house reachable by car). We tried this excursion (which unfortunately i don't have the GPS record) some days from the other excursion described in the previous post, but at a certain point, right before the last ascent to the pass, Mr. Bentley had to stop because he was too tired, so also Maddie and R. had to give up.

Marmot

More interesting was instead the other alternative (documented with these photos and the GPS record at the bottom) that we succesfully completed last weekend. Starting at refuge Bazena you follow path #1 (former #18, as reported on Kompass hiking maps). This path, a little longer, but more level, was easy enough also for Mr. Bentley, who could do it safe and sound, although exhausted, till the end, as proved by the photo.
From Bazena refuge the excursion starts with a comfortable white road for few hundreds meters, and then a fork allows to make a detour from the main road and follow the nature path, enough close to the white road but plunged in the woods. On this path there are a lot of signs that indicate with drawings the names of the trees and flowers that can be encountered.

Cornone di Blumone (on the left)
parcially covered by Creste di Laione
(from Val Fredda pass)

At about one third of the path, the forest opens on the western rocky ridge of Monte Cadino, bordering Val Bona valley, where loud and constant whistles similar to bird cries reveal a large number of marmots that we could spy with our binoculars.
The path then reaches Val Fredda pass, where there is a fork. Always stay on path #1. After this point, Vacca pass could be seen, although the cow-shaped rock is still hidden.
Just few meters before the pass, after the last curve, finally the shape of the cow can be seen.
After the ritual photos, still following path #1, the monotonous view of the rocks all of the sudden opens to the enchanting little lake, where Mr. Bentley and Maddie finally found some refreshment. On the right, after the dam, you reach your destination: the Tita Secchi refuge.

After a deserved pause at the refuge (don't miss the warm polenta with melted cheese!) we took our way back on the same path.

To reach Bazena refuge, from Breno, follow the indications to Passo Crocedomini. The refuge is right next to the road. After Crocedomini pass, instead, following to Bagolino, Malga Cadino (the start point of the other path) is easy to reach.

Lago di Vacca and Tita Secchi refuge

• Time to go: 4:05
• Time to return: 3:02
• Round trip distance: 23.8km [14.8mi]
• Difference of level: 550m [1804feet] (993m [3258feet] uphill, 443m [1453feet] downhill)
• Altitude: from 1818m [5965feet] to 2368m [7796feet]

GPS record.
A: Bazena refuge, B: Tita Secchi refuge, C: Val Fredda pass, D: Vacca pass (and rock), E: Malga Cadino