Refuge Larcher al Cevedale

Alpini's chapel at Malga Mare

Still on the same subject, here we go with another excursion we made just the day after the one at Lago della Vacca.
The original intention was to hike the "anello dei laghi" (="lakes ring"), that connects the starting point (Malga Mare), before reaching refuge Larcher, the lakes Careser, Nero (=Black), Lungo (=Long) and delle Marmotte (of the Marmots).

Still a little tired by the day before excursion, instead, we decided to leave the lakes for the next time and reach the refuge Larcher on the shortest, even if less spectacular, path, and then come back on the same.

Refuge Larcher

Malga Mare (strange name for a mountain farm at almost 2000 meters! ["mare"="sea"]) is reachable by car from Cogolo (TN). After some kilometers the road becomes really narrow and a driver begins to hope not to cross anybody in the opposite direction.
At a certain point, to keep driving a fee (2 euros) has to be paid to the guys of the Stelvio park, next to a parking lot. But we have not yet reached our destination: from that point there is still about 10 km to go before reaching the end of the road, where there is an hydroelectric generating station of the electric company and a parking.
Here, besides the Malga, there is also a little chapel dedicated to the Alpine soldiers and some picnic tables into the pinewood on the brook banks. Some cows are free on the fields.
The path starts with a fork: on the right it begins the path to lake Careser. We followed the other option marked #102 to refuge Larcher.

Refuge Larcher and Cevedale mountain glaciers

The best part is the beginning where the path winds in hairpin bends uphill among grassy fields, pinewoods and roaring torrents over which there are some little wooden bridges. In this part I was also able to see a deer. When arrived to the top it begins a long tract on a rocky path that goes till the destination.
At a certain point once arrived to plain "Venezia", there is another fork. The marker signs to Lago Lungo on path #146. Going straight the refuge starts to be visible while walking for a distance that looks neverending. The landscape opens on the perpetual snow of the Cevedale mountain glaciers. On the opposite ridge of the valley the Noce Bianco torrent, with its rapids can be seen. From the refuge, built right next to the cliff, a breathtaking view can be enjoyed.
The refuge, that has, besides the restaurant, also some bedrooms, can also be used as a base for several other excursions.
After a break and a sandwich with the local speck we took our way back on the same path.

• Time to go: 2:35
• Time to return: 1:52
• Round trip distance: 13.8km [8.6mi]
• Difference of level: 660m [2165feet] (794m [2604feet] uphill, 134m [440feet] downhill)
• Altitude: from 1953m [6407feet] to 2614m [8576feet]

GPS track
A: parking at Malga Mare; B: refuge Larcher; C: Pian Venezia plain; D: Lake Careser; E: Lake Nero; F: Lake Lungo; G: Lake delle Marmotte

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

Todeschi's path

Trail marker

Chair lift

The holidays, short but intense, is finished already since one week, but only now i finish preparing this post, both because of post-vacation blues and because i spent some time writing the Javascript code that, from now on, allows me to insert a GoogleMap frame with the track recorded by my GPS, a good companion for our excursions in the mountains.
The Senter de' Todeschi ("Path of the Germans", in the local dialect) is so named because it was marked by the Austrians and Germans during World War I.

After parking the car at Pejo Terme, we caught the lifts to reach Doss de' Cembri refuge.
The first half of those lifts is a safe closed cableway.
The second half instead, scary for anybody like me that suffer from dizzy spells, is an open chair lift. Although there is no restriction for dogs, this last half can be made with your best friend only if he/she is so small you can hold close on your lap.

Bridge on torrent Taviela

Let's say that to me it was a particulary "educational" experience, with Mr. Bentley a little fussy on my knees (who intelligibly wasn't feeling very safe), and with the fall that, i was certain, would have happened for some accident.
When we arrived, unbelievably unscathed, next to the refuge, the welcome came from a herd of goats, which not particularily smart-looking was interpreted as an outrage by Mr. Bentley who tried in vain to drive them away barking.

The excursion begins climbing a comfortable white road for some tenth of meters, coasting a torrent, till a ford next to a little dam. The real path begins after the ford.
The route is level, without big difficulties, but it is very scenic because the entire Pejo valley can be seen from the southern side of Crozzi Taviela mountains.
After a while the path crosses the Taviela river on an unstable little bridge, made out of metal cables on which there is a footbridge made out of wooden boards. The only point in which some attention must be paid is a place that can be crossed pointing your feet on a trunk attached to a leaning rock, holding on to a metal cable a little over.
A little after that point there is a fork with another path that allows to go back to Pejo Terme by foot. We prefered to return the way we came, stopping at the bridgewalk for a snack with bread, cheese and fruits that we had in the backpack.

The distance we made is only the first part of the Todeschi path, that follows long after the fork. The altitude is always between 2300 and 2500 metres and we made it, back and forth, about five hours. Kompass map n. 648.

Here the GPS track of the excursion.
A: the refuge Doss di Cembri, B: the little bridge on the river. From A to C the chair lift, from C to D the cableway.

Castrovalva

Castrovalva

This incredible place is named Castrovalva and it is a fraction of the municipality Anversa degli Abruzzi.

Driving the motorway Roma-Pescara take the exit Cocullo, heading towards Scanno. Once crossed Anversa degli Abruzzi, you enter the Gole del Sagittario canyon, and after a little bridge a fork on the left heads to Castrovalva.
After few hairpin bends on a tiny road you can start to see the little village on the top of the mountain ridge coming, until the road thread its way in a cave digged in the rock to come suddenly out the other side of the ridge. Just another little bit and you're done. The road ends up over there, with a couple of parking lots.
It's all about a few houses, three churches, a (closed) bar and a bed and breakfast with few rooms and a couple of little apartments, one of which we rented (the B'n'B is easy to find but i will avoid to praise it, since the keepers belong to those kind of people that, allthough never missing to complain for the services not working, they carefully avoid to give their due contribution to the community, giving the fiscal receipt to the customers).

The thing that amazes the most of this village is the absolute, almost deafening silence, broken only by nature noises... a flock of birds, the swish of the wind, the meowing of a cat... During the holidays (we spent over there also May the 1st [Labor day, in Italy]), some people go there, and some noises can be heard from the neighboring houses, and from the motorbikers, three hundred meters [1000 feet] below, on the Gole road. But the mood of peace and quiet is still prevalent. Also the scents are different, they smell like rare herbs, exotic gardens.

M. C. Escher, Castrovalva (1930)

The disconcerting idea that one thinks of, observing Castrovalva, is that it looks suspended up there challanging any gravity law. This sensation is well given on the painting by M. C. Escher that lived there for some time. Yes, I'm speaking about that painter of the Moebius ribbon rid by the ants, and of the monks busy climbing forever the impossible stairways... (looking to the painting, in the landscape, bottom right, you can see Anversa, and behind, far away, Cocullo).

Map of the excursion
(from the WWF brochure)

The climate was perfect for a good excursion. Let's put on the hiking shoes, then!
We started walking on the white road signed as path n. 18, that goes to the little cemetery and follows on a comfortable hiking path in the woods. At a certain point you can see from the top the town of Anversa, which, covering the path, can be kept as a reference. We went down under the level of Anversa, till the Cavuto sources, on the Sagittario river, where there is the WWF park center, reachable also by car from Anversa. We stopped for a rest in the garden, where Maddie had plenty of cuddles from a bunch of Roman tourists come there by bus. R. shot some photos to the bushes of herbs that are grown in that garden, each one with its sign that shows the name, from the most common ones like thyme to some others never heard before (Anversa was famous in the middle age for growing medical and magical herbs...).
After a half an hour rest we took to our hiking again along path number 17, which at first follows the coast of Sagittario river, a hundred meters under the level of the road, and then it goes uphill till it reaches the little bridge where there is the fork to Castrovalva. Here the forest finishes and the main road must be followed, till the hiking path starts to climb steeper among the rocks, cutting the hairpin bends, till Castrovalva, at the opposite side of path 18 starting point.

Walking slowly we took about three hours and a half.
The excursion is wonderful, except maybe the last part which, if made in the afternoon, is the most demanding tract under the hot sun. Infact my suggestion is to hike the ring in a different way: park the car at Cavuto sources, climb to Castrovalva on path 17 in the morning, still fresh, and get back on path 18, much easier and downhill, after.