Start: Rifugio Coda/Finish: Rifugio Barma, 7.4KM, +493, -708
There's no sign of last night's storm as I head out of the hut. Today is mostly about descent, with the trail taking a longer path that avoids the majors cols on the way. For more fit hikers, this day can be combined with the previous day to make one longer and more strenuous one.
We are NOT going to Mars (Monte Mars is the highest peak in the area, and the name of the nature reserve the trail crosses)
Unlike yesterday's solitary, today it feels as if i'm at the edge of civilisation. First I walk past a farm where a family with two kids - boy and girl wearing boots and nothing much more - are taking the cows out to pasture. A while later I find myself on a dirt path with recent tire tracks. There are clearly active farms around, and many hiking trails. I even pass a "cheese for sale" sign, but no one is around as I go to investigate.
With so many crosses and madonnas and other Christian artefacts and building around in the most unexpected places, it is only the guide book having mentioned a black madonna that makes me look for it. And indeed, set in a wall there is a statue of the madonna, undistinguished other than it being black.
Nearing Lago Vargno, I take a wrong turn and find myself circling the dam from the south (and wrong) side. I see the AV1 on the other side, but decide not to correct myself and they both lead to the same place. My trail is a narrow path in the forest, above the lake, with the occasional rope for an easy climb down.
At one point the drop is just a bit too much for my short legs, and I find myself having to take my backpack off, lower it down, and then carefully lower myself. Being lazy, I also throw my walking sticks (rather than tie them to my backpack), nearly loosing them both. What I do end up loosing is a plastic water bottle that was affixed to my backpack. It falls down the hill, and I spend a few minutes trying to figure out how to retrieve it, only to accept that it's not just not possible without some serious risk. I have a full water bladder in my bag, so it's not about loosing the water or the bottle: it's about leaving plastic laying around.
With a short apology to the gods of nature, I continue and quickly reach a small lake where I stop for picnic. Soon I find myself in a highway, with what feels like dozens of people walking or running past me. Turns out this is a popular excursion for people going up to Rifugio Barma, and suddenly I actually share the trail with others.
A short yet strenuous hike brings me to a marshy area, full of water and boulders, with Rifugio Barma nestling between two lakes. It is there that an un-careful step sends me flying, splayed with each leg bent in a different direction. As I slowly move each limb and pray that nothing is broken, I say thanks to the location: if I have to get injured on a hike, this is a perfect location, being 20 seconds away from the hut.
Luckily, in spit of the pain, nothing is broken or sprained (I will have some nasty bruises for the rest of the trip). The area around Rifugio Barma is teeming with people, including a guy with a surfboard! The entrance to the hut is modest, hiding a modern, polished, newly built hut, with unlimited hot water, plenty of electricity sockets, lights with motion sensors and an indoor hammock.
Yap, that white dot in the middle of the lake is a buy on a surf board
I share the 10-bed room with 2 Italian women, who are clearly trail runners, special group of people I feel humbled by. As I try to understand how to apologies to them (without speaking any Italian) for my planned 6am start tomorrow, one of them shyly turns to me and apologies for their early start - they will be setting for their run at 3am...
Rifugio Barma: An unassuming entrance to a modern hut
Reading on the hammock, dinner (with a menu to choose from) with wine and off to bed. Tomorrow is a long day, and i'm fearful.
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