Our Refugio last night had a great vibe. All the people there had been hiking together as a cohort for some time so they all knew each other. We were the only newcomers. It was cool getting to talk with them and hear from most of them. I will say, our most awkward question is usually, “so how long are you guys in Italy for?”, which inevitably leads to a discussion about us not working for the past 1.5 years, traveling around, and somewhat monopolizing the group conversation with our story. We don’t need the limelight but it often finds us.
It was warm again last night and I don’t think I used my blanket until around 4:00. It rained starting last night and somewhat overnight but the morning was dry. Breakfast was super weak, yet again. I must have complained about it too much because some woman gave me a meat and cheese sandwich from her pack that she wasn’t going to eat. I took the charity calories since apparently spending €160 doesn’t entitle you to filling meals at the Refugios.
We left 3rd this morning, sometime around 8am. The only people we’d see most of the day were the two people who left before us, Molly and Martina. Molly also happens to be from Seattle. For some reason, I couldn’t get it out of my head that since today wasn’t as long as our last two, it would be over by noon. Zoë kept telling me it wasn’t that short but I wanted to believe.
We left and started climbing and I started sweating. We kept climbing and climbing and my expectations about the day being easy were washed away by sheets of sweat pouring off my torso. There was what I would call some mild exposure on today’s hike but some other folks around us found it terrifying at times.
We climbed forever, considering I didn’t expect to climb much. It just never stopped. When I thought we were going down finally, we’d climb again. Most of the views were covered in clouds so it was difficult to fully appreciate our surroundings. From what we could see, it was another stellar day.
Around 12:30, we finally reached a hut. Since we were out of packed lunches, thank god, we opted for a hot lunch. We got tagliatelle with mushrooms, which we’ve both come to really enjoy. We were joined by both Molly and Martina after about 15 minutes or so. Somehow lunch ended up being like €43 for 2 plates of pasta and 2 soft drinks. I’m looking forward to not being exploited for every meal soon.
After lunch we had about 2 hours left, down to a bus stop. The bus came infrequently so we were all trying to make the 15:15 bus. We left around 13:15, so we’d have just enough time. The descent sucked. The trail was rocky so it was rough, slow going. Also, the lower we got, the hotter and more humid it got, which just added to the discomfort. I was glad we were finishing soon. We made it to the bus stop and so did the others, Martina with about 5 minutes to spare. When we tried to board the bus and buy tickets, the driver told us we had to buy tickets at the restaurant across the street. We all scrambled over to buy tickets and scrambled back onto the bus. Why they don’t put a sign at the bus stop telling you this, I have no idea.
We took the bus from Croce d’Aune down to Feltre. Our hike had ended at the bus stop but our accommodation for the night was down here. We stopped in at a grocery store to buy food and stopped in at an outdoor store to buy fuel for our stove. Tomorrow we’re heading to Switzerland and in a couple of days, we’ll start our next hike. In the meantime though, there’s lots of cleaning to do!