Italy Trip, Tuesday, July 25 (Day 6)

Today was another “big” hike day, though Kim and I opted to take a shorter route. I’m a bit sore from yesterday’s big up-and-down on the mountain and I didn’t want to push it. I just wanted to enjoy the day and see some beautiful scenery–which we did!

Our hike today was in the Parco Natuale Alta Valsesia (Natural Park at Valsesia). This is also called “Sentiero Galaciologico.” I don’t know what the rest of the name means, but I recognize the “glacico” part as being “glacier,” and that’s one of the things we saw here.

We were down two as Chris wanted to get an xray of his leg as it had been causing him pain for a couple of weeks. He wanted to be sure it wasn’t a stress fracture. Of course, Patricia went with him. So that left 5 women to do today’s hike.

We started up the incline and very soon saw right by the path a beautiful waterfall. Pictures all around, of course. Do you see the rainbow?

Then we hiked a short distance to where we were planning to have lunch. Shortly before this area is where we got our first glimpse of the glacier. (That’s the photo with the two hikers on the left.)

This is the point where the two hiking groups split. Kim and I went one way with Jo; and Nikki, Robyne, and Trisha went on a longer route with Andrea. We planned to meet up between 12 and 1 for lunch.

Our small group of 3 really made this a leisurely stroll. It was still a bit of a challenge with sore muscles and all, so we stopped a couple of times to rest and chat. One of those times was at a beautiful section of a river with waterfall rocks. The sound of rushing water was very soothing. I liked this area so much that I got out the big camera and I hope I got some good shots.

We did some “beauty” shots here, too. We spent so long partly because the clouds kept moving in and out. We waited a long time for the sun to come out at times. That can really make all the difference between a good shot or a great one.

Kim got an awesome picture of me with my “big” camera. She sent it to me, but it hasn’t arrived as I’m finishing this, so I’ll have to post it tomorrow. Everyone says I should make this my new Facebook picture, but we’ll see. I think it does show me looking kind of like a professional photographer, so I like that!

After a while, we mosied on up the hill a ways to a bridge over the river. At this point, we’d have to start a pretty steep climb, and because it was kind of late–and I felt “lazy,” we decided to just turn around and go back to the restaurant. But we did take a selfie at our high point first, and also got a good butterfly shot.

We expected that the other group would catch up with us since they were coming down on the same path, but they never did. We got all the way back to the restaurant and were way past our 1 PM timeframe. Then we waited a while more and still no folks.

Jo decided to head back up the trail (she ran all the way up and back!) to look for them, but didn’t see them, but she on the trail and I in the restaurant saw a rescue helicopter head up the valley, and a short time later head back out.

Kim and I decided to think best case scenario would be that Andrea (who works on the rescue team himself two days a month) and the ladies ran into someone who needed help on the trail and stayed with them to ensure they got lifted out. Next guess was that perhaps it was one of our folks who went out by helicopter.

Unfortunately the latter scenario turned out to be what happened. Robyn had slipped off a big rock and landed in a funny way on her arm and had injured it. Andrea convinced her she needed to be flown out, just to be sure. He had to find a place to get cell reception and called in the helicopter from there.

So it could have been worse. Eventually Nikki, Trish, and Andrea made it down to the restaurant and Andrea got regular updates from the hospital. (Have I mentioned that he knows pretty much everyone in the area?) Turns out Robyn had broken her arm (more of a dislocation, she insists), so she needed a cast and would meet us back at the hotel. She actually met up with Chris and Patricia at the hospital and they all came back together! (Chris did not have a stress fracture, BTW, just some inflammation, so it’s all good.)

Anyway, by this time the rest of us were reunited, finished lunch, and headed back down to the trailhead and then the hotel.

We had a fabulous dinner here at the hotel. We head out for our next destination tomorrow morning, so packing is in order tonight. Since Robyn is my roomie, I’ll be helping her pack up–at least get the suitcase closed. 🙂

Several of us thought that kayaking was on the itinerary tomorrow, but not so. It’s going to be kind of a relaxed day with only a 3-mile walk, a boat ride, and wandering through a town. I’m ready for a relaxed day, and then kayaking will be the day after.

Chiao, all!