It's mid-July, I'm returning to Valsassina in Barzio, in June I was only there a few days. Like previous years, I don't spend anything because my brother allows me to use his house for the holidays for free. My program is to walk on the Grignone from Pasturo as a healthy physical exercise in the open air, tread mule tracks, enjoy the cool mountain climate for a few hours in the heavy weather of the sun high on the horizon or in the hottest hours, protecting me with sun cream well spread on my skin, wearing a hat on my head and sunglasses, drinking. I will finally be in nature, free, light, in the fertile meadows, in the shade of the plants, listening to the cows, and I will take some meaningful photographs. Then, at the table, at work, on my new Lenovo laptop, reading the articles from the blog Grignone in the slope of Pasturo that I published last summer to review them. This commitment consoles me because I write about dear places and mountains and motivates me, prolonging the activity of going on trails. I discover that writing is a useful exercise in general, because it requires research, study, analysis; the outcome, remaining as a letter, has an indefinite future development. In me there is the sadness of the loss of my father, who on a morning at the end of July last year, just while I was at Pialeral, called me from the Manzoni Hospital in Lecco to request medical documentation for a final consultation on the tumor to the tonsil from which he suffered.
As in the last two seasons, since 2014, I begin my excursions with the same route, the first part can only be from Pasturo to Cornisella. From the church of the Alpini in Cornisella, the locality just over a thousand meters above sea level in a central position on the Grigna Settentrionale, I take the secondary path Sentiero Cornisella - Brunino, a common route for mountain bikes, marked with the new Pedalling in the Park trail signs. The recent signs prompted me to write a new post, signage of the trails, and add tags to my photos. On level ground and in a cooler climate I walk along the three houses of Spinarolo and in its scenic pasture. If it's lunch time, I stop to eat a first course at Agriturismo Brunino, the price is modest. From Barzio to Brunino, passing through Cornisella, it is a not too long and tiring excursion, round trip, it takes about two and a half hours with five hundred meters of altitude difference, I am not very fit, I would like to avoid having sore legs. Furthermore, I have not been well, the chronic pain in my back has been compounded by pain in my face and teeth, it is better to stay calm and covered. I return to Cornisella with the Sentiero Brunino - Cornisella.
Then, with a few kilometers in my legs, with the trail-running shoes and the faded red The North Face Animas 12 backpack on my shoulder, I'm ready for something more: again this summer I will climb to the thirteen hundred meters of Alpe Cova. Leaving the main mountain road, from Cornisella to Alpe Cova Valsassina opens up from above in its splendor with the Orobie mountains. On one of the benches in the Alp pond, lying in the shade of the trees, near the wooden crucifix, I will regain the strength lost from the climb and from my health, poorly cared for by the doctors and off-axis. Al fresco I will contemplate the Grigne. The non-competitive running and cycling race Pasturo - Alpe Coa is scheduled for Sunday 24 July, which I would like to attend, and participate in the mass, like four years ago.
For the subsequent walks and runs on Grignone, at zero cost to the environment because they start from home, my holiday plans to climb a little further, remaining within the paths and locations of the blog as if they were borders, to the Rifugio Antonietta and the basin of Pialeral. Until mid-September, more trained, I will have time to relax and repeat the routes between Pasturo and Pialeral numerous times.
