Val Bregaglia

Forget what I wrote last week. I had to pull my turtle necks back out of the drawer. It seems that our spring matches the Oregon one - horrible. According to the paper it's the worst since the early 80s. Today it didn't rain. It's hardly good news though, because instead it's been snowing most of the day! All of last week it was too rainy, too windy, too cold for my taste to ride the bike I brought back from Lausanne now almost a month ago. Finally, on Thursday I carried it up from the basement, put on the sticker (yes, bikes are licensed) and tried to inflate the tires... I only have a small hand pump - and failed miserably. Fortunately Pierre was coming up for the weekend, and he rescued me, or the bike, or my ability to ride the bike! So yesterday, after he left and after the rain finally stopped I went on an inaugural ride. I only went for 15 minutes, because it started to rain - hard. I took shelter for a while, but it was obvious that it was not going to stop any time soon, and I rode home under the driving rain. Today I went for a walk - no interest in testing the bike amid flurries!

So the weather is responsible for a few very low key days. I didn't mind, since I had been on the go quite a bit over the last few weeks, and since I was expecting Pierre for the weekend. We were planning on doing a good hike on Saturday. The unstable weather and the low snow line restricted our choices. Pierre, following his mountaineering nose, picked a great one. The only drawback was some 2 hours travel time each way, but then many hikes out of Portland are that far. Also, the road to the trail head was very scenic. We went to the Val Bregaglia, one of those valleys, like the Val Mustair, that extends south of the Alps and has better connections to Italy than to the rest of Switzerland. We first took the train to St. Moritz. There we boarded a bus that took us by the 3 lakes of the the Oberengadin, St. Moritz, Silvaplana and Sils. At the far end of Lake Sils is the Maloja Pass, from which the road drops by some 10-12 switchbacks steeply into the Val Bregaglia.

Our hike was all below the tree-line, which means also below the snow line. I was not eager to repeat the experience of the previous week. There was some sun, a few drops of rain, a partial view of the mountains across the valley, several impressive water falls, and, above all, fields and fields of wildflowers. We hiked from Vicosoprano to Soglio, along a panoramic trail at the mid-mountain level. Soglio is extremely picturesque and sits on a hump overlooking the valley. The houses are very different from the Engadin, with the roofs made with slabs of granite.


Meanwhile the kids are back in school after a 3 week break. The valley and the town have been very quiet. Most businesses had their yearly closure and neither the tourists nor the locals were in town. Even the main road hardly had any traffic. With the kids back in school things are slowly becoming more lively. Still, tomorrow I am leaving again, just for a couple of days, to travel to St. Gallen to visit my aunt. I'll cook a couple of meals and go shopping for new bedding. At 92 she decided she wanted to sleep in the "nordic style", which is how most folks sleep now in Switzerland: no upper sheet, no blanket, just a huge down comforter!

The pictures:

1. Vicosoprano
2. Some woman by some waterfall between Vicosoprano and Soglio
3. Above Soglio

In case you missed it: my April pictures are now posted on Picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/irenevlach/April2010#