Adventures in the Alps -- Part V: Calancatal

On Monday,25 September 2005, still a bit sore from clamboring high above Braggio the day before, we set out to walk up the valley to Cauco and back along the River Calanc.

A nice view of the solid concrete road. Authorized vehicles can drive into Braggio this way.

Oh, and there is really an electric fence between Ellen and the cow. Scott wanted it photoshopped out. (You can't trust anything you see in these annals.)
But we truly do see some amazing views. Here we are looking north up the valley. At the bottom of the picture is Selma, where we will have lunch on our way back.
Now we are on the downhill run to Cauco. Ellen wanted a record of the trail blaze.

There is a major valley to navigate. "Oh, really?" No, Auriglia.

Of course Scott would have liked to climb up it. You could get back to the avalanche hut where we ended up yesterday, climbing up here. Ellen said, "No."
Near Cauco the road begins to switchback down, and the trail shortcuts the switchbacks through farms and fields.
This is Cauco.
Here we are walking along a kind of natural dike along the river.
Ellen tries out the macro feature on the camera on this honeybee.
While we eat our lunch out of doors at a pub in Selma, we admire the aerial tram to Landarenca.
A sewer repair on the road out of Selma has us detoured and at first we miss the cutoff for the trail.
But soon we are wandering through a wonderland of enormous boulders. All these must have fallen from above, or tumbled down the valley.
Our way takes us across a rustic bridge or two.
Ellen contemplates a waterfall formed by a tumble of huge rocks.
The waterfall from the downstream side.
Scott thought this gravity-defying pile-up was worthy of note.
There was a scary, broken bridge to nowhere across the river -- so of course Scott took it, over and back.
Arvigo springs into view. Isn't this gneiss? We are almost home, and it's not even dark yet.
In the morning, Peter takes us to Arvigo on the cable car for the last time, so we can catch the yellow postal bus to Grono, change for Bellinzona, and get the train to Milan.
Scott caught this shot of the narrow two way roads that our bus driver --and the truck driver ahead -- navigated fast with utter confidence. You would not want to be a pedestrian here. This might or might not be S. Vittore, but it is for sure the end of the Alps tour!

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