On a Lighter Note: Birthdays, Waterfalls and a 68 Shaped Cake

The tradition continues for my daughter to accompany me to a new waterfall each year on my birthday. This year's is the Ortinola Waterfalls, a cascading waterfall in the Maracas Valley. The day stayed sunny for our walk as it crisscrossed the river that led to this lovely spot. The many levels of this kind of waterfall invite exploration and wonder.

My granddaughter made brownies (my favorite), cut them in pieces to form a 68, added candles and then both grands carried out their surprise singing Happy Birthday. Made my day even more special. 

It capped off my annual retreat, regroup, rethink time that nourishes and energizies me for the coming year. I like having a birthday in January for just this purpose. 2014 promises to be an eventful year galloping along on horse energy after the inward energy year of the snake.

Hike to Corno Grande

Saturday dawned clear, sunny with temps in the high 60's. Perfect weather for a hike. Seven friends gathered and we set out for Campo Imperatore Wilderness to hike the highest peak of the Gran Sasso massif in the Apennine Range, Corno Grande (9,554 ft.). The parking area is at about 7,000 ft. and the trails fork off from there. The temp at that elevation was a delightful for hiking 57 degrees. One friend decided to enjoy the already wonderful view from there and six of us set out, four men and two women.

This is where we were headed, Corno Grande. See the people ahead of us on the trail?

The sky really looked like that when we started, utterly clear, deep blue, remarkable. We came to a fork with the left trail marked "normale" and the right for the "Alpinistas" who do technical climbing. We took the left trail.

Looking back at the trail. See that thin ribbon of trail in the center of the photo? That's our trail. Steady elevation gain with a few scrabbly places of loose rocks, little purchase and steep drop offs. In other words, the thrill of good hiking spots.

The other woman in our group dropped out just below one such place and headed back to keep our other friend company. The four guys and I hiked on. The sky continued to amaze us and the views in this rocky, moon- like landscape were sureal but cool.

The four guys and some of the little vegetation we encountered.

We stopped for a late lunch at a spot about 8,500 ft up and were awed by the vistas. The peaks all around us seemed to go on forever, like they've been there forever.

This was actually an opportunity to sit on a relatively high rock pile once we decided to stop.

Me with my Honey feeling exhilarated. Since the days of owning two Alaskan Malamute dogs, hiking has been a shared passion- California, Colorado, Banff, and now, Italy.

Views from the other direction.

At which point some clouds started to roll in.

But, oh the views…

As the white cumulous clouds gave way to darker ones that brought a drop in temperature, we talked it over and decided we had left too late to make it to the summit this day and still get back before the weather deteriorated further or we lost daylight.

We'll go again. Start earlier. Reach the summit. But sometimes it's just about the hike itself, the camaraderie of friends, the heart stopping vistas and the secret joys of being with your Honey and leading a hike up new mountains at age 65.

The "Little Tibet" of Italy and Spaghetti Westerns

What do Spaghetti Westerns have to do with Campo Imperatore, sometimes called the "little Tibet" of Italy? That question was answered yesterday on the way to hike in this stunning area with my husband and friends. Campo Imperatore is a large plateau 4921 feet above sea level, 18.6 miles long and 6.2 miles wide and overlooked by  the tallest peak in the Apennine Mountains and located in the Gran Sasso National Park.

Turns out that some of the Spaghetti Westerns, so-called in the US (called Italian Westerns in Italy), were filmed here. I could just imagine it as we drove along. Miles and miles of open, uninterrupted  land with hills and mountains in the distance. I pictured the cowboys on their horses galloping freely and doing all those things that cowboys do. I imagined the delight of the directors in finding this gem of a location which looks like the old wild west of the US. As if to oblige my musings, we even saw some horses grazing along the way.

But, back to the Italian Westerns; they were a sub-genre of Western films dating from the mid-1960's. Sergio Leone was probably the most famous of the Italian directors and among the best known of his films were: "A Fistful of Dollars", "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly", and "Once Upon a Time in the West". Ironically, they were originally released in Italian by a man who spoke no English and had never visited the US, but nonetheless redefined the image of the cowboy. They further expanded to include other directors in Italy and Europe and were then called European Westerns. Over 600 European Westerns were made between 1960-1980.

We had our first glimpse of Corno Grande, the highest peak (9500 feet) in the Gran Sasso Range of the Apennine Mountains, as we turned a corner near our hike destination in Campo Imperatore:

The rewards for hiking up to 7800, besides the exhilaration of good physical exertion on an absolutely crystal clear, 74 degree day, were these views:

Corno Picolo:

Corno Grande:

Flags of Italy and the European Union put up on top by the Club Alpino Italiano:

A happy hiker at the top:

What is exhilarating you this summer?