Episodes
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June 6, 2022 — debriefing the GR20 in Pinarello
We got a ride to go catch the bus, and then waited, and waited... and then finally someone told us that it’s a holiday. So, no bus. Taxi quoted €450 to Bastia, seriously. Tourist office guy suggested staying over in nearby Pinarello, and since Anthony‘a flight isn’t until tomorrow, that’s where we are. Beach town.
We bought picnic lunch, walked to Pinarello, got a room at the nice, cheap Hotel Golf, had a nap. Rented a 16’ cat and went sailing for a couple of hours, then very good dinner at La Source and thyme and wild mint ice cream afterwards.
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June 5, 2022 — Stage 15 — Bavella to Conca — 12mi / 1,800'
Bad sleep indoors in the gîte. At this point I was fully adapted to sleeping outdoors in a tent, and much preferred that to being in a room with other people. We had breakfast and then left at 8:30, walked to Paliri, had coffee, and then a long, humid walk through descending maquis and big exposed slabs of granite and red rock. Beautiful, pretty much all the way to Conca, where we decided to stay at the small ** Hotel San Pasquale. Sort of anticlimactic ending as there is no big crowd welcoming you at the end of the GR20 ;)
Strava GPS: https://www.strava.com/activities/7259513735
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June 4, 2022 — Stage 14 "alpine variant" — Asinau to Bavella — 6mi / 1,600'
30 minute debate and observation about the weather to decide whether to take the “Alpine” route. At first we though no, but the sky opened up blue and we went up. I had a conversation with Anthony about paying attention. Dramatic views, lots of rock. Arrived in Bavella for lunch and then checked in to the gîte at Auberge Col du Bavella. We ran into the French here yet again and we all had dinner together.
A short day over beautiful steep red rock terrain with a good lesson in intuitive decision making.
Strava GPS: https://www.strava.com/activities/7253102102
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June 3, 2022 — Stage 13 original route — Uscaliolu to Asinau — 11mi / 3,200'
By this point we've learned that it's usually better to make ourselves breakfast than buy the set breakfast from the refuge. We decided to take the slightly longer "original route" to the next refuge, which is like a stage and a half. Weather was overcast, with a few raindrops.
The second half of the day was hard, a long ascent of about 1000m up to a windswept peak with a big cross and then a very steep descent of the same. 1000m downhill is rough.
Asinau refuge was very nice, and they served an excellent lentil dinner and had a nice shop with local charcuterie. Again, not crowded, but the gardien (ranger) told me that the night before they had 80 people, tonight only 25. In the high season they have 200-300 people! Argh!
We slept in rented tents — clearly the way to go, as long as you are doing the GR20 in a season when it's not too crowded.
Strava GPS: https://www.strava.com/activities/7253097745
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June 2, 2022 — Stages 11b & 12 combined — Relais San Petru to Uscaliolu — 10mi / 4,250'
Morning walk on well graded trail uphill to the Prati refuge and then beautiful hiking beyond Prati with clouds forming on the lee side of the ridge. Walking through beech forest at Bocca a Meta, the air was thick with insect life. Not pests, just alive.
We then came down to the col there where the Mare a Mare Sud crosses the GR20 and I stopped to read the informational sign there, discovering the town down the valley below of Guitera-les-Bains, which has the best natural hot springs in Corsica. It was just then that I smelled the maquis for the first time on this trip. Up until then I had expected and hoped for this magical scent, but had not yet had it sweep over me as it had when I was here with Kirsha one winter some years ago. Someone I spoke with confirmed that the season to experience the maquis is early spring, and so it hasn’t been everywhere as we are a bit late. At this place though, the scent of wild thyme was strong, and I sat amidst it for a while, and then showed Anthony, at which point we found wild arugula (rocket) growing with the thyme, and ate some on the spot.
As I was carrying on from the col, ahead of Anthony for the moment, I came upon another person, and we dropped quickly into conversation. This turned out to be Goulven le Goff, making his was south on the GR20 (at the moment), self supported and wild camping (backpacking, not staying in refuges).Goulven walked with us to the Uscaliolu refuge, and we had him as a guest on the podcast before he continued on to wherever he camped.
This refuge was situated in a rocky gully, not quite as pleasant as many of the others, hot and lots of flies with sort of a youth hostel atmosphere. We slept again in rented tents. Good pasta dinner but it wasn't quite enough to eat.Strava GPS: https://www.strava.com/activities/7253114268
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June 1, 2022 — Stages 10 & 11a combined — Vizzavona to to Relais San Petru — 17mi / 4,500'
We ran into the French kids as we were beginning the trail for the day. Started very fast, and Eloise called us “machines.” We reached the end of stage 10 by noon and had lunch there. This is the first day with easy, well-graded trail, although it was blocked for a while in the afternoon by a group of big cows. We got to Relais San Petru about 6pm and had excellent dinner there in warm atmosphere of the privately-run refuge.
This private refuge is also situated on a road and there were a lot of people there, but still, it wasn't crowded. We slept in rented tents.
Strava GPS: https://www.strava.com/activities/7241366063
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May 31, 2022 — Stages 8 & 9 combined — Pietra Piana to Onda to Vizzavona — 13mi / 3,600'
We did a "double" today from Pietra Piana up along the ridge and down to Onda for lunch, and then up and over another pass and down to Vizzavona. Another outstanding day in the mountains and we have been very very lucky with the weather which has been ideal — mostly sunny, some afternoon clouds, very little rain, not too hot, with a nice west wind today. We came across some incredible granite swimming holes this afternoon with a massive plunge pool to dive into, in the gorge above Vizzvona. It was getting late and so I ran the last 5km hoping to get to ‘town’ before 7pm, and I did, but only just barely in time to find a place to stay and eat before everything shut down for the evening. Part of the challenge of doing long days on the trail here is finding food at the end as most refuges serve dinner at 6 or 6:30, shops close at 7, and hotels, where they exist, serve from 7 to 8pm. That aside, we did get dinner and a bed, although the owner of the hotel in Vizzavona was very anxious and basically unfriendly.
The village of Vizzavona is situated on the trail line that runs from Corte to Ajaccio, and is considered the halfway point of the GR20, because the train offers an easy entry/exit. There is a refuge / campground, but we chose to sleep in a gîte and eat at the hotel restaurant.
Strava GPS: https://www.strava.com/activities/7233418219
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May 30, 2022 — Stage 7 — Manganu to Pietra Piana — 7mi / 2,800'
Beautiful day, also very tough. Steep uphill right away leaving Manganu, then up through a dramatic portal notch, to a lunch spot up high above the lakes in the upper Rezzonica watershed. We ate spaghetti from a thermos and then traversed along a sharp ridge before dropping down to next refuge, which offered a fine dinner of lentil stew accompanied by Corsican music and a diverse, social crowd. Still only 20-25 people at the refuge. Like the last one, this refuge feels quite remote, and has a real mountain vibe.
The refuge was not crowded. We slept in rented tents.
Strava GPS: https://www.strava.com/activities/7228318944
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May 29, 2022 — Stage 6 — Castel de Vergio to Manganu — 11mi / 2,000'
Lovely and fairly easy 10mi walk traversing forest, then up and over into the upper Tavignano basin and the Lac de Nino, where we stopped for lunch. Very beautiful and views north to Monte Cintu and south to Monte Rotunda. We caught up with the young French ‘team Amazon’ at the first bergerie (still closed for the season) and then had a swim in the river as it formed its first pools, leaving just another couple of miles before the Manganu refuge. Here we came across the biggest crowd we’ve seen so far, and it was still less than thirty people. Beautiful, remote setting.
I learned today that the the controversial legend of the "Moor" emblem on the Corsican flag tells that Jaime of Aragon would have chosen it after a Corsican of his entourage presented to him on a white sheet the severed head of one of the Moorish slaves guilty of conspiracy. Another hypothesis according to which King Theodore of Neuhof paid homage to his faithful Moorish servant who would have saved him from a criminal plot hatched against his person, illustrates the birth of the Corsican flag, "A Bandera."
The refuge was not crowded. We slept inside in the bunks for once, because it seemed like a cold night, but this was a mistake. The refuge was too hot, stuffy, and there were some bugs :/
Strava GPS: https://www.strava.com/activities/7226406550
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May 28, 2022 — Stage 5 — Tighjettu to Ciotullu to Castel de Vergio — 10mi / 1,500'
It was a hard morning walk up to the Ciotullu bivouac at the pass. I was tired and hungry after not much breakfast. We lost the trail for a few minutes and ended up in the “forest of frustration,” with a bunch of the dreaded Pine Processionary Caterpillar https://web.cortland.edu/fitzgerald/PineProcessionary.html
We had a swim after getting off the trail, but there were more of the caterpillars in the stream. I developed a nasty skin irritation a day or so afterwards that was with me for most of the rest of the trip.
We had a nice lunch at the bivouac and then a short nap to a thundershower soundtrack. After lunch we took off down the hill towards Castel de Vergio and found a perfect swimming hole halfway down the descent, ran into team Amazon again on the way and arrived at CdV in time for laundry and a a nice dinner.
Anthony left his tent open and a baby pig stole some of his precious vegan vittles!
It's up to both of us, that's how that works. We decide to get into some sort of mens work group processing. Super fun!
The refuge and hotel at Castel de Vergio is on the main E-W road that crosses the Col du Vergio pass. There is a nice restaurant, rooms, laundry machines, a store, and also deluxe rental tents with beds, which is where we spent the night.
Strava GPS: https://www.strava.com/activities/7219483364
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May 27, 2022 — Stage 4 — Haut Ascu to Tighjettu — 8mi / 4,500'
I enjoyed breakfast a lot, with yogurt and two coffees, and got “leave last, move fast,” as the message for the morning. We motored up to the pass below Monte Cintu in record time, passing many other parties along the way. There was only a tiny bit of snow left up high, and it was soft enough that we didn't need to use the micro-spikes that we'd brought along.
Once we got to the pass, we left our big packs and just took lunch with us up to the summit of Monte Cintu, easy enough 2nd class but slow going with the group, and then a long, very steep 1000+m descent down to the Tighjettu refuge which took longer than expected.
Anthony and I reached the refuge at about 6:30pm. Dirk and Pablo had gone ahead and thankfully reserved dinner for all four of us, which we enjoyed quite a lot. Dirk and Pablo said their farewells as they had decided to set off early and fast in the morning.
The refuge was rustic wood construction, and again, not over-crowded. We slept in rented tents.
Strava GPS: https://www.strava.com/activities/7219498049
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May 26, 2022 — Stage 3 — Carozzu to Haut Ascu — 5mi / 2,800'
We had some light rain for a couple of hours in the morning as we ascended the lower part of the gorge going up from Carozzu. We took it slow as it was a bit exposed moving over slippery rock above the river gorge. The weather cleared about halfway up, and we motored up to the pass where we took a break to regroup.
We debated for a while about an alternate to the standard descent via Punta Culaghia, but decided in the end to follow the trail as normal, 1000m straight down to Ascu. We arrived early, relaxed a bit, and had dinner at the restaurant there. I was a bit disappointed at first that we didn’t attempt the alternative route, but it was the right decision for the group. Pablo helped lead a lot, and we swapped head and tail and at the pass when we were making the decision about the route, he suggested that if I wanted to make a go of it, he would be happy to descend with Anthony. I asked Anthony how he felt and he said he was “unsure,” to which I replied that that was clearly “no” to any alternative route, because in the mountains you don’t add any variables unless you are at least 90% yes. Pablo’s input helped me see that there was no sensible way to split the group, and so, decision made, we all descended together.
The refuge at Ascu is situated at a road head with a small ski station, hotel and restaurant. We slept in rented tents again.
In the evening I downloaded a book about Corsica called
Granite Island https://www.amazon.com/Granite-Island-Dorothy-Carrington/dp/0141442271/ which proved to be outstanding reading along the trail.Strava GPS: https://www.strava.com/activities/7205442646
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May 25, 2022 — Stage 2 — Ortu di Piobbu to Carozzu — 5.5mi / 2,300'
We took the high alternate route from Ortu di Piobbu over Monte Corona and Capu Ladroncellu and then rejoined the main trail at about the halfway point. I was feeling super strong, just about running uphill with a 15kg pack. Anthony and I agreed that I was doing the “goat work,” and I said that has been part of my vision for who I want to be in my 50’s — a mountain goat.
From the mid-point on it was a very rough going, scrambling up and down, and then a very long steep descent to the Carozzu refuge. I felt fine but Anthony was wobbly and Dirk was moving more slowly too. We took it slow and reached the refuge about 3pm and were able to have a shower, that was super nice. We met a bunch of people at the refuge, and saw Pablo again, who we had met the night before, and invited him to join us on the trail the next day.
The refuge was not crowded. We slept in rented tents. Nice dinner on the deck overlooking the canyon to the west.
Strava GPS: https://www.strava.com/activities/7204980033
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May 24, 2022 — Stage 1 — Calenzana to Ortu di Piobbu — 8mi / 4,800'
Anthony and I met Dirk at the Poste in Calenzana and then the three of us set off. Climbing straight out of town we quickly gained 700m, half of the day’s ascent, and then stopped for lunch at Boccu u Saltu at 1250m where there is a nice little meadow. Anthony and I played catch with a frisbee for a few, my anxiety growing. Just as I called a halt I stubbed my toe on a rock, but no major damage. Beautiful walking through tall pines and granite on a steep slope, with views down to Calvi. We arrived at the Ortu di Piobbu refuge about 3pm. 5 hours walking plus an hour stopped. Perfect start, great weather. Anthony is in good form, and we nicknamed young Dirk “Data" while recording this first episode at sunset.
The refuge was not crowded and we slept in rented tents. Good local food and a handy little store at the refuge.
Bowen's full intro to the GR20 and details on Day 1: https://decidenothing.substack.com/p/the-corsica-gr20-intro-and-stage
Strava GPS: https://www.strava.com/activities/7199003030
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