Day 3 started with probably the best breakfast of the hikes, complete with espresso bar coffees! The hike today was notes to be one of the easier days so we didn’t rush our meal.

Heading out, we had an easy road down to the valley, hiking with several others at the start. When we paused for our traditional group selfie a lady offered to take one for us. What we got was the full service faux drone version!

The road down had some nice view points, lots of shade, a few water troughs that we decided to not drink from, and cows, lots of cows!

The road sucked us into a state of downhill apathy, aided by the delicious wild strawberries we found along the way. At one point we saw several cars and the park police taking pictures of a recently logged area. Our best guess was too many trees were removed from an area and the debris was blocking the trailhead. Or at least that’s what I’m claiming as I blissfully lead the way further downhill only to realize we had to turn around and go back up to the logged area…

Once on the trail, we continued down, down, down. After crossing the road and entering a a new section of park, we paused for lunch on the side of a stream. The next section was going to be straight uphill to the famous Lago Sorapis and our rifugio for the night.

The uphill hike was no joke, starting out on a fairly smooth but steep trail and then transitioning to sections of rock scrambling. Not many pictures from this part since we were trying to get up as quickly as possible. We had lots of people on the trail with us, both going up and coming down. I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge that Italian day hikers are just built different! We saw people hiking in damn near dress clothes, carrying very small or no backpacks, using no trekking poles! A common theme was a well put together lady carrying nothing followed by a slightly less together man with a pack. Then there was us, 4 very sweaty (and I’m sure smelly) Americans fully kitted out with packs and poles. Granted, we were doing this for 6 days but I feel like the typical American day hiker would not have looked much different! 😂

As we neared the top, the clouds that had been threatening for a while decided to follow through with their promise and a gentle rain began. At first it felt fabulous since we were so hot from the uphill hike. Once at the rifugio though, we discovered that we were too early to check in and had about 2 hours to wait. With our rain gear on but soaked underneath it wasn’t until we were chilled. The patio of the rifugio was packed with day hikers as Lago Sorapis is a major tourist attraction. We eventually scored a bench under the eaves and slightly protected from the rain. Still chilly, we ordered three delicious hot chocolates and that was a big boost of morale!

Eventually we noticed that some other people who had been waiting to check in were gone and that’s when Josh discovered that they had let people start checking in a half hour early! Grateful who get out of the rain, we exploded into our room and hung up stuff to dry. I was shivering still so I snuggled up into my sleeping bag and ended up having a bit of a nap!

The rifugio was quite small overall, sleeping maybe 30 people total. Dinner was served at a single time in the dining room and once again the food was solid! Since the money issue had been sorted we splurged for a couple of drinks. Knowing that the drinks were not refrigerated, we opted for a radler instead of a pure beer. While waiting for dinner we taught Tserka how to play euchre, ensuring he is a true Hoosier now!

All through dinner we watched to see if the rain would let up but it continued. As we got ready for bed, there was a window of clear and Steve and Josh ran down to the lake to take some photos.

Stats for Day 3