Our last day in Cogne Valley dawned bright and sunny again.  Because we would be traveling back to Milan in the afternoon to catch our flight out the next morning, we had to plan a less ambitious hike than the day before.  Luckily, there is a gondola in Cogne that could take us up to 2100 meters, so that we could start around the altitude we had reached before.  From there, there is a loop trail to take us even higher and still get us back soon enough for a timely departure.  We met up with Karen again for this hike and rode up the gondola as a group, along with two tourists from London.

We had not gone very far along the trail before we reached our first lookout point, a charming spot with picnic benches and diagrams identifying the surrounding peaks and valleys.  Our path was to take us up a ridge that parallels Valnontey, one of the tributary valleys that branches off from Cogne.  We could see the small community laid out in its base, with a swift mountain stream flowing past.  The stream carries meltwater from the Gran Paradiso glacier high above.  Gran Paradiso is the only 4000-m alp entirely within Italian territory (Monte Bianco being shared with France), and should have been visible to us if its peak were not consistently shrouded in mist during our hike.

It was during a break on the upward portion of our hike that a bit of magic happened.  Nick was resting on a rock a little bit ahead on the trail, and heard the sound of hoofs striking rock.  Turning his head, what did he see?  An ibex stood perhaps ten feet away!  It made its way further down to cross the trail between us, and was eventually joined by a second — perhaps its mate.  We had heard that there are ibex in the park (and, in fact, the park was created in part to protect them) but had held only faint hopes of seeing one, perhaps at a great distance.  They have recovered somewhat since they were hunted for sport by the Italian nobility, but there are still only 3000 of them in the park today and they tend to stay at the highest elevations.  The pair of mountain goats crossed the trail and descended a ways into the woods, where they seemed to be rooting around for some sort of food.  We left them to their business, carrying a warm feeling inside.

Not too long after the ibex encounter we reached the summit of our loop trail, a rocky outcrop above the treeline offering views in all directions. One sight visible on the far side of the valley was the former Cogne mine, which was the highest altitude mine in Europe while in operation. It was too high for road access, so the magnetite ore was carried down to a lower station by cargo gondola. The mine is memorialized now with a museum at the lower site but we didn’t have a chance to visit it. Next time!

Since the weather was sunny and the temperature pleasant, we decided to have our lunch on a convenient rock a little way down from the summit.  Leftover pizza from dinner the night before tasted delicious when seasoned with such surroundings!  As we were ending our meal, however, we noticed that the pocket of sunshine we were sitting in was growing smaller, and some ominous dark clouds were beginning to head in our direction.

Sure enough, not long after we packed up and started down again, the clouds caught up with us and it began to rain — lightly at first, then with more intensity.  Rain was not a problem since we had brough rain gear and pack covers, so we broke it out and continued on our way.  The small hailstones that soon began falling on our heads were more concerning — fortunately they didn’t last very long!  By the time we had made our way back to the upper gondola station, the rain had stopped again and we were able to ride down.

The rest of the day was spent driving back to Milan.  From the autoroute we were able to get a few pictures of familiar sites from new vantage points.  We dropped Karen at the train station in Ivrea so that she could make her way to the Torino airport, and we in turn headed for Milan.  Our accommodations are right near the airport, and are quite comfortable despite having the air of a converted garage.  For dinner we ate in the only restaurant in town, which was quite busy.  To help the waitstaff do their work more efficiently, the restaurant has a robotic busboy named Bob to bring plates to and from the kitchen.  Progress? 

On the walk back, we snaped a picture of some attractive clouds.  Seems like a fitting way to end our account of this marvelous trip.