2023 Corsica – Jerry Pierce

2023 Corsica Hike

May 25 – June 4, 2023 GR20 hike – southern section

The same group that did the Peru hike in 2018 decided to meet again for another hike! Originally we were planning on going back to Peru, but political unrest in Peru helped us move to a different location – Corsica France! We decided to do the GR20 hike! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GR_20
Our GPS track is shown: https://caltopo.com/m/5KG8S

Starting the hike

Tim as our spiritual and guiding leader – not.

Corsica seemed to have this head on many places around the cities – including all the ferries. It is from the Flag of Corsica:

The flag of Corsica was adopted by General of the Nation Pasquale Paoli in 1755 and was based on a traditional flag used previously. It portrays a Moor’s head in black wearing a white bandana above his eyes on a white background. Previously, the bandana covered his eyes; Paoli wanted the bandana moved to above the eyes to symbolize the liberation of the Corsican people from the Genoese. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_and_coat_of_arms_of_Corsica

We used the local travel company “Couleur Corse” to schedule our trek.
https://www.corsica-discover.com/the-entire-gr20-trail-self-guided-tour/

Corsica is part of France and located south of the mainland and west of Italy. The full GR20 goes longer, but the interesting part is in the center. Many ridges and high ascents. https://www.hikingexperience.net/trails/gr20/map-and-stages-gr20.html

It was planned to be 13 days, but after 6 and the heavy rains, we decided we would stop and call it a day. The rain predictions were for a lot more rain – and lightning – not great for the ridges!

We arrived on Friday May 26, 2023 with flights from SFO to Atlanta to Nice to Ajaccio (a-jock-see-oh) Took a cab from the airport to our Hotel Le Dauphin near the trail station and the downtown. Great location! Got a recommendation for a fabulous dinner and the team was back together!

Saturday we went to “visit the town.” Went to the home of Napoleon – he was born in Ajaccio and seemed to be worshiped by the town. One could say they have a Napoleon complex. But that would be wrong.

Near the water they had an open market. Of course the bread looks fantastic!

Sometimes you can’t be held to a window…

The water seemed to be warm (only Pat waded in the water) and many were out enjoying the rays. We were having beer and pizza.

Sunday May 28 we met our tour company at the train station to start the hiking adventure. 7am departure.

We even had some chains to help with one steep rock.

And we arrive at the start of the hike at Bavella

And in the afternoon the rain/hail came down. We expect rain, but not as much as this!

We start the trek by following the “double yellow” markers. While this is a very popular hike and it is well marked, it is more like an off-trail type hike. I would call it a “class 2” hike. We happen to like that type of hike, but it was unexpected.

And we arrive at our first home – Refuge d’Asinau. We used the tents on the right of this picture. There were hot showers, two toilets (with a conveyor belt delivery system) and an inside dining area.

LOTS of other campers. Most were French – a few others, but we didn’t run into any other from the US

Always good bread!

Another view of Refuge d’Asinau as we departed the next day

Cow in the kitchen? We had a number of friendly cows in camp.

Looking down the valley back to our first stop!

The second day of hiking started similar to the first. Starting in steep rocks we followed the white-over-red marking of the GR20 trail

Some get way too excited to reach the top

But then it began to shift to more green and forest-like

We decided he must be bad to eat since he was so brightly colored!

A horse didn’t make it. There was a cliff above this spot and we figured he fell to his death. In the Sierras the bears and mountain lions would have removed all the bones.

And we arrive at our second home …Bergeries de Bassetta this time in a bunk-house, not a tent. This may be my favorite spot – great hostess and good food. Fun warm bar area.

We had a pretty spectacular sunset

There was a family of pigs running around (we needed to keep our gate closed so they wouldn’t visit our bunk house.)

We had local entertainment!

Day 3 we start in the woods with clear skies.

The clouds begin to roll in and we head up to the ridge and back to rocks (and clouds getting closer)

We saw a number of little villages from the ridges

And we arrive at camp 3 – Refuge d’Usciolu Not my favorite camp. No dining room and the food was cold by the time we could eat it. They did have hot showers! Maybe it was because I tripped on the way to the toilet and did a face-plant in the rocks.

The again, the sunset was awesome!

Fun little birds came to visit – Chaffinch

We made an early departure (5:50am) so we could get past the peaks before the thunderstorms. Made for a beautiful sunrise over Italy!

A viewpoint and we exchanged cameras with other hikers to get our group shot

Tim doing his thing…

Up on the ridge

Ridgeline hiking

And day 4 we arrive at Refuge de Verde! Not a bad place, hot showers, only 2 toilets and a grumpy proprietor. At least the tents were 3 person!

Very nice woods to walk through…

Unsettled weather makes for the best photos (and nasty hiking)

The iconic tree of Corsica

Fuzzy friends

Many stream crossings…

And we arrive at lodge 5 – a ski resort during the winter – U Fucone Capanelle

Another adventure in the rain

Morning departure was nice…

And we head out for our last day of hiking …

This is looking at the North GR20 – something for another week

The rain forecast was bad. If we were to continue we would be facing harder hiking at the ridges, slippery granite, LIGHTNING! no great views and being very wet. So we ALL agreed that it was time to cut our losses and take the train to Bastia and find our way home