Fodara Vedla early in the morning Our first morning on the AV1 was stunning (July 3); clear blue sky and lots of sunshine in a gorgeous valley.  Even though we had a shorter day of hiking, we still got up early and walked around Fodara Vedla taking pictures of the little mountain huts, the cows and the mountain peaks.    We caught up with Seth Meyers and his wife, Alexi for a few minutes that morning before breakfast and then hit the trail around 9am.   Our destination was Rifugio Lavarella, only 8.5 km away with much less elevation gain and loss than the day before.  We only had 512m to climb and 418m to descend.  And the descent came in the first 45 minutes as we hiked along a shaded, forested jeep trail down to Pedaru.   The final part of the descent gave us incredible views of the valley, Rifugio Pedaru and mountains Col dles Fozores and Sas dai Tamerse.   

From Pedaru, we made a sharp 90 degree turn and headed straight up another valley.  The climb was exposed and it was another hot, hot day.  We hadn’t yet learned we were in a heat wave and would be for the remainder of our trip.   The Gran Valuns that I had loved from the day before kept us company along our left side as we made our way up to the summit.  We saw our first fresh water in the form of a beautiful little stream and were impressed by the Fur cia dai Fers that flanked us on our right. 

Gran Valun

Once we reached the top of the climb, things leveled out and the majority of our work was over for the day.  

Piz di St. Atone

Since we had all the time in the world, we stopped for a little break on these funky little benches placed at one of the trail intersections and enjoyed some of our sack lunch.    We then had another climb, but paid it little attention given how distracted we were by the stunning Piz di St. Antone that was radiating with the rays from the sun.    When we were nearly done climbing there was a beautiful little farm sitting in a gorgeous meadow facing the Piz di St. Antone.  Here we stopped and even pulled out the tripod.  It was incredibly picturesque.    Just around the corner from that farm was Lavarella, and we arrived around lunch time (~1pm). 

Rifugio Lavarella was very different from Fodara Vedla.  The owners were very much Austrian and it was a very busy place and they made incredible food.  Dinner there was one of the best we had while we were out on the AV1.  Lee had an unbelievable polenta with cheese and prosciutto, I had tagliatelle with venison sauce and dessert was a tasty hot apple crepe/pancake thing all chopped up and dusted in powdered sugar.   

The rooms at Lavarella were also very different.  We still had a private room and it was very nice, but it was incredibly narrow.  

At the junction between Rif. Fanes and Rif Lavarella

Our beds were stacked end to end, there was a little sink, a chair and about 18 inches between the sink and the beds for us to walk through.    The view out the window was beautiful though.    We checked into our room, grabbed our lunches and went out to enjoy our lunch at Lago Verde, a lake just a few minutes’ walk away.  But, between the time we checked in and got our room situated, the weather had changed dramatically.  We weren’t at the lake long before a thunderstorm and a ton of rain rolled in. 

While it rained, we showered and reviewed the trail for day three.  Of our nine days, day three was one we were most worried about having good weather for and being strong enough for.  After experiencing the afternoon thunderstorms our first two days on the AV1, our concerns were very real that we wouldn’t make it to Lagozuoi before a storm rolled in again.   

After the storm cleared that afternoon, we sat outside at 

Lavarella

one of the picnic tables and got to know Scott and Kim Armstrong.  They are the parents of three great kids (10, 12 and 14) and they were out doing a few days on the AV1- and had also been at Fodara Vedla the night before.   We realized by that second day, that the people we met on day one we were likely to see over and over again as we made our way to Forno di Zoldo (our final destination).   Of those encounters, the Armstrongs ended up being among our favorites.

Day 2 was one of our easiest, but despite it's brevity we still saw gorgeous countryside and were super excited for what the next day would bring. Pictures from Day 2 are here.