A Long Hike along the Mountain Flank on the South Side of Val d'Isone

Thursday May 20, 2021 -- Really, May has been quite miserable this year. This week, the only nice day was Thursday, and then only in the Ticino. Lucky for us, we could switch our days off, and arranged for an outing down South again. As was to be expected, there were many people with the same idea, but on the route we chose, which was actually quite a challenging trail in the end, we encountered only one other hiker.

We started at Isone in the Isone Valley, where we've hiked several times before, and chose a trail halfway up the mountain flank, walking back out of the valley and around into the Vedeggio Valley (the wide valley which joins Bellinzona to Lugano). A good 20 people got off the bus with us and headed the same way, but they were all going over the pass called Gola di Lago, which we've done twice before, and so we shared the trail with them only for a short time.

We had wanted to do a REAL mountain hike, and this one was definitely a challenge: Although the first half was through lush green forest (so much different than the brown forests we usually experience when we hike here in winter) with a few meadows and a scattering of homes, the second half was on a pretty rugged and difficult trail. The final steep descent to Mezzovico was long and tough as well. But we were rewarded with a few fantastic views, some lovely birch forests, and most surprisingly of all, fields and fields of narcissi, which we totally were not expecting up here.

(Another highlight for the railway fan: In three spots were were standing directly above the new Ceneri Base Tunnel, a newly-opened railway tunnel which greatly reduces the travel time between Bellinzona and Lugano!)

The start of our hike in the village of Isone toward the back of the Isone Valley. There was a lot of construction going on here, so not "idyllic". This is also a military training ground and we heard lots of booms and staccato of machine-gun fire as we walked out the valley.

First a short and easy hike through the forest until we got to the "mid-mountain" flank

Where our forest trail met the road to continue westward was the first spot where we were standing directly over the Ceneri Tunnel

So much lush greenery in the Ticino mountains. We don't often come here when it's green, so this was a treat for us

An easy level road as we head westward, with a few houses here and there along the way. (The saddle in the mountain at the back is Gola di Lago, the pass down to Tesserete, which all the other hikers were doing this day.)

Nice to see colour again!

Here we are, directly above the Ceneri Tunnel again! A photo to commemorate this!

There we are, at the red dot. We crossed right over the Ceneri Tunnel

This part of the hike was easy and very enjoyable

First bridge! Bridges are always fun.

A waterfall and another bridge!

We were pleasantly surprised when we spotted this first of several fields of narcissi

So many narcissi growing wild in the meadows, a pleasant surprise

Behind Urs, on the other side of the Isone Valley, is the village of Medeglia, one of only two communities in this valley

We passed several such waterfalls

Another lovely field of narcissi!

Another view of Medeglia

Here we crossed the trail that comes up from Medeglia, which also goes over the pass called Gola di Lago. We did that trail in December 2018

A rare view of both villages of Medeglia in the front and Isone in the back (where we started), the only two villages in the Isone Valley

This property is actually private but no one was up here yet (these are summer houses), so we had our picnic lunch on this bench.

The end of the "easy" portion of our hike was in this tiny hamlet called Busio, from where a relatively quick and easy descent would have taken us down to the exit of the valley. But we'd only walked two hours, and that wasn't enough for the day.

A fantastic property!

The next section of our hike is through the thick forested mountainside ahead. But first, another field of narcissi!

These wild narcissi are fairly small

This discovery made me very happy

The first glimpse of the exit of the Isone Valley into the Vedeggio Valley (view is to the North)

The next hour to the mountain community of Monti di Brena was across some tough terrain, mostly through the forest though, on a narrow and rocky trail

We were rewarded for our effort with this fantastic view across the city of Rivera northwards to the popular Magadino region (Locarno is around the mountain to the left).

Straight to the West, the beautiful Monte Tamaro. There is a popular traverse from the Alpe di Foppa on the very right (accessed by cable car) across the ridge to Monte Lema out of the photo to the left. It is a spectacular 5-hour hike which we did several years ago, and which I would do again. The trail is not "open" yet due to too much snow.

A sample of the small trail we followed

Some fun vegetation!

The vegetation changed from large beech forest to birch, which is always light and pretty.

After crossing the mountainside on the right, we are now looking North up the Vedeggio Valley. The Isone Valley opens to the right.

A zoomed view of the lovely mountains of the extremely popular Verzasca Valley to the North.

Our climb is pretty well finished, and the trail has gotten easier.

Here is the first and only view we got to the South: That is an arm of Lake Lugano, which curves around the Monte San Salvatore Massif. That is the airport in Agno below.

Another look at Monte Tamaro to the West

A lovely mountain alp called Monti Soldini. From here it is a 1-hour steep descent to the train station in Mezzovico. (The locals must be fast walkers, because there is no way one could get back to Busio, where we came from, in 35 minutes!! It took us over an hour in the other direction!)

We added another 15 minutes to our already 4-hour hike with a detour via Monti di Brena, another mountain hamlet.

Our detour via Monti di Brena, before the descent

Lots of stone walls...

That's one tiny house...

It took us over 50 minutes for the steep, 500-meter descent to the railway station at Mezzovico. There was nothing to photograph along the way, it was just a very rocky path through thick forest.... and hard on the knees!

A tough 4+ hour hike on the South side of the Isone Valley, starting in the village of Isone and ending at Mezzovico in the Vedeggio Valley

Another area where we have done many hikes, on both sides of the Gola di Lago Pass. On one hike we started in Isone and crossed the Gola di Lago to Tesserete on the higher and more common trail. Another time we started in Medeglia and crossed the pass. This time we walked along the mountain flank.

The photos of the 2018 crossing where we started in Medeglia can be viewed HERE

In 2017 we did a round hike starting in Isone and ending in Medeglia, over the mountain on the other side of the Isone Valley. Photos are HERE

And the first crossing of Gola di Lago, where we started in Isone, was in 2015. Those photos are HERE