hiking 25:00 [3]
Hike from Stresa to Alpino, the long way with several unintentional detours as I kept not quite following the signs properly. It is part of a trail marked from Stresa to Mottarone and the plan was to hike to the top of Mottarone and then back down halfway to Alpino and take the bus back down the rest of the way. I still do not know how I took the wrong route out of Levo, but I wandered for about 20 minutes down a lovely road before taking out my phone to figure out where I was and realizing I was not where I wanted to be. I got back to the last sign, and tried again but still couldn't find a sign pointing in any direction other than the way I had just gone. So I took some random twisty roads that went in sort of the right direction (basically up the mountain) and finally stumbled on the trail but from completely the wrong direction. By the time I got to Alpino I wasn't sure I could make it to the top and back down again before the last bus so I just called it a day and took the next bus back to Stresa. I did not have a good map with me as I had assured the trail was well marked. Which it generally was, but buying a good map would have been the smart move.