Day 1…6/3/2…8.4 miles…3573 ft gain…Conca to Bivouac de Paleri…Stage 16

QB and I started the day at our Airbnb in Bonifacio, a true gem of the Mediterranean (from what I’ve seen of it, which isn’t much). We took two buses and got to Sainte Lucie de Porto Vecchio. From there we walked about a mile with our thumbs out and got picked up by Florence who drove us the next 3 or 4 miles to where the trail starts-basically in her backyard. 

The first mile was a stiff climb and then we were in the mountains. Granite peaks all over the place, it’s been really cool. At 3 miles in there was a series of waterfalls and pools, perfect for a dip. The rest of the walking today was challenging especially with the heat. Not the hardest thing I’ve ever done but it wasn’t cruiser. Short mileage but a fair amount of elevation gain. 

Wild camping is forbidden in Corsica. I guess if it was allowed then people would be absolutely everywhere since this trail is packed. So every night we have to camp outside of Refugios at a cost of 9€ pp. It’s double if you haven’t reserved it ahead of time and more if you want a bunk inside. We can’t just go as far as we want and throw down a tent wherever, Because of all that we scheduled an 8 day hike and today is a predetermined short first day.

The adjustment to this style of hiking will take some getting used to. For instance, everybody here is showering and maybe even washing their clothes? Seems odd to me. 

Day 2…6/4/25…19.2 miles…7,995 ft gain…Paleri to Usciolu…Stages 15, 14, 13

Got an early start today and we’re walking before 6. We had to cover a few miles just to get to the end of stage 16. The GR20 is broken up into 16 stages and is designed to be done in 16 days. We’re attempting to do it in 8 days which we thought beforehand would be reasonable. And most people do it north to south, we’re walking south to north and the guidebook and most info is based on hikers walking south. So everything is in reverse therefore stage 16 is stage 1 for us. Since yesterday was a short day, today and is gonna be a fair amount beefier. Anyway, we walked into Bavela around 8am, the real end of the first stage and took a quick break. We picked up a couple ham and cheese baguettes here to eat for dinner tonight.

From Bavela we opted for the alpine variant for stage 15, a spicier line than the regular trail that goes out and around. This variant brought us way up into some really cool mountains. It was steep up and down, even descending with built in chains at one point, but nothing too airy. Just before we got to the end of stage 15, I took a dip in a river so I got my “shower” out of the way early. 

We ate a few snacks at refuge d’Asinau then began a rigorous climb up Monte Incudine. It was seriously difficult, has me doubting a bit if we can complete this thing in the time we gave ourselves, especially since everyone is warning us the north is supposed to be more difficult. After the peak we had some cruiser downhill and then some pleasant miles through something of a plateau. I spooked a wild boar, never seen one before. I know they’re out here because wild boar stew is a famous Corsican dish but not sure how rare they are-I’ll let you know in a few days. 

I thought we were home free this evening but the last 3 miles were along a spine of a few mountains, nothing too crazy just slow going. Got into refuge d’Usciolu just before 7 and wolfed down our sandwiches. We hiked for 13 hours today and covered only 19 miles. That included stages 13,14, and 15, as well as finishing stage 16. The footing is difficult and there was some serious elevation gain which I don’t think is out of the ordinary. Definitely feeling like maybe we bit off more than we can chew. We’ll see. They say it’s the most difficult trail in Europe and so far I believe it.

Day 3…6/5/25…19.4 miles…5,314 ft gain…Usciolu to Capanelle…Stages 12 and 11

Ran into our first Americans today(besides each other) a father and 2 sons from Tennessee who have previously hiked the AT. This trail is crowded and it seems like everyone is speaking French. The language barrier is more challenging than I anticipated, I mean most people can speak some English after you ask them but my French is abysmal. Working on it. Mastered “merci” and “bonjour.”

The walking today was chiller than yesterday. Stage 12 started uphill and then was slow going as we walked back and forth between mountain peaks along a ridge. After a few hours we dropped down and it was more mellow. We stopped at Col de Verde for lunch. I asked for 3 ham and cheese sandwiches, 1 to split now and 1 each for tonight. Then I asked the waitress for 2 of them to go. Now these aren’t your typical ham and cheese sandwiches, they’re aged cheese and cured meat on foot long baguettes, plus butter. Absolutely delicious. She brought me 5 of these things. Sadly I had to send 2 back after we cleared up the confusion. 

This afternoon the trail was really chill. Actually had 2 perfect swimming holes and I couldn’t help myself and swam twice. Never showering again. We got in to Capanelle at the base of a ski mountain and paid 20€ to tent here. Then we ate our sandwiches. 

Day 4…6/6/25…17 miles…5000 ft gain…Capanelle to l’Onda…stages 9 and 8

Did stages 10 and 9 today. 10 was cruiser, nice trail brought us mostly downhill all the way to the town of Vizzavona. This place is basically the split between the north and the south sections of trail. There’s a train station here so you can access the start of either side, or you can bail. For the sake of splitting this blog post into 2 North and South, I’ll include stage 9 in the South although it’s technically part of the North.

They have a couple restaurants in Vizzavona but we got here around 10 and they don’t start serving food until 12. Like, doesn’t anyone around here know how to make a euro? Instead we bought all the makings for ham and cheese baguettes at a little shop and picked up a few snacks for the rest of the day. 

The walk out of Vizzavona brought us along a river for awhile with some dope waterfalls! And there was a bunch of emerald pools below them perfect for swimming. Four days in a row now, still starting to smell a little funny though. After our swim we climbed steeply up onto a ridge and then down the other side. Most of our elevation gain was in the last few miles today and they were slow going. 

We got to refuge de l’Onda and set up our tent among a million others like we were at Woodstock ‘99. I took a little bird bath and scrubbed my Hawaiian shirt with some dish soap. QB cooked up the hiker trash special, ramen and rice. 

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for the next post to read if we made it through the north or not…