Alpe Cavanne, Fraction Scalaro, Quincinetto – Quincinetto Dora Baltea

Scalaro 1413 m – Santa Maria 915 m – Quincinetto 295 m – Dora Baltea

A pleasant descent, partly along a paved mule track that leads to the Dora Baltea, the lowest point of the GTA.

From the Le Capanne stopover point, having reached the panel that illustrates the paths of the Scalaro area and the GTA, take a dirt road on the left which you follow until you reach the crossroads with the signs for Scalaro. Turn right downhill following the mule track (signposted 831) This descends through meadows and tree-lined pastures along an open, not steep slope, passes a mountain pasture, continues along the maximum gradient along even softer slopes where it crosses the road, and obliques a little ‘ to the right in the direction of another mountain pasture located on the edge of the escarpment (orographic left) of the Rio della Folla. From here the mule track, which first descended into the escarpment, continues its descent running halfway up the left slope of the stream, between groups of birch trees; further down the mule track has been able to preserve its original pavement and heather thrives abundantly under the birches. You go down further, first through pastures and then through a beech forest, until you meet the asphalt road again at a hairpin bend. From here follow the road to nearby Santa Maria 915 m, a pleasant town in the shade of centuries-old chestnut trees, 1.10 hours

In view of the church, leave the road and go down to the right, along the mule track, passing behind it. The mule track continues its descent, between meadows shaded by large chestnut trees and encountering some villages, with a good surface, sometimes paved, the presence of the rolling stock requires 5 crossings. At the last of these you have to travel a stretch of about 400 meters of road, then take the mule track again, which descends on pavement through an alternation of meadows and chestnut groves, passes the farmhouses of Praiale 512 m, and in a broad-leaved forest reaches the Quincinetto cliff, a wonderful panoramic point over the lower Dora Baltea Valley, but above all over the village of Quincinetto, 200 meters below. (Immediately on the left are the cavities under the wall of an abandoned quartz quarry, which can be quickly visited: enormous rock columns were left to support the vault, the rest was extracted and was sent from here with a cableway to Quincinetto) . Taking the paved mule track again, you descend into the small valley of the Siasco torrent and continue the descent towards the now nearby Quincinetto, in the last stretch among beautiful terraced vineyards, 1.15 hours. In the town of Quincinetto there are two at Stopover 1) Mini Hotel Praiale and 2) Casa Vacanze Quincivalle or continuing along a first stretch of via C Alberto: narrow streets, stone houses with wooden balconies, the roof covered with gneiss slabs (lose ) characterize the historic centre. You then take via Marconi and, passing under an arch, you soon come out in the church square. (The church, of a Baroque style which the colors of the facade make original, dates back to 1760: it has a façade with 7 statues depicting Apostles and Saints and a bas-relief of the Saviour). Continue, passing in front of the town hall, along the paved Via Piemonte and then straight along Via Stazione, up to the bridge over the Dora Baltea 284 m 0.15 hours. You cross the bridge thus reaching state road 26, cross it and shortly on the right you can see Stopover 3) Nuovo Hotel Tripoli. The next day you travel north towards Carema for about 200 metres, until where the mule track to Airale branches off on the right, which the GTA follows in the next stage.