Pievi di Tivo e Rifugio Orazio Delfico – giro ad anello

Variety is a must, but please not like this! 2 days ago it was 29°C and sunny, but today after 30 percent of the tour it rained heavily, stormed and the temperature dropped to 2°C. I had to fight my way up about 1000 meters in the storm and rain. Even the waterproof gloves were completely soaked. And today everything started so well. I started in the morning when it was already 20°C and sunny. But I was skeptical, so I packed 2 long shirts, a jacket, and rain gear and gloves just to be on the safe side, you never know. And it was good, even with that I was really cold at the end, my fingers were half frozen in the wet gloves at 2°C. There were no shortcuts, I just skipped 100 meters of elevation, which would have taken me to a ski lift, and the path was covered in snow... Once I reached the top of the mountain, I went down the other side with a fantastic view for many kilometers on a fantastic mountain single trail, some of which was challenging. I lost the way once, but luckily found it again. Things like that can end badly up here. At a small hut, I met two Italians who had spent the night up there. They were wide-eyed when I came to meet them from above. They were also skeptical when they found out where I was going. That made me a little unsure. But luckily they were hikers and not bikers. In any case, I changed into dry clothes there, and the sun even came out. Despite that, I continued quickly without another break, since I now know how quickly the weather can change here. Further down, some herd dogs chased me briefly, but I was definitely faster ;-) At some point it became a stony forest road, later we went through a mountain village and a forest like a jungle. Right at the end it got very windy again and it started to rain. Luckily it was only about 3 km to the car. What a tour. Shortly before the summit, my cell phone started acting up and wouldn't work anymore. That's why there are unfortunately few pictures of the great descent that I took with the GoPro camera. But always taking the camera off the mount, switching to photo mode, then back again was too much of a hassle for me. Luckily I have everything on video :-). That's it for the Gran Sasso National Park. Tomorrow we're going on to Ancona, the weather is supposed to be better there ;-)