Middle-aged flash packers

Walk 4 was a half day walk from Scanno town to Lago di Scanno and back. Steve was feeling a bit under the weather so we chose a shortish walk that wasn’t too challenging. It was a lovely day and the Lake was gorgeous. No-one there so we had it all to ourselves.

Today we were ready for a big challenge. We had looked for a hike that didn’t mean driving for hours and found one just 20 minutes away. It started from the village of Pettorano and included an ascent of 1600m. 

The weather forecast was supposed to be a bit of cloud burning off by lunchtime.

We met an elderly chap who didn’t seem to think we should do our walk and suggested an alternative we were all ready aware of. It wasn’t really clear why he thought we should do the alternative hike – with hindsight we should have clarified it.

Anyway, we found the start of the trail easily enough. It was basically an extended uphill slog through woodland. 

It wasn’t long before the rain started. Luckily the woods were very dense and we didn’t really get wet as such but it made a hard slog harder. Also the flies were driving me mad! If I stopped, I was covered in them. Horrible.

The only high point was when I ate my hard boiled egg! Eggs are just little oval powerhouses of energy and it gave me a good boost!

Eventually we reached a point where the woodland gave way to a gully and here’s where all the problems started.

There had been some sort of avalanche or mudslide and all the trees in the gully had crashed down and covered the path. It was unbelievable, huge trees uprooted and strewn everywhere. The route markers we had been following were nowhere to be seen. We had a choice of turning back (we were at least two and a half hours into our hike) or somehow trying to navigate our way around the gully through the woods.

After much pontificating and checking maps etc, we managed to wind our way through the woods and to the forest logging track we needed to find. Of course this left us seriously behind time.To add to the problems, Prat’s (he shall now be known as P) times for all his walks are way too optimistic. He must be some sort of fell running marine who never stops or has to consult a map.

We figured we had done around 1000metres of ascent but we still had 600 metres to go. Judging by the time it had taken us to do 1000 metres, we were looking at 2 hours for the next 600m. We thought it might be just about doable but we’d have to push the pace as obviously we had to get back down again and with the paths being slippy and full of loose stones we wouldn’t be able to rush.

So off we went , but again we were facing uprooted trees everywhere and this time it was brambles and overgrowth rather than woodland we would be trying to get through.

Dejectedly we decided it wasn’t a goer and we’d have to quit. So,so disappointing. And scenicly, an extremely dull walk! All pain, no gain.

Rather than struggle through the woods again, we decided to follow the track down as far as we could and then pick up the route at a later point.

As we came out of the wooded area our spirits lifted as we were treated to a superb view of the mountains and meadows surrounding us. Just as we were about to head towards the Refugio and then down, Steve spotted a golden eagle! It was being harassed by two crows as it flew above the valley just in front of us. Fantastic. Once in a lifetime experience.

Of course the route down was not without its issues. The red and white blazes were replaced by heaps of stones as we crossed the overgrown meadow into the woods. It took us a while to catch onto this and we blindly trudged along, worried we would have to retrace our steps and walk all the way back to the gully. Personally I would rather have stumbled around the woods all night than go back to that bloody gully!

The other problem was that we couldn’t always see the stones but eventually we managed to find our way and we’re soon following the red and white blazes again.

We were back at the car by 5pm. 9 hours with out even getting to the summit. P says you can do the whole hike in 7 hours. Ha bloody ha! 

I shall enjoy burning his book.