Monte Rest

After a fast warm up through Meduno I headed up the Meduna river gorge.  Around Lago di Tramontina I noticed the normal haze was thicker than usual, and as I continued north I realized it was smoke.   It got thicker and thicker until Tramonti di Sotto, where I began to worry it would irritate my lungs too much when breathing hard on the climb.  The smoke seemed to come from the forested mountains east of Tramonti di Sotto.  Then I noticed a helicopter repeatedly dumping water tank loads onto the slopes.  I continued and the smoke grew less thick toward Tramonti di Sopra.  I started the actual climb after Mangon, and soon the smoke disappeared altogether.

This is a wonderful climb, not too steep, ascending well-engineered tornanti through a deserted, silent forest with huge cliffs looming above.   At the top (1080m) it was windy, and being wet I quickly got cold.  Quickly pulled on my mantellino and headed down.  The Viner is descending better and better (or I'm getting used to it).  From Mangon I rode home fast as I could, with a fortunate tailwind from Cavasso Nuovo to home.  My friend Silvano was visiting and saw my new bike for the first time- he liked it.

News about forest fire:
http://www.gazzettino.it/articolo.php?id=188386&sez=NORDEST

The choking smoke at Tramonti di Sotto 

Helicopter scooping up a load from Torrente Meduna

At the start of the climb the top of the cliffs loom above

The series of tornanti