Cycling Dolomiti Friulane: Frassaneit Hike

I usually pedal past Tramonti di Sopra without even noticing, but I heard about this trail and wanted to hike it. From the piazzetta in Tramonti di Sopra I followed the signs to Frassaneit, and parked at the end of pavement. The road turned to dirt and rock with no trail markings, so I chose instead to take the trail to the right marked Strada Da Lis Fornas CAI 394. It climbed steeply up for a few hundred meters till I reached a house where a man was working in his garden. He asked where I was going and then said I was on the wrong trail- I needed to go back down to the dirt road. He mentioned during the war the Germans came down this road on their way to Claut, about 5 hours away. When I told him I'm American he said he has relatives in Arlington, Texas.

I walked back down the hill and turned onto the dirt road and began winding along the edge of the gorge above Torrente Meduna. After a bit you descend to the bottom of the gorge, which is mostly carved giant boulders and rock walls, with the Meduna's whitewater taking up about a third of the gorge floor. I missed a turn down here and continued along the gorge bottom instead of taking the trail upward. It got rougher, soon I was using handholds and looking for footrests on the VW bus-sized boulders. It reminded me of Yuba River upstream from the wooden covered bridge at Bridgeport, California. When the water stretched across the width of the gorge bottom surrounded by rock walls I decide to climb out. I scrambled upward holding onto saplings, rocks, etc until I reached the trail again.

I walked quickly along this well-made trail and eventually reached Frassaneit, an abandoned village in the middle of nowhere. Next time I'll try to continue (on foot) to Lago Cà Zul, which I previously tried to reach through the unlit wet, unpaved 3 km tunnel from Lago Cà Selva, but chickened out after 500 meters.