Ciavalir, Val de Lama MTB Hike

Today a MTB ride, a steep rough hike, up into the clouds, snow above 1500 meters.  I started with a ride to Dardago, then turned left toward Al Ciastelat restaurant.  This becomes a dirt road climbing steeply to  Mezzomonte.  A couple of hunters were out with their beautiful  bird dogs and shotguns.  At Mezzomonte cemetery I headed upward on the paved road, then right  on CAI 984.  After end of pavement I continued riding until it became too steep and muddy, then I pushed.  A few hikers who’d climbed up from Via San Tome above Dardago passed in the opposite direction.

Now the steep hiking/bike pushing begins.  This is great exercise, using muscles I often neglect.  I’ll admit I was fantasizing about a foldable mountain bike I could carry on my backpack, yet I persisted. Eventually I reached Ciavalir, a ruin of a stone farmhouse, surrounded by meadows encircled by piled-stone walls.   I continued steeply upward to Casera Val de Lama at 1100 meters.  I got confused by the electric fence routing but crawled through with bike without getting shocked.  After a short dirt road I rejoined the paved road up from Mezzomonte cemetery.  This ascends steeply and soon reached the Panaramica Piancavallo-Cansiglio in a dense fogbank.

I pedaled  through the fog until snow at 1500 meters where I donned my cold weather gear.  I froze down the slope past Casera Campo then Sauc and Piancavallo to Pedemontana and home.  Unpacking I noticed my phone missing, so drove all the way past Rifugio Valle Friz, where the phone was in the snow where I’d dropped it.  I was amazed the Mini could make it through all those drainage channels, it’s never been past Piancavallo.

Meadows at Ciavalir

Ruin of farmhouse

Piled stone walls

More piled stone walls

Close up of meadows

1500 meters, the spot where I found my phone

Long climb, including over an hour of pushing
bike steeply upward