Mrzla Rupa MTB

I had a big giro planned, from Dolenja Trebusa to Oblakov Vhr, down the highway to Idrija, up the steep climb to Vojsko, and down through Gorenja Trebusa back to Dolenja Trebusa.  Then Sunday the weather forecast changed, with storms in Trebusa until 1000 Monday.  I decided not to drive down super early if it was going to be raining.  Then on the drive down there were roadwork delays on Slovenian highway 102 all along the way.  I reached Dolenja Trebusa and started riding at 1000.

The  rain had stopped and the skies were brightening, so I decided to ride up to Gorenja Trebusa.  Beautiful scenery through here, with waterfalls all along both sides of the gorge. I couldn't get a good picture of them though; you'd need climbing ropes to get close enough for a good photo.  At the meadowy area around Gorenja I decided to climb up to Mrzla Rupa, as I had last year in Trebusa .  The road is steep but paved at first, then hard-packed dirt and finally a looser surface.  Excellent workout.  At the junction with the road to Vojsko (899 meters) I turned around and headed back down.  The descent was fun and I made it back to the car by 1230.  Made it home in 2.5 hours, half an hour quicker than this morning's drive  Will return later for the climb from Idrija, possibly via Gorizia and Lokve.      

Near Dolenja Trebusa: the right fork takes you to
Preval Drnulk (760 meters)

Looking north from Gorenja; the left takes you
up to Preval Drnulk

Gorenja pastures along the Trebuscica

More Gorenja pastures looking west 

Gorenja from a distance

Close-up of church

Gorenja Trebuša MTB

Western Slovenia has some of the prettiest, wildest scenery I've ever seen.  Trebuša valley east of Čepovan is a good example: scarcely populated, rugged mountainsides covered in spruce forest.  The back roads here are mostly dirt, with some exceptions.  Even in the height of tourist season there's hardly anyone here.

I drove very early to Tolmin on the Soča River.  Started warming up by riding my mountain bike to the lakeside town of Most na Soči, then at Postaja turned toward beautiful pastures of Čepovan.  This is a great starter climb, with a constant gradient gaining 470 meters in 13 km.  Here you turn left toward Dolenja Trebuša and the road turns to dirt before heading moderately upward.  At 761 meters you reach a small pass Preval Drnulk and then arrive at a spectacular panorama of the Gorenja Trebuša gorge and surrounding mountains.  It's a vertical drop with no handrails so be careful if you stop to look/take pictures.

Soon you reach a junction with one road going to Dolenja Trebuša to the north and the other down the gorge to Gorenja Trebuša.  I'd like to come back and try this Dolenja Trebuša because the map shows a paved road from there down the opposite side of the torrente.  That might be fun.  Instead I took the dirt road, which is slow but very pretty  At the bottom the road becomes paved, you cross a little bridge and  begin the big ascent, roughly 600 meters in 7 km up to Mrzla Rupa, most of it steepish dirt road.  It's nice and shady under big spruce trees though, so I just motored on up.  Here begins some level to rolling terrain, then you head steeply (around 11% average) up a nice paved road past Hudo Polje to ridgeline at 1227 meters.   The ridge is in gorgeous forest with views of the Julian Alps to the north, and a huge collapsed karst sinkhole that looks like an extinct volcano vent (Smrekova Draga).  Now you descend on dirt road to Mala Lazna, big wide meadows with picnic grounds, and a rifugio with Slovenian specialties.  

I got lost leaving here (saw a sign for Lokve but got confused which road it was referring to). So I rode about 5km down the wrong road, asked some guys and rode 5 km back to Mala Lazna.  Before I headed down the steep descent I double checked and asked some guys on horseback who confirmed it's the road to Lokve.   After plummeting down the dirt road to Lokve, I continued steeply down the dirt road to Čepovan.  From here a beautiful cruise down the paved road to Postaja, and a rolling stretch to Tolmin.  Fantastic ride- must go back and explore the area further.

Turn left here at Čepovan 

The panorama south from Preval Drnulk

The view northeast

Close up of northeast

Turn right here

Pretty farmhouse on pasture edge

Goats enjoying brunch

The ridgeline we'll be crossing in an hour or two 

Meadows to northeast

Torrente Trebuša at ponte 329m

At Mrzla Rupa, follow this sign

From the high ridge near Smerkova Draga (1236m) looking north