Sveta Gora

 Across the border in Slovenia Sveta Gora rises steeply from the Soča River, with a beautiful sanctuary dedicated to the Madonna at the top. Pilgrims from around the world come to visit.  I decided to start my pilgrimage on the Italian border at Venco, south of Cividale.  This is a wonderful area of rolling hills covered in vineyards, with slightly taller hills topped by little towns and castles.  I rode through Neblo, Dobrovo, Šmartno, Hum and Podsabotin.  I haven't been riding as much as usual the past month, and I felt it on these little hills.  After Podsabotin you enter an odd area where the Yugoslav road crosses a bulge in the Italian border.  Seems strange now but in the Iron Curtain days this was heavily guarded to prevent escape to the West.  The road climbs part way up the flank of Monte Sabotin here, with some 12% stretches.  I considered aborting the climb up Sveta Gora- I felt very out-of-shape.   But the fast descent down to the Soča River revived me, so I decided to try.

After crossing the river at Solkan I headed up the road toward Sveta Gora.  Not too bad at first but after the turn off for Lokve at 320 meters the road gets very steep.  In the next 2.7 km you gain 362 meters, averaging 13.4% with a few hundreds meters at 18-20%.  I stood and panted till I couldn't continue,  then stopped to catch my breath a few times.  At the top the views were great, despite the cloudy day.   A nice Slovenian guy offered to take my picture.  The descent was fast of course, followed by all those rolling hills.  I was beat but very happy to get a ride despite our November rains and wind.  Must come back and explore Monte Sabotin, which was a WW I battlefield and has several bike trails. 

Fresco of the 3 Wise Men in a chapel along the climb

It's steep

View to northwest toward Triglav

Looking northeast (maybe toward Čepovan?) 

Sveta Gora's bell tower

A kind Slovenian guy took my picture

Monte Sabotin to southwest

The facade of the sanctuary

City of Solkan with the Adriatic Sea in the distance 

The bridge in foreground is the longest stone arch in Europe

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.   

Go left here

Looking down into Torrente Meduna gorge

Waterfall viewed from ponte over Rio Fisar

Turn right and go up those rough rocky stairs

The ruins of families' homes at Frassaneit

More ruins

Bridge abutments but the bridge is long gone 

Salamander along the trail

Torrente Meduna gorge

Val Cimoliana MTB

Our rainy October has finally ended so I celebrated with a local ride.  Mountain biked up Valcellina highway to Cimolais, and then turned right on the road marked Val Cimoliana.  The valley is wide here, with pastures and small woods surrounded by tall craggy mountains.  The valley gradually narrows and soon there is no room for pastureland.  Around 850 meters you pass between two vertical walls with barely enough room for the river and the road.   The rumbling white water reverberates off surrounding rock walls.  Climbing out of this gorge you cross a bridge over the river and traverse out through the forest.    Soon you reach the parking area for Rifugio Pordenone (1200 meters) where the road ends.  Fantastic views of dolomite towers on the surrounding peaks and the gorge continuing to the north.  I will be coming back to hike here. 

Torrente Cimoliana from Ponte Scandoler

Cascade between rock walls, below Ponte Confoz

Crossing a wide gravel bed with great views to northwest

Spectacular dolomite towers above Val Montanaia

Campanile Gambet (2025m) to northeast 

Lovely view to west from Casera La Fontana parking area

Narrow gorge below Confoz

Looking north through Confoz gorge

Lama di Som MTB

I've ridden past this junction dozens of times but never turned onto it.  Then yesterday I was searching for some info and found an itinerary of this ride, so I had to try it.  I rode my MTB down Via Pedemontane to Sarone and headed toward Il Cansiglio.  Around 490 meters I turned sharply right onto a paved road marked Lama di Som.  It's a nice rest after the steep climb toward Il Cansiglio:  bordering trees provide cool shade from the southern exposure as you wind along a hillside toward northeast.  After a km or so the gradient turns steep briefly (13-14%) but then mellows out again.  I continued past Lama di Som to check out end of pavement: around 690 meters elevation the road joins a steep dirt road on the left toward Malga Pizzoc, Candaglia, and Piancavallo.  If instead you go straight you arrive at a lovely house with paved lane ascending steeply through a gate.  Not sure if it continues- an exploration for another day.

Back at Lama di Som, I found beautiful pastures with a few farmhouses.  I'd like to drive back here with Marilyn and the pups- great place for a peaceful walk.  I backtracked a little till I reached the turnoff for Polcenigo.  This is a very cool gravel road with lots of switchbacks leading down to Coltura.  I was blithely coasting downhill when I met a group of tired mountain bikers slowly creeping upward.  Maybe next year I can try climbing this, though it will need to be early Spring or late Fall, as most of the slope is sun-exposed and would be deadly in July-August.  Fun ride!

When you see this sign, get ready to turn onto
Lama di Som road 

Turn right here

End of pavement, start dirt road to Malga Pizzoc

Nice house where the paved road went
through a gate uphill

Lama di Som green pastures 

Turnoff on dirt road to Polcenigo

Eye-catching pink berries along the sunny dirt road

Looking back at the green pastures of Lama di Som

The steep twisty dirt road

Lovely old house along the dirt road to Coltura

Čadrg

Čadrg is one of 3 climbs from Tolmin, in Slovenia, into Triglav National Park.  All 3 have absolutely beautiful scenery accompanying a great workout.

I started from Kobarid, a few miles up the Soča River from Tolmin, warming-up on the road along the east bank.   Just before you get to Tolmin take a left toward Zatolmin, and continue on the narrow farm road marked Hudičev Most (Devil's Bridge). You descend down near the edge of the Tolminka River gorge, where you can see tourist information, parking, trailheads, etc.  Follow the narrow paved road along the gorge edge, with railings to keep you from taking a plunge.  Through a very short tunnel and then you arrive at the bridge, very high above the water.  Make sure you've downshifted because you're about to hit a wall.

The next half km averages 15%- I just stood and panted.  Continue climbing to a 180 degree turn at the junction for Zadlaz, then climb the briefly-easier sun-exposed slope to Laz (423m).  Here starts the steepest bit, which my Garmin recorded as 22%.   

The remaining 3 km of climbing is a peculiar mix of 10-13% stretches punctuated with 15-20%
ramps to prevent you getting into rhythm.  All told, from Devil's Bridge to Čadrg you average 9.4% gradient for 5.5 km.  At Čadrg you pass by some farmhouses which I think rent rooms in summer.  Very picturesque with bell-wearing cows, sheep, goats, pig wallows, chickens and ducks wandering about.   The road finally ends in a farmyard at 741 meters, though you can continue on trails with a MTB.

Fantastic views up here with surrounding mountains, autumn leaves, the gorge down to Tolminka River.  I'll try to return next year on MTB and connect this ride with  Tolminske Ravne and Planina Razor, some of the prettiest vistas I've found anywhere.

      

Veliki Stador (1899m) 

Grušnica (1570m)

On left Visoč Vrh (1482m)

Javor (1363m)

Looking down Tolminka gorge toward Tolmin

The view straight down from Devil's Bridge

Milies, Mariech, Posa Puner MTB

I've dreamed of this mountain bike ride for months:  ascending the massif of Monte Cesen from west or north, then crossing the mountain top to descend the south side.  I decide to try ascending a new route from Segusino, ride to Rifugio Mariech, take the trail to Posa Puner and descend via Madean.

I parked at Maine and warmed up climbing to Combai.  Then down to Valdobbiadene, north along the Piave River to Segusino, and the climbing begins.  This is a pretty tough little climb: in 7 km you gain 574 meters, averaging 8%. Maybe I was just rusty from lack of riding.  Pavement ends at 770 meters a little past Milies but I continued on the gravel road, climbing another 4 km averaging 10.7%, with stretches of 21% to Malga Molvina, 1206 meters.

This was a killer, but I did get a little break when I reached Forcella and couldn't figure out which way to go.  The map I'd printed of this section was missing from my backpack (later found it stuck to the back of my other map- apparently I was too knackered to figure that out on the climb).  So I picked the right fork, which was very hard climbing but not as long as I expected, leveling out at 1200 meters instead of 1500.  Too tired  to reverse my course, I decided to keep on going to see where it went.  Beautiful views of the prosecco vineyards below as it hugged the mountainside.  Amazingly it soon arrived at a paved road.  The only one I knew of around here is Valdobbiadene to Rifugio Mariech, so I turned left and headed up the hill.

At 1500 meters I reached the rifugio, socked in with fog, and found the dirt road toward Posa Puner through a pasture full of horses and cows.  This road was great until I reached Casera Forconetta (1393 meters).  They had signs marked Posa Puner which I followed but the road soon turned to a cow track through the woods with no signs.  With all the rain the cows' hooves had sunk up to their ankles, leaving a mire of mud, cow manure, and lucky for me, a raft of freshly fallen leaves.  As long as I stayed on this thick layer of leaves I didn't sink.  This "trail" descends to a little valley and finally reaches a little gravel road ascending upward to Casera Federa (1330 meters).  Now the road becomes wide and gravelled, climbing up to 1383 meters on the flank of Monte Cimon.  Beautiful views here of Dolomiti Bellunesi, Col Visentin, Monte Pizzoc, Monte Cavallo, Laghi Revine, the prosecco vineyards, Piave River, and Il Montello.  Also hang gliders zooming around a few hundred meters below.

I descended to Rifugio Posa Puner, continued down to Casera Budoi, and then the twisty forested curves of Madean to Combai.  Combai was now packed with visitors for the chestnut festival.  Great ride- now my legs feel like lead.

Monte Miliana (1270m)

Monte Vallina (1067)

Milies, cloud covered Piave valley, and
Monte Grappa massif in the distance

Casera Federa on the trail from Mariech to Posa Puner

Rifugio Posa Puner, with Dolomiti Bellunesi in background 

Along the Monte Cesen massif toward
Col Visentin and Monte Pizzoc 

Prosecco vineyards

Piave River valley