Monte Castelir

I noticed this side road heading up the mountain near Rugolo last week.  So today when the sun finally popped back out I headed over to try it.  After warming up riding to Caneva I turned uphill at Villa di Villa, climbed past Castello di Cordignano, over the hill and down towards Rugolo.  Just before you descend to Rugolo turn right on the road marked Chiesetta Alpina di Monte Castelir.  It's steep immediately but not too bad.  Then the nice smooth pavement ends, and it becomes crumbling concrete alternating with rocks stuck in tar, tilting up into the +20% range.   This would be a good workout on a mountain bike.  In fact, during one of my numerous stops to hang my head over the handlebars to gasp, sputter, and pant, a mountain biker wobbled by me and appeared to be struggling with the hellish gradient as well.  Eventually I made it to the closed church gate and walked up from there.  I was having trouble even walking this stretch, having forgotten my cleat covers.

The little church at 626 meters and surroundings were beautiful and I really enjoyed the visit.  Then I descended with brakes in a death grip: going fast on this broken surface would likely send me flying headfirst over an embankment.  When I reached Rugolo my legs felt rubbery so I went home the easiest way possible.   Arrived just in time for a nice cool down walk with Marilyn, Teddi and Honey.  Will return soon with MTB- from Monte Castelir a trail continues to Col Alt and the Strada della Patriarca (the ancient road from Villa di Villa to il Cansiglio).

The lovely start of the climb, with olive grove and prosecco vineyard

Chiesetta Alpina di Monte Castelir 626 meters

Front view

Hazy view west across Sarmede,Vittorio Veneto,
with Monte Cesen in background

Memorial to the Alpini (mountain soldiers)

Hillside town of Montaner with its huge campanile

Snow-capped Col Visentin

The killer climb

Val Muiè

Finally a sunny Spring-like morning after weeks of interminable inundation.   Val Muiè is a favorite local ride.  Warmed up with a spin to Meduno, across Fiume Meduna and up to Navarons, along the rain-swollen Muiè to Poffabro and then down through Bus di Colvera to Maniago.  A great winter saliscendi workout.   

View north along Fiume Meduna

Poffabro with Monte Raut and  Monte Rodolino

Close up Monte Raut and Poffabro church

Bus di Colvera

Castles and Caves Foothills Ride

Finally a sunny day for a favorite foothills ride.  No big climbs but plenty of shorter ones, some of them quite steep.  Tons of other bikers out- people have been going stir-crazy from the rain.

After warm up on Via Pedemontane you turn toward Sarone and continue up to the right turn for La Crosetta.  Instead of turning go straight, passing below Castello di Caneva.  Descend to Caneva and continue to Villa di Villa. Head up the hill toward the backroad to Il Cansiglio, but don't turn onto it: head for Rugolo instead.  Shortly you pass Castello di Cordignano on your left.  Lots of saliscendi on this road with some 15%.  At Rugolo turn right and ride through Montaner to Fregona.  Here turn right and climb up through Grotto di Caglieron to Colors.  Via Colors is a beautiful looping ride through pastureland with mountains above, ending in Vittorio Veneto.  Take a left to Anzano, then follow the signs for Il Cansiglio, climbing to Fratte.  Now descend to Cappella Maggiore, continuing to Sarmede, Caneva and home.  Wonderful ride.

Note: I didn't take many pictures because there was a cloud of wood smoke along much of the foothills.  In this weather it hangs in the air instead of blowing away- wood stoves becoming too popular!    

Monte Pizzoc from Via Colors

Monte San Lorenzo

One last ride of the year to test drive a new chain on my old Merckx.   Warmed up in the big ring to Vivaro, Arba, Cavasso Nuovo, Fanna.  Then up the short, steep climb of Monte San Lorenzo  to 522 meters.  Quickly home via Val Colvera, Maniago, Ravedis.  Cold but partly sunny, perfect end of December weather.  Buon anno!

Monte Raut from San Lorenzo

La Crosetta da Cappella Maggiore

After our rainy Natale and Santo Stefano the rain stopped and I wanted to get one last ride in.  I picked the climb to Il Cansiglio from the Vittorio Veneto side.  I've only climbed it a couple of times, both times shortening it by starting from Osigo near Fregona.  Today instead I thought I'd try it from lower down.  After warming up on Via Pedemontana to Cordignano, I turned right at Pinidello and headed to Cappella Maggiore, following the signs for Fregona.  Now the road steepens to 8-10% and hovers around there for the next 12 km.  It's a very good workout though I really felt the lack of training from November/December.  At La Crosetta I donned my cold weather gear and headed down the steep descent to Sarone.  Never did thaw out real good the rest of the way home; had kind of a  dopey hypothermic feeling.  A hot bath seems to have fixed that.  Good ride- will try some of the adjacent dirt roads on MTB later.

Campanile di Osigo foreground; down the hill on the left is Fregona

Looking west toward Vittorio Veneto

Aimless Wandering

I set out intending to ride a variant of http://dolomiti-friulane.blogspot.it/2013/02/due-castelli-e-delle-grotte.html today.  But our crystal-clear frigid December has changed to overcast, slightly warmer,  even foggy.  By the time I reached Coltura it was evident if I climbed above 300 meters I'd be socked-in, so I changed my plans.  At Fiaschetti I headed south to Sacile, then turned left on SS13 to Villadolt.  Got lost here awhile, rode down a nice dirt road through winter fields and fog until reaching paved road again at Ceolini.  After Roveredo I turned toward Castello d'Aviano, then headed through Aviano and Marsure till home.   Fun flattish ride; even familiar roads can surprise you.

    

Fiume Livenza at Sacile, with cormorant swimming along left bank

Love how they've left the riparian vegetation intact

A wood carver rode his bike down to this tree stump along the river;
he was using a wooden mallet with chisel to sculpt the tree 

Casera Fraspedane

I'm sorry for the long absence- after climbing Sveta Gora I had a bout with a feverish sore throat, followed by a molar with infected nerve that needed  a root canal.  I lost weight and strength in the process, so now I'm battling back.  The weather has been cold but clear and I've managed a few flat commutes to school in Pordenone the past few weeks.  Today is my first real ride.

I rode to Meduno, then through 2 large flocks of sheep to Toppo and on to Travesio.  Here I turned left along Val Cosa to Paludea and the climb up to Clauzetto.  From there took the road upward toward Orton  (Pradis di Sopra).  Later at the side road marked Rope, Zuaniers, Fraspedane I turned right and began climbing quite steeply.  I don't know if I've biked this before, but around 1996 I remember driving to the turnoff on the dirt road for Monte Pala and snowshoeing to the top (1221m) with my terrier Rocky.  It was quite snowy and I remember carrying him back down part way because he was tired from pushing through the snow.  Today instead the worst I encountered was a layer of frost at Casera Fraspedane (839m).  I wasn't sure where this frosty road was headed so decided to save it for another day.  Also might try to mountain bike up Monte Pala next Spring.

I headed steeply down to Orton then back the way I'd come to Travesio.  Here instead of Toppo I took the Sequals-Arba route.  Somewhere along there I ran out of gas and just kind of slowly turned the cranks the last 20 km home.  If you don't use it you lose it, and now I'm back in rebuild mode.    

Turn right here off SP55, the road from Clauzetto to Pielungo

View northeast- Monte Gran Pala

North- Monte Rossa (1369m)

Northwest- Zuc di Santins (1309m) 

Casera Fraspedane with Monte Flagjel (1467m) in background

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