darren
Poobah Emeritus
Yet another part. Old threads: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
We headed East from Passo Falzarego to the Olympic hosting village of Cortina d'Ampezzo. We decided that our first adventure in Cortina would be mountian biking. We found a small bike shop on the north side of town and rented a pair of hardtails with Shimano components (?!?!?!?! isn't this Italy ?!?!?!?). And I thought I was finally going to be able to ride a bike with Campy parts. Oh well.
We headed north from the shop on trail #208, which follows an old railroad bed. It didn't take long to get some incredible views. I'm not a big fan of rail trails, because I really like technical singletrack, but the views and tunnels on this trail made up for it. The route went around the Gruppe del Pomagagnon and Cristallo mountains and was fairly flat.
About halfway between the old train stations of Ospitale and Cimabanche, we left the rail trail and headed West on some double track that heads up to Forcella Lerosa. Forcella Lerosa is a high mountain plateau between Croda de r'Ancona and Croda Rossa mountians. It is a 2000' gain from the valley up to Forcella Lerosa but when we finally got there the trail leveled out. Yahoo!
Croda Rossa is a very impressive wall of rock on the North side of the meadow. The panoramic view is amazing.
We continued West and the views just got better and better.
Taking trail #8, we began our descent to Scuro valley on the far side of Lerosa. We dropped over a thousand feet while trying to navigate the very tight switchbacks. Some of the switchbacks had serious drops so a good deal of care was needed. About halfway down we could see the trails and Rifugio Ra Stua in the valley below. We rode to the Rifugio and had a nice lunch of spec and cheese sandwiches, a salad, and a Diet Coke. L-I-V-I-N!
On the decent from Ra Stua back towards Cortina, we passed Taburlo, a huge mass of a mountain. The scale is just impossible to show in a photo.
As we headed back to town, we looked back up to where we had ridden. Our route covered about 20 miles and the entire way was amazing. Mountain biking was the perfect way to cover that much distance in about 6 hours.
That evening we sat by the river near our tent and enjoyed an amazing sunset with incredible alpenglow on the nearby peaks.
Next up...more Via Ferrata near Cortina.
- darren
We headed East from Passo Falzarego to the Olympic hosting village of Cortina d'Ampezzo. We decided that our first adventure in Cortina would be mountian biking. We found a small bike shop on the north side of town and rented a pair of hardtails with Shimano components (?!?!?!?! isn't this Italy ?!?!?!?). And I thought I was finally going to be able to ride a bike with Campy parts. Oh well.
We headed north from the shop on trail #208, which follows an old railroad bed. It didn't take long to get some incredible views. I'm not a big fan of rail trails, because I really like technical singletrack, but the views and tunnels on this trail made up for it. The route went around the Gruppe del Pomagagnon and Cristallo mountains and was fairly flat.
About halfway between the old train stations of Ospitale and Cimabanche, we left the rail trail and headed West on some double track that heads up to Forcella Lerosa. Forcella Lerosa is a high mountain plateau between Croda de r'Ancona and Croda Rossa mountians. It is a 2000' gain from the valley up to Forcella Lerosa but when we finally got there the trail leveled out. Yahoo!
Croda Rossa is a very impressive wall of rock on the North side of the meadow. The panoramic view is amazing.
We continued West and the views just got better and better.
Taking trail #8, we began our descent to Scuro valley on the far side of Lerosa. We dropped over a thousand feet while trying to navigate the very tight switchbacks. Some of the switchbacks had serious drops so a good deal of care was needed. About halfway down we could see the trails and Rifugio Ra Stua in the valley below. We rode to the Rifugio and had a nice lunch of spec and cheese sandwiches, a salad, and a Diet Coke. L-I-V-I-N!
On the decent from Ra Stua back towards Cortina, we passed Taburlo, a huge mass of a mountain. The scale is just impossible to show in a photo.
As we headed back to town, we looked back up to where we had ridden. Our route covered about 20 miles and the entire way was amazing. Mountain biking was the perfect way to cover that much distance in about 6 hours.
That evening we sat by the river near our tent and enjoyed an amazing sunset with incredible alpenglow on the nearby peaks.
Next up...more Via Ferrata near Cortina.
- darren
