August 1, 2023
San Vigilio -> Lienz
Gravel hike-a-biking the Dolomites
I woke up this morning around 6:30. The rain from last night had let up, but there were still raindrops on my rainfly. Thankfully it wasn't too cold this morning. I showered, packed up my tent, and headed into town for some breakfast. I went to a nearby bakery where I sampled a little bit of everything. I wasn't hopeful, since the bakery only had 4.1 stars on google ratings, but I went anyway. I got a salami broetchen, a prosciutto broetchen, a soft pretzel, a hazelnut gingerbread pastry, a container of hazelnut yogurt, an almond brittle, and a hazelnut brittle. I ate everything but the salami broetchen (which I saved for later) on the windowsill of the bakery like some sort of goblin. The owner of the bakery side-eyed me scarfing down food as she went outside for a smoke break. Im really not sure why this place has such low google ratings. Everything I had was solid, and the pretzel was the best I've had on this trip. Granted, the pastries were a bit lacking in presentation, but to me it just showed that everything was home made. The pretzel may have been misshapen and ugly, but it tasted like it had just come out of the oven.
After eating, I set off on my journey through the Dolomites, up and over Sennes Pass. On google maps and komoot, it was shown as a dirt road that was bikeable. We would see about that. The road was nice and paved until the main road abruptly ended at the Perderu Berggasthaus. Here I looked in horror as I saw a steep-ass dirt fire road switchbacking it's way up a sheer cliff. There was no way I was biking up that, I would have to push my bike.
I got to the bottom of the dirt road and changed shoes into my trail runners. I needed the traction. The road was actually "paved", with large aggregate concrete covered in ball-bearing gravel, but it may as well have been unpaved. I struggled to push my bike up the steep slope for about 5 kilometers. It took me about 1.5 hours to go this distance. By the time I made it to the top of Sennes Pass, the weather had started to turn. It was 11:30, and my weather app was predicting severe thunderstorms at 12:30. I decided not to stop at Sennes hut, and just get down the mountain before it started storming. In any case, there were no views to speak of. The clouds had settled over the mountains, and I had about 100 feet of visibility. As I descended the pass, the fog lifted a bit, and I could see the valley below. The road on the north side of Sennes pass was steep, but nothing like what I had hiked up.
Eventually I made it to Malga Ra Stua Hut. Here I decided to stop and use the WC, and get a cup of coffee to warm up. As I was sitting at the bar drinking my coffee, the bartender joked with me "It's so hot today isn't it?". I chuckled as cradled the warm cup between my hands trying to thaw them out.
Eventually I hit the road again, and descended North along Flume Rienza. This gave me good views of the bases of mountains with the tops stuck in the clouds, as well as alpine lakes. I saw a roadside eatery with a charcoal grill going. I stopped, but decided to order a menu Item I had seen in the alps, but never tried: Venison goulash. All I can say is that if all meat tasted as bad as that, I would probably be a vegetarian.
Eventually, the bike path joined the Drava River. From here the bike path followed the river all the way to my final destination: Lienz. By the time I reached the Drava River Valley, it was around 2pm. So far the weather forecast had proved wrong. I had not encountered any thunderstorms, only a couple brief, passing showers. This was about to change. As I passed the town of San Candido, I noticed that the valley behind me was cloaked behind a sheet of rain. Dark clouds were moving my way. I hoped that the clouds would stay behind me in the distance, but I began to doubt that as thunder rumbled increasingly louder. Suddenly, I got hit with a blast of wind. The wind was cold and coming from the direction of the clouds. I recognized it as a thunderstorm downdraft along the leading edge of the storm. I stopped, put on my rain gear, and kept peddling. Pretty soon the sheet of rain had moved over me. I was riding the same speed as the wind, so I watched the rain fall along the bike path in ripple like patterns. Even with my rain gear I was getting soaked. The water was pouring in through my face as I rode and soaking my clothes underneath. Water was also seeping in from the gap between my rain pants and shoes, rain jacket and gloves, and the zipper on my rain jacket. The rain was as if someone was spraying you with a garden hose point blank. There is no staying dry in that kind of rain, the rain gear's only purpose becomes to cut the wind chill.
Eventually the bike path started to flood with standing water, so I sook refuge by a picnic table under some trees. As I was shoring up my rain gear, the wind picked up even more. Large pinecones and small tree branches started raining down around me. I got the hell out of there, as I feared some larger branches might start breaking off and hit me. I continued down the trail where I found a group of other bikers huddled under a wooden gazebo. They offered me a spot, and we chatted while the rain poured down, and lightning flashed overhead. They were from France, and had just ventured out on the bike path as a day trip. At this point we were about 100 meters from the Austria border. They joked with me that they heard the weather is better in Austria.
The rain let up, and we parted ways. I had about 1.5 hours to go before I was at my campground in Lienz. About 30 minutes outside the campground I stopped at a convenience store. It was a sully stocked convenience store, but it had no cashier. It was entirely honor system (with some security cameras), so I got a container of yogurt and some candy and paid at the self checkout. What a cool concept.
From here I had a steep hill to climb to get to my campsite at the Tristacher See. When I reached the campground (which I had called earlier to make sure they had a spot), they checked me in. I paid 18 Euros, one of the cheaper campsites I've stayed at. The tent meadow, unfortunately was quite sloping. I made a couple laps and determined that the only remaining flat spot was near another person's camp. I said screw it and put my tent up there. As I was putting my rain fly on, a disgruntled Italian woman approached me. "We have 2 cars to park here" she said as she pointed at my tent. I replied "well can't they park somewhere else?" There was plenty of space around, just no flat ground. She said that she had put out a small folding table to claim the parking spot. I had not touched or moved her table, but I was sort of near it. At this point I was wet and cold, and not about to move my tent. I asked her if she had reserved this spot with the campground management. She passionately said something in Italian to me as she pointed at her folding table, then walked away. Her husband said it was fine, and that they were leaving tomorrow anyway. The two cars parked near my tent, but I didn't care.
I then showered, and headed to the camp restaurant to get some dessert. I had eating my leftover salami broetchen for dinner. Here I ordered an Apple kuchen with a 1/4 liter red wine. The bar tender remarked that I had a good German accent, that I sounded German When I spoke. I thanked him, unsure if he was just saying that to be nice. He had seen me earlier arrive on my bike and asked me about my trip. After talking to him, he said his son had recently done a bike trip from Vienna to Berlin and loved it.
Today's ride: 63 miles (101 km)
Total: 1,925 miles (3,098 km)
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9 months ago
9 months ago
9 months ago
That was a grueling hike-a-bike, and the slow pace pace of might have been nearly as painful as the actual physical labor! Way to grunt through it.
9 months ago