Even though we left Cortina heading in the same direction that we came in, we decided that it would be nice to try a different road rather than simply backtrack. We picked a road off of our map (which again lacks topographical information) and headed out of town. The signs as we left town said that there was a mountain pass in about 20km, and we soon found out that we would be climbing for the entire distance to the pass. About half way there, we came to an intersection that looked like it would hopefully bypass our climb and keep us headed in the right direction so we made the turn. It wasn’t long before we started climbing again on our way towards Passo Gaiu.
We got lots of encouragement on the way to the top from various people including a supporter of a guided cycling tour that passed by, an older couple picking pine cones on the side of the road (we found out later that the seed inside is one of the ingredients for home made pesto), and a couple of friendly honks from our Slovenian friends that we met at the Cortina campground and happened to drive past. Towards the top of the climb, we began seeing paint on the roads and realized that there were messages left over from the Giro d’Italia where some of the worlds best cyclists road the same climb just a couple of months ago.
We could tell we were approaching the summit as the paint on the roads became more common, and before long we arrived at Passo Gaiu. We stood at 2236 meters of elevation, having left Cortina a couple of hours earlier at just over 1200 meters.
We didn’t stay long at the top since it was pretty chilly and getting late. The ride down was fast and fun, with a series of signs to countdown each of the 28 hairpin turns during our descent. We rode into a town called Alleghe which was another typical Dolomite small ski town.
We asked some locals at an outdoor store if there was a campground or anywhere else that we could camp for free. There was a campground up the road but also a place by the park that was free. We were confused since we only saw a children's playground which we were not comfortable staking up a tent at a children’s park, but decided to check it out anyway. Just before the playground was a parking lot that RVs could stay for free but lacked the amenities of a campground. We weren’t staying there long so we thought this might work to save some money. We met an older couple parked there who didn’t speak any English but with some hand jestured comunication they offered to move their RV forward so that our tent was hidden from the road and had some extra cover from the wind.
We cooked pasta for dinner but since we only had a jar of store bought sauce, they brought out some of their homemade sauce that was more appropriate with our pasta. The couple also brought us red wine, salami, and cookies for us to make our meal more complete. Later that night we had some Italian whiskey (Grappa) to help us sleep and warm our stomachs. Even though we were only 1000 meters in elevation the town was pretty cold with the high peaks surrounding the lake and town.
This town surprisingly seemed like a great place to mountain bike since we saw more “Welcome Mountain Bikers” signs and bikes everywhere. A quick search online sent us to Hotel Alleghe where we might receive some help finding the trails. Speaking to a few people Matt was led to the bike shop connected to the hotel where an older cyclist known for being a great rider and someone who knows all the local trails pointed out several routes, but recommended the “Superbike” trail which was 41 km with lots of climbing, but also fast and fun descents.
With some hesitance we started off on the Superbike route.The route starts on the pavement with lots of climbing up to the top of the first ski lift. Once the pavement ended we began climbing up a steep gravel road up the ski mountain where we met lots of hikers. After looking at the elevation profile some more and the type of trail marked on the map we decided to turn around since the downhill would be similar to what we found in Cortina. We would be grabbing the brakes the whole way down which would make the climb not worth the effort.
Instead we went to a few shops in town, ate, and cleaned up at the campsite down the road. The more trails we rode in the Dolomites, the more we realized that Europeans have a different understanding of mountain biking than we do back in the States.
Early the next morning we said goodbye to our campsite (RV Parking lot) neighbors who appreciated the company as much as we did. We rode off, set to get to the Trento area and on our way to Lake Garda. We rode until the early afternoon and took a break for some well deserved gelato. Only a few minutes after sitting down we drew a small crowd of folks who were interested in our trip and were excited to find out that we were Americans that came all this way to ride through part of the country. Shortly after our stop, Andrew ran over some glass in one of the tunnels and came out with a flat rear tire. We tried to insert a tube, but found that the spare tube had a tear in it and would not hold air. We also tried to patch the tube, but were unable to get it to work due to the size of the tear in the tube. Unfortunately, it was Sunday and all of the bike shops were closed, se we were forced to walk the last couple of kilometers to a nearby campground on Lago di Corlo.
The campground employee informed us that the nearest bike shop was several towns away and would be difficult for us to reach since Andrew couldn’t ride there. We decided to instead walk to the train station in the morning and take a train to Trento, where we could find a bike shop with tubes to fix the flat tire. We began making our way to the town with the train station, which turned out to be much further away than it appeared on the map.
Matt rode ahead to check things out at the station, while Andrew continued to walk his bike. As he walked, another cyclists rode by and wanted to help, despite not speaking any English. Andrew “explained" the situation that a new tube was needed. The cyclist understood and said he would be back in 10 minutes before riding away. After the 10 minutes had passed, the cyclists returned in his car with a couple of different tubes to choose from. He said that the tubes all had patches in them and may not be the best, so he insisted that we remove the wheel and hop in his car to go get a new tube. He drove us to a bike rental stand a few kilometers down the road that operated out of a gas station, where we were able to buy new tubes and get the rear tire inflated and ready to ride again. He then drove Andrew back to the spot where we had left Andrew’s bike and where Matt was waiting.
Andrew and the cycling good Samaritan.
Since we both had fully functioning bikes again and we had missed the train that we were hoping to catch, we decided to just ride for the rest of the day and get close to Trento by bike. We found a nice bike path that would take us almost the entire way, and even stopped at a restaurant on the side of the path that catered to the cyclists riding by.
After riding for most of the afternoon, we came across a lake with several different campgrounds. We checked with one of them and found the prices to be significantly higher than other areas, so we continued down the road hoping to find something better.
After riding for another hour and a half we were running out of time to find a camping spot and our options were not looking good. It appeared as if we would need to either backtrack to the campgrounds near the lake that we had passed by or keep riding into Trento and find somewhere in the city.
After asking a few locals for a good place to stay, one family offered to let us pitch our tent in their garden, They were on the way to dinner when we saw them, but said we should wait until they came back to head to their house. We set up our stove on the side of the road and made ourselves some food while waiting for the family to return. Not long after finishing our dinner, the father of the family came by and showed us the way to their house where he let us shower and offered us clean shirts to wear for the evening. Once the rest of the family returned, we sat outside enjoying gelato and a couple of drinks while telling stories of our trip and getting to know our new friends. By the time were ready for bed, they even offered to let us come in and sleep in the spare room downstairs to make sure we didn’t get rained on.
We awoke bright and early in the morning to have breakfast with the family before setting out towards Lake Garda. We passed through Trento as well a couple of long uphill tunnels on the way over the mountains before descending down through a series of small towns. Thanks to our early start, we were able to get to the northern shore of Lake Garda by lunchtime.
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