June 13: Secada Loop

Last year, Western Wheeler member Cindy Asrir on her trip to Italy as part of her choir sent back pictures of the Secada Loop from Selva Gardena That was so pretty and I was determined to make it a part of this year trip. The problem, of course, is that public transit in the Dolomites would not make the trip feasible without a private car. I explored the idea of renting a car from Cortina but the car rental companies had weird rules about when we could return the cars, so in the end I gave up and organized a private taxi ride at an outrageous price. I would later justify it to myself by saying that compared to the backroads $1000/person/night prices with 6 people I was getting away with a bargain at substantially less than 1/6th the price.

The taxi showed up at precisely the time they promised and we piled into it for the long ride th Selva Gardena, where Bowen and I had been in 2019. The ride was long because Passo Falzerago was closed, so the driver had to take the long way around via Bruneck, etc. , backtracking in 2 hours what took us 2 days of riding to do.

Arriving at the cable car, we paid the exorbitant (but still less than the backroads price) fee for the 6 of us and rode it to the top. At 2000m, the weather was still warm enough for me to feel hot, which made me glad that Misurina was at 1770m instead of the much lower 1200m that Selva Gardena was at.

The Secada Loop was just as famous as Tre Cime di Laverado but didn’t feel as crowded. The hike immediately takes you to the best views. To me this was a stunning view, but Arturo said it reminded him of some landscapes in the Sierra, so it didn’t feel as exotic to him as the hike we had done the day before. “Of course, it’s much more accessible --- in the Sierras getting to those places would take a couple of days of backpacking!”

What I liked most about the hike was how diverse it was. You would go from these dramatic views of these spikey peaks overrun with tourists, and then descend down to the Naitonal Park, and once you got to the National Park trails the crowds would mysteriously fade way. Bowen complained that there was a stone in his shoe that wouldn’t go away. But after several attempts to get of it in vain, we made him take off his socks and indeed it was a blister! Fortunately, we were close to a mountain hut/restaurant, and Arturo quickly chatted with some British hikers who happened to have compeed! He liberated one from them and applied it to Bowen’s foot with instant relief.

WIth that behind us, we kept on hiking through the quiet phase of the trail, which had impressive flowers. When we neared the cable cars again, it became rather obvious as the number of hikers increased along with the services ---- mountain huts, water fountains, and even marked trails. I would later consider this hike the best of the trip.

All this time, our taxi service company continually sent me a text via Whatsapp asking of our status so that we could get a pickup without waiting too long at the end of the hike. When we finished we hike down, but instead of waiting for our driver we found and ice cream shop and started walking towards it. To my surprise, the walk involved a tunnel, an escalator, and a moving walkway that dumped us out in the middle of town. This was amazing. I shared our location to the taxi service and he showed up just as we finished our ice cream, but not before I bought a box of compeed at Italian prices at the pharmacy next to the ice cream shop. Once having bought the insurance, we would discover that we didn’t need it for the rest of the trip!

The ride back to Miralago was uneventful. The driver asked if we wanted to visit Lago de Braes, but we decided we were tired and had another full day ahead of us. That night, Stephan joined us at Miralago for dinner, and we debated various possibilities for the next day. What won was Xiaoqin’s suggestion for a hike that started from the cable car near the Tre Croci summit.  While the cable car was served by a bus, we realized that it was close enough and easy enough to ride to the start by bike instead. This would give everyone a chance to shake out their bike and see if there were any problems prior to the big ride of the Giau the day after.