June 16: Selva di Cadore to Barcis

The storm had blown over by the morning, and the breakfast at Orsos Grigios was an order of magnitude better than Miralago’s. “They have donuts for breakfast!” endorsed Boen. We ate well and packed up and started the climb up Staulanza pass, a minor pass from Giau with easy grades and a relatively short 300m ascent. At the top, we looked into the Zoldo valley and when everyone was there, started the descent. Nothing prepared me for how smooth the descent was. Flowing, with well banked corners that let you carry speed without braking. Stephan was an excellent bike handler and that transferred easily to the tandem as he and Otto were the only ones who could keep Boen and I within conversational distance, whopping and cheering as we took corner after coner in a never-ending thrill ride. “I don’t know whether it’s the long wheelbase or the steel frame, but I’ve never felt so comfortable at speed as on the tandem.” “It’s both! So glad you’re enjoying this!” Stephan and Otto were having the time of their life, and it showed.

With minor climbs interrupting the descent both our kids were determined not to let the other bike disappear into the distance and egged each other on. We stopped to regroup at an open field and wait for thers to catch up. When we were all together again, We were delighted to discover that the descent was not over until we got to Langarone, where we had promised a lunch stop. There, we found a big supermarket where we bought a variety of foods for eating. The forecast threatened rain in the afternoon, and to complicate matters, Stephan had discovered that the sole of his cycling shoes had peeled off. “I guess 20 years is a good run for a pair of cycling shoes,” he declared. On a conventional independent tour he would have had to end his day --- it was a Monday and most bike shops were closed but fortunately Otto Sr was driving his RV, and with his phone Stephan located a Decathalon super sports store that would carry shoes his size. I took the moment to ask him to shop for an insulated water bottle while he was at it.

Clouds had gathered but we were determined to climb to Erto. After a false start due to a misconfigured GPS, we made it onto P251. We felt ominous raindrops on the climb, causing us to stop to put on rain gear. At one point, Arturo and Mark even scouted out a shelter, but we pressed on and the clouds, while threatening never opened up to us.

Once past the Erto pass, I discovered that I had a front tire flat. Rather than replace the tube right away, I determined that it was a slow flat and chose to pump up the tire instead Before the descent began. We were in a hurry and pressed the speed as quick as we could. The winding road took us through a desolate landscape, made much more stark by the impending rain and my awareness of the slowly leaking tire. The road swept us through enormous stone-strewn river beds, bridged by smooth roads of recent construction and rennovation. While they were moments of rain, I realized that it only felt as hard as it did because of the speed we were moving. Indeed, whenever we slowed down or stopped the amount of water I felt on my face diminished to nothing.

Reaching the town entrance of Barcis, we booked an apartment highly rated but high up in town. We called the owner but she declared that she was out of town and wouldn’t be back until 5pm. “But my husband will give you the keys.”

I pumped up my tires one more time and then Boen and I charged up the noticeably steep hill to the house. There, we sheltered the bike under the roof of the house, then picked up the house from the Italian-speaking husband. We couldn’t change or shower as the RV still had our gear. But we could replace the inner tube!

Try as I might, I could not find the foreign matter which had intruded into my front tire, so I just replaced the tube and patched the older, Butyl inner tube on the bike. Stephan texted us to notify that he had accomplished his mission of acquiring new cycling shoes, had a new bottle for me, and had found a campground at the bottom of town. I did not relish the idea of having to ride down and carry a full load back up the hill. Xiaoqin decided to walk ahead. I had the brilliant idea of calling the owner to see if she could help since she was obviously still out of town and was driving.

Grabbing the phone from the kids (which I had outfitted with local SIM cards purchased from Amazon), I called her and she quickly agreed! We had a few coordinating issues, but she eventually found he RV, grabbed the bags and Xiaoqin to boot and delivered them to us. She graciously made the sofa bed so the kids had a place to sleep, and gave me the keys to her washing machine basement so I didn’t have to do laundry by hand that night!

It was getting late for dinner and we didn’ know what rains would bring so decided quickly to walk down to town for dinner. On the way to town, we stopped at a still open bakery to pick up breakfast. Our hostess had gracefully provisioned the apartment with coffee and moka pot. Dinner was a serviceable affair, not impressive, but we were hungry and made quick work of it. After dinner, we observed that the weather was still holding, so decided to pay Stephan, Otto, and Otto Sr a visit at their RV Park before hiking back to the hotel. The lake (really a hydroelectric dam reservoir)Was beautiful but obviously cold and we didn’t have our swim suits anyway.

We visited Stephan and Otto to see his new shoes. We planned the next morning to drop or bags off and then ride off. Jobst’s ride report spoke of a 4.5km tunnel and Stephan determined that he would like to bypass that with the RV. We agreed to that before hiking back up the hill to our beautiful view, showers, laundry, and sleep.