June 17: Barcis to Rifugio Pian Dei Ciclamani

Last year, while planning the 2024 Tour I created a few routes on Komoot to take us from Selva di Cardore into Slovenia based on reading Jobst’s ride reports. What makes his trip reports so special compared to many random ride reports you might find on various other websites is that Jobst provides in some extremely terse language sufficient information to replicate the routes of his tours While his reasoning for picking a route can be puzzling at times, over the years I picked up on the principles that he used: first, to climb the steep side of passes while descending the gentler sides for maximum flow during descents. Secondly, he favors roads with scenery over roads where in his words, you would ride just for exercise value. This meant that if a route was difficult you could be assured that the effort was worth it for the views. Finally, Jobst had done so much riding over the years that he knew which routes attracted a tailwind under most conditions. You would reverse a Jobst route at your own peril!

Leaving Barcis after the baggage dropoff, we immediately found a series of shorter tunnels before the 4.5km tunnel. In the early morning, the traffic was not disturbing and having been prepared for the tunnels we had our lights on and pacelined through the tunnels, which were flat or slightly downhill.

After that tunnel, we regrouped with Stephan and Otto. Of course, what did we find but almost immediately another tunnel! “I’m so glad we didn’t miss all the tunnels!” said Otto. From there on, we had a fantastic descent down to Manago, where we rode past a Spar. “Don’t ride past a supermarket!” I told Mark. “I didn’t even see it!” I’d forgotten how long it takes a new tourist to start noticing important details to a cycling group. I remember years ago when another companion didn’t notice a water fountain right across the street before I pointed it out to her!

The route Komoot picked out for us turned out to be fantastic, however, transitioning from farm country bike path to minor climbs along a gorge which granted us brief but fun descents. Judging from the various bike route signs along the way we were a long some well established bikeway that I hadn’t known about but obviously Komoot had picked out. There was even some gravel, a low overhead tunnel, and we ended up having lunch at a place that advertised that they only opened for cyclists!

The early clouds in the day warmed up and by the time we got to Tarcento to meet Otto Sr who pointed us at an ice cream spot that was satisfying, it was warm. It was warm enough that despite our weariness that I pushed hard to stay higher up on the pass, at Rifugio Dei Pian Ciclamani, which had awesome reviews. Stephan prevaricated about spending the night there, but I immediately picked up the phone and made a reservation for the 6 of us. “I trust that you are coming. I don’t need a credit card. I save the space for you,” came the voice from the other side of the phone.

Stephan had broken his Pixel 6a, which was already on its last legs at the start of the trip, so he had to find a phone shop in Tarcento before heading up to the Rifugio. Stores in Tarcento closed for a long lunch break only to re-open at 3:00pm, which was coincidentally the time at which we finished our ice cream.

We grabbed our luggage from the RV, just enough to spend the night, then headed up the road that would lead us to Slovenia. Jobst describes it as a pleasant road and to our delight it exceeded our expectations. It was shaded in all the right places, following Canyon walls and with grades that never exceeded 8% but were usually in the 6% range, so even with luggage we could spin up the pass with ease.

The Rifugio was actually 1.2km from the pass, and when we got there, Mark had already visited the pass and come back. Boen and I chose not to do it reasoning that we would get to climb that last bit in the morning. Instead we got checked in, got shown our rooms (which were much better than the dormitory-style hostel we expected), and ordered the half pension. By the time Xiaoqin and Bowen had arrived we were all settled in with devices starting to charge and Boen had already taken a shower. The sun was strong and we had a balcony with which to dry out our laundry.

We were about to sit down for dinner when we spotted Otto Sr in the parking lot with the RV having a beer. Who knew how long he had been there! We invited him to sit down with us but he demurred saying that Stephan and Otto will be here soon.

Indeed we were in the middle of dinner when Stephan and Otto showed up, delighted by the very pleasant climb and with the former brandishing a newly purchased Pixel 9a.

We finished dinner and took a walk through the nature display. Boen had a mishap where he crashed while walking, crying like he had lost a leg but when we looked at the wounds they were all surface scratches and he would be more than ready to ride hard again the next day.

Review: Everything is Tuberculosis

 Everything is Tuberculosis got great reviews from everyone so I checked it out of the library to read it. The author, John Green, wrote The Fault in Our Stars, which was a famous novel which got made into a movie, and it shows that his passion isn't in non-fiction or science, but in drama and people.

Tuberculosis has frequently been described as "Ebola with Wings." It's well deserved, and has killed a more people than any other disease in history. However, it's also eminently curable with today's antibiotics. Except what has happened is that a lot of patients who got the antibiotics would stop taking them once they felt better, which led to the rise of antibiotic resistant strains of the virus. That resulted in the rise of direct observed therapy in 3rd world countries to assuage first world donors' concerns.

John Green observed "a 2007 study found that Africans were more likely to adhere to HIV/AIDS treatment regimens than North Americans." (kindle loc 2085). Again, that had nothing to do with Tuberculosis, since as far as I know, there haven't arisen versions of HIV that have become multi-drug resistant.

The book is full of such frustrating statements where you would draw the wrong conclusions if you'd taken what Green wrote at face value. I cannot tell whether Green is making arguments in bad faith, or whether he truly doesn't understand the epidemiology. I appreciate his repeated sentiment that Tuberculosis is curable and no one has to die of it today, it's just that health infrastructure isn't equitably distributed. But that problem cannot be solved through technology, but has to be solved through politics.

I thought the amount of attention given to this book would probably be better devoted to a book written by a scientist, doctor, or epidemiologist. But hey, any attention is better than no attention to such a dreaded and horrible disease.

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.

Review: Ritchey Classic Zeta Wheels

 Ritchey's Classic Zeta Wheels retail for $660 a set, and at that price I wasn't going to buy them. But someone on an internet mailing list was letting them go for $250 and was close enough that I could pick them up locally, so I bought them. The pair weigh around 1500g without quick releases, and I mounted the back wheel onto Bowen's bike just in time for this year's tour.

One of the best feature of the wheel set is that the entire driver, cassette, and axle spindle can be removed from the wheel without tools. This is huge for travel! That means the rear wheel takes up much less space in the bike case, allowing you to pack the bike much more compactly. Of course, if you lose any of the parts, that quickly turns into the worst feature of the wheelset. I made sure to put all those pieces together in one ziplock bag and zipped up the ziplock bag tightly. For the front wheel this feature is much less revolutionary, and feels superfluous.

The other feature of this is that this means you can lube the ratchet mechanism with ease. Tom Ritchey clearly thought through everything when design the hub/ratchet/driver system.

The hubs are light, and the wheels came pretty well built, not needing truing for the 1000 miles or so Bowen has put on these wheels. Of course, given how light he is maybe that's nothing special. Nevertheless, the wheelset is as light as a set of wheels built with much more expensive White Industry hubs. The rear rim has an offset spoke bed so it's relatively strong, and the rim tape that came with the wheels are good.

I'm not sure I'd pay for these at full price, but for a travel bike I would definitely look out for these onsale. In fact, now that Jon Neugent has passed, these might turn out to be my go to wheels for new builds if I can source them at a good price.

Recommended.

June 15th: Misurina to Selva di Cadore

Jobst describes the Giau from this direction as a mere bump in the road, but two things would make it harder for us. First, none of us were Jobst. Second, we would be coming from Misurina, which meant that the first 200m from Cortina of vertical gain would be full of traffic and unshaded. Fortunately, the storm the night before had no just cleared the air of the Canadian wildfire smoke, but also cooled down the atmosphere considerably. At breakfast, I ordered Cappuchino not only for myself, but also for Bowen, drugging my firstborn with his first taste of performance enhancing drugs. His brother, having heard that Bowen was to be drug-enhanced, insisted on getting a Cappuchicno for himself as well! 

We loaded up the tandem with luggage from all 4 of us and rode to the campground to drop off the luggage and pick up Stephan and Otto, giving Bowen and Xiaoqin a headstart with instructions to wait at the bottom of Tre Croci pass in Cortina. Stephan and Otto had acquired their tandem in April just in time for the Pigeon Point qualifying ride. The irony of an Asian-American guy showing a German native the cycling roads in the Alps was not lost on me, but I was very happy that Stephan and Otto were coming along. Otto, being 7, looked up to Boen, who was acting as big brother to him for the first time in his life. Both kids got a lot out of the interaction, with Otto getting his cues from Boen and backing Boen up on everything. It was funny to watch Otto pick up Boen’s attitude, including dissing Bowen every chance they got. 

Riding the Tre Croci road under clear skies, Boen’s caffeine kicked in and we rapidly distanced the group, catching up to Bowen even before the first traffic control gating access to Cortina’s outer suburbs. We spotted the house where I’d had to beg for water from a pitying resident last year after neglecting to fill up at the water fountain at the bottom of the pass. This time, I saw why I’d missed that water fountain. Rather than being at the side of the road, it was at the side of the Cima Bianche bike path, leading from the train station away from Misurina. The day was warm enough that we filled everyone’s bottles and started using the first of our electrolyte tablets. 

Guiding everyone through the city of Cortina, we crossed the bridge spanning the river and started the climb. I’d established a signal group to get everyone in sync. Upon starting the climb I realized that route I’d laid out on Garmin connect tried to take diversions away from the main road in an effort to avoid traffic. I stopped and sent a message to everyone to ignore the GPS route and stick to the main road for the entirety of the climb. In cycling as in driving there is no substituting for using your brain rather than automated navigation systems. 

Mark and Arturo were clearly stronger, and Boen and I brought up the middle. The traffic was annoying so rather than stick together, we spread out and climbed at our own pace. Xiaoqin stayed with Bowen --- this was his first big ride with a lot of traffic, and we knew there was a tunnel en route. When we got to the tunnel even though there was a clear view to the rest area to our left we did not wish to deal the traffic and went straight through the tunnel, in one case riding pat an overloaded cyclist who was walking his bike. 

At the Pocul intersection we regrouped to make sure nobody went up the Falzerago instead. When Bowen and Xiaoqin arrived they had already stopped at the hotel before the intersection to pick up water so did not stop but kept going. That got me overly excited and Boen and I remounted our bike to chase and in the process I completely forgot about my precious CamelBak insulated water bottle sitting in the shade at the intersection. By the time I remembered we were a couple of hundred vertical meters up the road. Mark offered to go back to fetch it but I told him to leave it. In the grand scheme of things we’d be able to replace that bottle later on. 

Once past the intersection at Pocul the traffic was light and Boen and I switched to cycling caps instead of helmet. We were still fresh and hammered along up the climb at a good clip. At 12% grade even a 900m climb doesn’t last very long and in 90 minutes we were at the summit at the pass where we found Arturo and Mark waiting for us. Giau is an impressive summit with a long Dolomitic spire of a peak standing right in front of the summit restaurant. Crowds of people were there --- cyclists, motorists, hikers, all getting photos of the beautiful views. 

When Bowen, Stephan and Otto finally arrived we all had lunch at the resturant, followed by a hike to the spire for more photos. Looking at the available lodging, we found Orso Grigios, a highly rated hotel with a half pension. We booked it through the hotel website rather than booking.com for a better price. Otto wanted to get a headstart on us down the mountain and of course once a tandem gets going there’s no hope of chasing it down if a head started was granted of more than a few seconds. The descent was fast and furious as both sides of the Giau are at 12%. At that grade you have to use the best of techniques on a tandem. Rather than dragging the brakes, what you have to do is to let the bike roll and then brake hard down to walking speed for each corner before letting the brakes go completely. To do otherwise is to invite brake fade on disc brakes or overheating the rims to the point of a tire blowoff on a rim brake. 

We arrived at the bottom just in time to see Stephan, Otto, Arturo, and Mark ride off. We chose to wait for Bowen and Xiaoqin and then rode up to the hotel, where Otto Senior had already offloaded the RV with our baggage. Checking into the hotel, we quickly made use of the advertised swimming pool only to discover to our disappointment that it was a typical ski-resort swimming pool, more for wading and bathing than for satisfying swimming. 

After that, it was laundry and then dinner, which delighted everyone after 4 nights o Miralago. Every dish (including the goulash soup) was made with care and the presentation was outstanding. We ate a satisfying meal. The skies had gone from clear to threatening, and it actually started raining in the middle of our evening walk, whereupon we had to cut it short and retire to an early evening. 

June 14: Son Forca

When I first laid out the tour, I knew that Mirusina for 3 nights was required. What made me add a 4th night was that the 3rd night was a Friday, and I did not want to start a tour on a Saturday. The issue with Saturdays is that lodging is hard to find on tour, and with a big pass in the offing I wanted the tour start on a Sunday to reduce time pressure. I could have cheduled a night in Cortina D’ampezzo, but my experience with Cortina was not good, plus the city was low at 1300m. I wanted to maximize altitude acclimation and Misurina at 1770m served my purposes much better. 

Getting our bikes out on Saturday morning, we got everyone all settled and then started riding after mounting the requisit gear on the bikes for our short ride.The descent from Misurina was fast and quick, but the climb up to Tre Croci from the Misurina side wasn’t as trivial as I expected, though still only about 200m. The Tre Croci pass sign is in a terrible place and not terribly photogenic compared with the rest of the ride. 

Arriving at the bottom of the chairlift, we locked up our bikes, used the batfrooms, bought tickets, and then got onto the chairlift to the top. I had low expectations for the hike, and indeed the first couple of kilometers were boring g and actually had me worried. The hike was entirely in the warm sun, a long what looked like a ski trail filled with skree and unpleasant to the feet. The “lakes” marked on the map were clearly feeder ponds for snow-making equipment for the ski resort. 

Once we got onto a narrow single track, however, the trail improved. Now we had shade, wildflowers, and what looked like a viewpoint to look forward to. At one point, I looked left and to my surprise saw a cave! I challenged Otto and Boen to traverse the cave. Bowen took that as a challenge as well and discovered that it was no big deal. After that, we all joined in and traversed the cave (which turned out to be a tunnel) The other side of the tunnel nothing less than a picnic bench as well as what loooked like an established fire ring as well as a view into Cortina D’ampezzo! We were amazed, spending many minutes taking pictures from every angle and enjoying the shaded picnic benches. We looked up and saw what looked like a viewpoint. Going back through the tunnel, we found the unmarked trails that led us to above the tunnel exit. 

After we walked on to the designated viewpoint and discovered that not only did it disclose more views of other mountains, it also revealed a trail down to the town of Cortina D’Ampezzo. A good hike would have been to start with a bus ride to the chairlift and use it to hike back to Cortina D’Ampezzo if you were staying in that town. Given the sparsely scheduled bus service, you probably did not want to reverse that hike! 

It was warm by the time we backtracked to the chairlift --- I’d used up all of my water, and the water taps at the top and bottom of the chairlift were all marked “kein trainkwasser”. The default in the Alps is for all water to be drinkable unless marked otherwise, so when you see a marking to the contrary you take it seriously. Fortunately, from the chairlift to the first hotel on Tre Croci was but a short climb easily done given our negligible metabolic activity. There, the hotel’s taps were not marked so we refilled our water and rode back up to Misurina. 

Cycling, as with hiking, rewards out and back trips as the return to Misurina is impressive. I noticed other hiking trails that could be used in the future, though I do not think we need to return to the area for a while. At Quinz, we stopped for lunch just so we could get relief from horrible Miralago food. 

After lunch, we dropped the kids. Arturo had looked into taking the 4WD service to the open air WW1 museum that’s on top of a plateau but had realized that it was too late --- there was a storm on the way and he would not have time to explore the museum. He had already changed into hiking clothes, but Xiaoqin, Mark, and I decided to ride up to the first lake we had visited 3 days ago before the storm hit. I would, of course, ride the tandem without Boen since he wasn’t going to ride if his brother didn’t have to. 

The ride up was hard, even though it was only a mile or so. As we arrived at the lake, we started feeling raindrops and to our surprise Arturo made it there in time to shoot photos for us. We took our shots, turned our bikes around and rode down to the hotel to put our bikes away just before the rain came down in earnest. 

Over dinner that evening, I briefed the next day’ ride --- after the ride down to Cortina, we’d exit as quickly as possible for the annoying 3-5km to the Pocul intersection, where I expected most of the traffic to be diverted to the Falzerago pass rather than the Giau. My advice to Otto Senior was for him to drive to the top of the pass and ride down to meet us. We would drop our luggage to the RV in the mornings before departing. It being a Sunday we would find lodging on the other side of the pass as suited us. 

Review: Shift

 Shift claims to be abook about managing your emotions. In reality, you can't manage your emotions. When they are aroused, they'll be aroused, and all you can do is to manage your reactions to your emotions so you don't do something dumb.

The book discusses various tricks you can play. For instance, you can reframe your view of the situation. An example in the book is when you see someone else succeed you can view that as inspiration rather than envy. Another approach is to call your friends to talk through your feelings. Here, the book does a good job of explaining that not everyone is going to be good for you to talk to, and how to split your friends into "people who will listen to me", and "people who will help me." There's even a category for "people who will listen to me but reinforce my bad behavior." 

Another way is to pre-emptively design your environment so your behavior is better. For instance, if there aren't chocolate chip cookies in the house you can't just eat. One thing that the author mentions is the use of music to regulate mood and emotion. It's not hard to do but it's hard to consciously do. Another point he makes is that if you don't regularly make phone calls to your friends it's also very hard to remember to do that when you do need to call, because you're not in practice. The practice of regularly staying in touch and calling your friends when you don't need to needs to be there to reinforce your behavior when you do need to talk to them. (He doesn't mention how to make friends, however!)

The book does unnecessarily name drop names and humble brags about the author's really privileged background. But that's ok. I still was reminded of really good techniques in this book. It's worth your time.

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.

Review: Specialized Men's SL Pro Short Finger Gloves and Supacaz Supa G Short Glove

 Specialized had a sale, and I grabbed the Men's SL Pro Short Finger Gloves for $20, and a pair of Supacaz Supa G Short Gloves for the same amount. Both are unpadded, intended for hot summer days where padding would add more discomfort than it would take away. You are not advised to use these gloves on rough surfaces like gravel rides or bad pavement where you needed extra padding.

I cannot feel any material differences between the fabric used for these gloves. What makes the SL Pro gloves superior is the pull tabs built into the gloves that let you pull the gloves off your hands without flipping the gloves inside out.

During this year's tours, I switched to these gloves after leaving Misurina, and had them on until after Landeck, where I had stupidly stowed them into Boen's feedbag and then forgot I had them there. I thought those gloves were lost and switched to the Specialized Grail padded gloves. To my surprise, the lack of padding didn't lead to any discomfort, and despite gravel or rough surfaces I never felt I wanted more padding. When I switched back to padded gloves I discovered that the padding didn't help me as much as I thought they did.

Give these a try on your next hot summer ride. I think you'll enjoy them.

June 12: Tre Cime di Laverado

 

We had breakfast, which gave us false hope and a relief of the bacherlor’s cooking the night before by being decent, with service that was fast enough that we could make it out to the bus stop for our hike of the day. When the bus arrived, we were surprised at the crowd and worried that we might not have seats, but the bus squeezed us all aboard and as far as I can remember not more than a handful of people had to stand.

The road up to the hike itself is an experience. It climbed a solid 12-15% grade to the lake we’d been to the day before before settling down and weaving around the mountain side of the National Park. With each corner, the views would improve, gaining us more and more visibility. There was a noticeable haze in the air. “That’s from the wild fires in Canada, going all the way across the Atlantic,” Arturo told us.

When we got off the bus we could see that this was a major attraction --- the parking lot was full (and there were lots of signs at the bottom of the road telling people that a permit was required to park at the top and that those permits were all sold out!), and the crowds were incredible even though we were on the first bus of the day! “The bus only started running last week!” remarked Mark Brody.

Well, nobody goes to Europe expecting a wilderness experience for their hikes, so we braced ourselves and walked along the designated trail. “This is like nothing I’ve seen before,” said Arturo. Coming from him this was unusual, as Arturo was an avid hiker and much better traveled than I was. The landscape of the Dolomites is unusual above the treeline, with lots of rocks, but not made out of granite like the Sierra and the rest of the Alps, giving it the unique shapes --- mountains shoointg uptowards the sky in spikes as the harder wearing rocks stand distinct from the surrounding areas which were subject to normal rates of wear.

The circumnavigation of the three peaks took us to various world war 1 monuments and gun emplacements. Arturo knew a lot of the history, and gave us a running exposition. While the crowds did eventually thin out, the hike was so easy that never did it thin to the point where you didn’t have to wait to take a photo without other people in it. Nevertheless, I was glad to finally do this hike, years after Lukas Panitz recommended it to me in 2021.

I had thought that we might want to hike back down instead of taking the bus back, but by the time we were done, we were all strangely tired, and with Bowen limping we decided to take the bus back.

I will stop bragging about how bad the meal at Miralago was now. The after dinner walk around the lake was great, and with rain coming we hoped the haze from the Canadian fires would be washed away.

Arturo went to talk to the various campground on Stephan’s behalf. Despite our advice to the contrary, his father had decided to rent an RV for the trip. I had warned that the roads we chose were unlikely to have fun driving on the RV, but he was not confident of his ability to get the Misurina on an ebikes, and obviously the RV was much cheaper to stay in than the hotels we were staying, and they wouldn’t be subject to Miralago food.

The closest campground wouldn’t take reservations but told Arturo that if they made it to them by 9:00am the next morning there would be space. We would be gone by the time they arrived, since we had previous plans. Stephan had done a lot of hiking in the Dolomites so he did not feel obligated to join us for our hikes.

Index Page: 2025 Tour of the Dolomites, Slovenia, Austria, and Engadin Alps

 From June 9th to July 4th, Xiaoqin, Bowen, Boen and myself execute a cycle tour starting in the Dolomites and visiting Slovenia, Austria, the Stelvio, and then the Engadin Alps. This was Bowen's first tour riding on his single bike, a Rivendell Roadini. This was Xiaoqin's first tour on her Ritchey Logic Road bike. Joining us for the first 2 and a half weeks or so were Arturo Crespo, Mark Brody, Stephan Ellner, his son Otto, his father Otto Sr.. Joining us for just a few days was Ben Kochie. This was Stephan and Otto's first tour on their Co-Motion Periscope tandem. We totaled 732 miles (1178km) and 57005' (17375m) of climbing on the bike, and 70 miles (112km) and 10466'  (3190m) of climbing on foot. We had one flat tire, one bent chainring prior to the start, and just a couple of days of riding in the rain. Bowen's Garmin Edge 830 died due to screen delamination during the trip. We lost a water bottle, Stephan broke a pair of cycling shoes and his Pixel 6a (which was cracked at the start of the tour) also died during the tour.

This is the index page and collection for our photos, some videos, and day by day trip reports.

Pictures:

• Na Family Photos

Videos (courtesy of Xiaoqin):

• June 11 (Misurina Approach)
• June 14 (Misurina to Son Forca chairlift)
• June 15 (Misurina to Passo Giau)
• June 16 (Selva di Cadore to Barcis)
• June 17 (Barcis to Rifugio Pian dei Ciclaimani)
• June 18 Rifugio Pian dei Ciclamani to Bohinsjka Bela
• June 20 Bohinsjka Bela to Untervellach 
• June 23 Grossglockner 
• June 24 Krimml to Mayrhofen

Day by day trip reports:

• June 8-9: Prologue
• June 10: Sterzing to Bruneck
• June 11: Toblach to Misurina
• June 12: Tre Cime Laverado
• June 13: Secada Loop
• June 14: Son Forca
• June 15: Misurina to Selva di Cardore
• June 16: Selva di Cadore to Barcis
• June 17: Barcis to Rifugio Plan dei Ciclamani
• June 18: Rifugio Plan dei Ciclamani to Bohinjska Bela
• June 19: Lake Bled
• June 20: Bohinjska Bela to Untervellach
• June 21: Untervellach to Nikolsdorf
• June 22: Nikolsdorf to Heiligenblut am Grossglockner
• June 23: Heiligenblut am Grossglockner to Krimml
• June 24: Krimml to Mayrhofen
• June 25: Mayrhofen Rest Day
• June 26: Mayrhofen to Pfunds
• June 27: Pfunds to Trafoi
• June 28: Trafoi to Livigno
• June 29: Pontresina Panaromic Hike (rest day)
• June 30: Livigno to Madulain
• July 1: Madulain to Bergun
• July 2: Bergun to Lenzerheide
• July 3: Lenzerheide to Lustenau
• July 4: Lustenau to Lindau
• July 5-6: Epilogue

Equipment Reviews

• Specialized SL Pro Gloves
• Ritchey Classic Zeta Wheels
• 4monster stowable backpack
• Sim Card for Europe
• Garbaruk 11-50 cassette
• Waxing Chains
• Hileen Nosepads for Oakley Glasses

Review: Spent by Alison Bechdel

 Alison Bechdel is famous for her rule about how to evaluate women characters in movies. I didn't have first hand experience of her work, so I picked up Spent from the library. It turns out that this book is part of a series, and you really have a hard time reading it without  having read the other books in the series. You can pick it up from context, but with such a large cast of characters I found it really hard to care about most of them. Actually, I found it impossible to care about any of them.

First of all, the book is sort of an autobiography --- the main character is Alison Bechdel, a successful cartoonist whose books got turned into a TV show. She has to struggle with her trump supporting sister who in reaction is writing a book of her own, her partner who's a goat farmer of sorts, and various characters that move in and out of her house.

The book depicts left wing liberal angst to an extreme. I find it hard to believe people actually talk or behave like this in real life (and I consider myself extremely left wing, or at least, anti-right wing). Do people really conflate Marxism with polyamory and all sorts of other things? Is this meant to be funny? If it is, I'm afraid the humor is entirely lost on me. Similarly, there's a lot of angst about money (despite having a lot of success), but given what the characters spend money on it's hard to reconcile that with the plotlines.

The art is OK. Nothing special. The worst thing about the hardback is that it's hard to keep it open to read! The kindle version is probably the one to get just to avoid that problem, but I was too cheap to buy the book and just read it from the library. Good thing I did. I'd be unhappy if I spent any of my hard earned money on a book with effectively no plot and no interesting characters.