I <3 Dolomiti ^^^

[Skee]

I was fortunate enough to join KenDenton, GasGauge and NearlySeventy on a twisty filled ride through the Dolomites.  This is my first trip report, and it's just the appetizer!  I'm pretty sure Ken will be presenting the main course when he returns from his extended trip.  



My wife and I like to travel.  There have been many times in the past as we're driving on some twisty little road – maybe along the Umpqua River or up to the monastery at Montserrat – that she'll say to me "I'll bet you wish you were on your motorcycle."  And she's right!  (Aren't they always?;-)  Well this was my chance to ride some of the most awesome roads I've ever seen, and I took full advantage of it.

Packing took 2 weeks.  It's a challenge to get a full-length riding jacket, pants, heated liner, rain gear, ram mounts, tools & small air compressor, 4 pairs of gloves (one for every occasion, and I wore them all), and 3 pair of underwear into a suitcase.  Avoiding the overweight baggage fee was another concern.  The jacket, pants and suitcase alone weighed 25 pounds.  I packed my tanks bag and boots in the carry-on.  Somehow it all managed to fit.

Renting a helmet was the smartest move I could have made.  Otherwise I would have had to wear mine on the plane.  The flip-face design with the integrated sun visor turned out to be really convenient for taking photos and navigating tunnels.  I've never been a big fan of flip-face helmets, but this one had a solid latch, felt comfortable and was surprising quiet, although ventilation really left something to be desired.  I ended up riding with the sun shade down and the clear visor up most of the time.  I still might buy one next year.

I took a direct flight from Philadelphia.  I arrived in Munich Friday morning and hopped the train for a 45 minute ride to Landshut.  The walk from the Landshut bahnhof to Motorrad Maier was only about 4 blocks, but it seemed like nearly an eternity rolling a 22 kg suitcase with a 12 kg carry-on strapped to it.  [We're in Europe now, so everything is metric.  Like appliances run on 220 Volts instead of 110, and they use Euros instead of Dollars, if you know what I mean!]  Anyway, my suitcase felt a whole lot heavier when I arrived in kilograms than it did when I left in pounds, especially since it was sunny and 30 C.

Herman had the bike all setup for me.  While he had not promised anything, he sure delivered.  In my experience, a trait more common in Europe than America.  I had brought my own ram mount, cradle and wiring harness for my Zumo, because I did not want to travel without my Zumo.  But Herman had taken care of things in advance based on what I told him I wanted to do.  It took only a minute for him to install my Gerbings plug, although I ended up never even using my heated gear, even when it was snowing.

So with the bike all ready to go, I hopped on and rode to Bad Reichenhall.  But enough prose. Most of you probably stopped reading 6 paragraphs up.  Here's some photos…I'll be posting one day at a time – sheesh – this is a lot of work – Kudos to those of you who post trip-reports regularly.

Day 1 – June 17, 2011

Picking up my rental bike – a Varadero – which loosely translates as "A nimble corner-carving over-weight Beast of Burden".


Glad this isn't me


My first rest stop at Cheimsee.  A convenient along-the-way and just-in-time pull-over with urgently needed free and clean open public restrooms, if you can imagine that.


Hotel Almrausch in Bad Reichenhall


The gang arrives

At Konigsee


Parked for the night


Dinner at the Burgerbrau – the local town brewery – which featured a nice dunkle with all-you-could-eat local bratwurst, German style meatballs, grilled chicken and pork escalopes, German potato salad (Is there any other kind?), etc., etc., and live folk music.

[sammyseaman]

Dinner at the Burgerbrau – the local town brewery – which featured a nice dunkle with all-you-could-eat local bratwurst, German style meatballs, grilled chicken and pork escalopes, German potato salad (Is there any other kind?), etc., etc., and live folk music.

 

[Skee]

Day 2 – Saturday, June 18, 2011

The outlook for the weather wasn't sunny, but we came to ride.  We took off for a loop around southern Tyrol.  Along the way, we bagged our first pass through Gosau.  Herman, the proprietor at Motorrad Maier, had suggested Postalmstrasse (Postalm road) to Ken.  Our two Zumos engaged in a dispute about how to get there - not an uncommon occurrence among Zumos – Ken suggested we follow the big brown road signs, which worked out pretty well for us.  Traffic was light.  

We stopped for gas and noticed the Honda F was steaming.  It looked like the radiator was leaking - Oh no - but it looked and smelled like water.  We took the side panels off and checked the bike.  In the meantime, the rain started coming down in buckets.  I remember riding along a beautiful blue lake, while hoping I didn't get blown across the oncoming lane.   The sailboats seemed to be enjoying it.  We made our way back and dried off for dinner.





At one point, traffic got heavy.





But the view was awesome, and we were happy in spite of the clouds.





…and all charged up for tomorrow.!;-)

[JamminJere]

Buddy.... I've been waitin for this!  Write on!

JJ

[photomd]

Oh man...

I can't wait to read more!  

[Mastros2]

Buddy.... I've been waitin for this!  Write on!

JJ

Me too!  Come on Skee!  

[Skee]

Buddy.... I've been waitin for this!  Write on!

JJ

We'd have never gotten you home; you'd still be there railin' corners.  

[Skee]

Day 3 – Sunday, June 19, 2011

The weather forecast wasn't pretty.  We debated changing our plans, but what fun would that have been?  So we checked out of Hotel Almrausch and headed for the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse, one of the highest paved roads in Austria.

The rain changed over to snow as the elevation gradually increased.  I thought about putting on my heated gear, but I was still warmer than I was on the Pumpkin Chuckin' run last year.  Must have been the twisties that kept my heart pumping warm blood to my extremities.  We stopped at Edelweissspitze near the summit to warm up, enjoy the sights, and wipe the frost off our visors.  The cobblestone path (it ain’t wide enough to be called a road) to Biker’s Point was closed for plowing.

The weather got progressively better (and the drivers increasingly aggressive) as we rode south through Leinz and into the Italian countryside.  Staying together in a group became something of a challenge.  Before today, I could have counted the number of cars that have passed me on a bike on one hand.  That changed by necessity.  Lots of Sunday drivers and other folks trying to get around them.  Thing is, the road was so congested that nobody was really going anywhere very fasy.  Traffic gradually abated as we approached the mountains.

In his book, John Herman says your first sight of the Dolomites is like a religious experience.  Ken took a spirited lead down the pass into Arabba.   I don’t know if it was from the wind stinging my eyes or the thin air of heaven, but my eyes were watering all the way down.  

Any resemblance to characters real or imaginary is strictly unintentional


Over the river and through the woods into twisty goodness we go   


Take a left at the next fog bank and watch the cobblestones.


Summit Meeting of sorts, although we had not reached the top yet




Maybe we should have rented one of those?










Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse




The Glacier




Group Self-Portrait




Ken leading the descent


Photo op at the border crossing


In case you’re wondering who it is they all wanna photo…


Almost doesn’t look real


Near La Villa


Corvara


Passo Campolongo

[BIWOZ]

I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!

(Throws self on ground, holds breath until blue in the face, drums heels, sticks fingers in ears and sings la-la-la-la-la-la ...)

  Great report. Keep going!!

[SuperSlider]

 

[Skee]

Day 4 – Monday, June 20, 2011

We gassed up at a nearby station (~ 5 km away) after downing the equivalent of 3 normal breakfasts at Hotel Mesdi.  Using an automated station requires guestimating how much the tank will hold; a slam dunk on your bike at home but a bit of a mystery on a rental that’s been ridden at a widely varying pace.  It pays to have lots of small bills handy, or spilt one large bill over several tanks.  Using the automated pumps was always an experience; no two ever seem to work the same.  (And then there was the time the attendant – there was an attendant at one station and that should have been our first clue – watched try to put money in for about 5 minutes before he indicated that we should pay him because the automat was out of order.)  

The day went something like this:  From Hotel Mesdi, we attacked the base of Passo Pordoi, followed by Passo Sella and Passo Gardena.  We passed through the small town of La Villa and went over Passo Di Valparola, stopping at the historical sites of Fort Tre Sassi and Andraz Castle.  We took Passo Falzarego down SP 563 by the Sottoguda Gorge Overlook and up Passo Fedaia to the dam at Lago di Fedia.  Rinse & repeat down Passo Fedaia to SP 20 to Passo Giau – my favorite because the corners seem to bend more unpredictably than other passes where they routinely turn towards the fall line – then over SR 48 and to Passo Falzarego and Hotel Mesdi.

Dragon-smagon – there are easily 50 good corners and a dozen switchbacks on either side of any one of these passes – you do the math.!;-)  When I picked up the Varadero in Landshut the tires looked like they had maybe 1500 km on them and had never been leaned over hard into a corner.  The little rubber hairs were still sticking up on the front.  By the end of the day, the rear was scuffed out to the margin and the hairs were gone.  And I wasn’t even pushing it hard.  

Please don’t ask where these photos were taken – I know it wasn’t heaven because you gotta check your worldly possessions there at the gate – but it was somewhere just below the clouds.

Starting up Passo Pordoi












Yeah! We wondered too.








Ken working his magic


It was like Bike Night on a daily basis






I prefer a more laid back seating position…




All these beautiful curves and all I got was a photo of the signpost


This was my one attempt at artistic interpretation.  The camera was tilted slightly to enhance the angle.  And it looks like I overcooked the corner.  LOL

[Skee]

Day 5 – Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Another day in paradise!;-)  It was another 3-breakfast morning: cereal with fruit & yogurt, sandwich meats, cheeses and bread, topped off with a 3-egg omelet.  We rode east from Hotel Mesdi, stopping briefly to admire the view at the Belvedere Panorama.  We crossed over Passo Staulanza through Forno Di Zoldo and south on SP 51 to the site of the Valjont Dam disaster.  

Finding our way up to the dam was relatively easy.  It included a lengthy drive through a one-way tunnel with gallery openings to the gorge below.  Finding our way back out thorough the little towns of Codissago and Castellavazzo was tricky.  Zumo had me turning up one-way streets and into cul-de-sacs that were supposed to connect with the main road.  From there we headed north towards Lago Di Pieve Di Cadore.

We were now on the eastern border of the Dolomites, where the passes aren’t nearly as spectacular, but the roads are still challenging.  We took a quick run up Passo di Mauria, only to find the refuge at the top closed for lack of interest.  We broke out the map a plotted a course of interest

We lost some time riding back and forth through the town of Auronzo Di Cadore on Lago Di Santa Caterina looking for the road to Passo Sant'Antonio.  I had read about it in Herman’s book and it sounded like an interesting excursion.  But construction made it hard to find, and we abandoned the attempt.

We made our way along the Strada Regionale Delle Dolomiti across Passo Tre Croci to Cortina D'Ampezzo.  We took the long way back to Hotel Mesdi over Passo Giau to Passo Fedaia and Passo Podoi.



Belvedere Panorama


We might have been better off without the little bear's help, but he just has to get in on everything..



At one point I counted 2 dozen bikes waiting to fill up.  We all needed gas coming off Passo Tre Croci; the lot was a circus of bikers.  Cars just drove on by.  Each group would patiently wait their turn and then get stumped when they reached the automat.  The line would start moving again as soon as someone in the group figured out how these pumps worked and explained it to everyone else.  I’m just glad nobody (including myself) filled up on diesel.  You could have done that very easily.  


And what did we do after filling up?  Reversed direction for a rinse & repeat run up to the top of Tre Croci and back.  

Passo Tre Croci






This guy was passing everybody and everything.

[Skee]

Day 6 – Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Another perfect morning.  





After another triple breakfast at Hotel Mesdi, we headed west over Passo Pordoi, then south and west over Passo Di San Pellegrino, then south again over Passo Valles and Passo Rolle.











After a short stop, we reversed the route over Passo Valles and rode into the town of Falcade.  Next stop… Black Rose Pizza, featuring the best crust west of Hvar.  [We all have our favorite World’s Best Pizza place.]  If only we had more time, I could have eaten a second pie.



Then it was back over Passo Di San Pellegrino to Passo Costalunga.  After that pizza, I was about ready for Passo Outto and a nap.  But we headed north for Nigersattel.  



This took us onto a very interesting road, SP 24 to SP 64, which just winds and twists and turns and weaves along between a river and the mountainside.  Unfortunately, there was little room to pull over and let traffic clear, and passing was dangerous with the limited sightlines, so I was stuck in a line of cars and wasn’t able to exploit the road to its full potential.  But this stretch goes on the list as a do-over.  (I’ll probably lose the list before I get back there, but that doesn’t mean I can’t start one.!;-)



From there we turned back east over Passo delle Erbe, or Worzjoch as the Germans call it.  Which brought us back to La Villa and over Passo Campolongo to Hotel Mesdi.



This was our final day in the Dolomites, and there was some serious discussion at dinner about extending our stay here, but we realized it was time to move on.  I can understand not wanting to leave, EVER!

[Mastros2]

Beautiful!  

[Smoker]

AWESOME!!

[DrMikey]

 

[stefrrr]

Flippin' freakin' fookin' awesome!  

[photomd]

[Skee]

Day 7 – Thursday, June 23, 2011

Packed & ready to ride.  The scratches on the sidecase were OEM.  At first, I was a little disappointed; I expected a relatively new bike in pristine condition.  But the Varadero was well kept with 30,000 km on the odometer.  Brakes, tires, chain and running gear all appeared well maintained.  I soon began to appreciate the well-worn condition.  I didn’t have to be as careful when mounting or dismounting, or parking in a tight niche.  And while I wiped the tank clean every morning, I didn’t have to worry about my magnetic tankbag damaging the finish.  I came to the conclusion that renting a bike with a few existing cosmetic flaws actually worked to my advantage.  



Today was a transit day.  We were leaving Hotel Mesdi in Arabba and headed to Hotel Folgore on top of the Stelvio pass.  Or so we thought?;-(  Our ride began with the normal attack on Passo Pordoi; the corners had a familiar feel and I was riding confidently in second (midrange 5 k on the tach was 75 km/hr), with an occasional burst into third (80 km/hr at 4 k); way to tall for this road at my skill level.  Since it was still early, we took a final quick jaunt to the top of Sella.





We reversed course down Sella and rode west over Passo Costalunga, bypassing the Nigerpass in favor of the more tractable SS 241 into Bolzano.  From there we continued a westerly course over Passo Mendola.  The sky began to shift with the landscape.  

Gone were the clear blue skies, and somewhere along the way it began to drizzle.  I had waypointed Passo Campo Carlo Magno, west of Lago Di Santa Giustina, as a potential sidetrip excursion, but we bypassed it for “lack of interest” in the fog and blowing rain.  

We stopped at Passo Del Tonale, where we stopped to visit the ossuary and warm up at the “Bar” across the street.  (Shades of my youth.)  Only now we drank cappuccino and snacked on pizza and chocolate.  Our original plan had been to traverse nearby Passo Gavia on our way to the top of Stelvio.  But the weather meant cold hands, no views, slippery corners with limited sightlines obscured by fog, no views, cloudy rain-streaked visors, no views and generally PP conditions.  At least half of those things I can usually deal with on a ride.  But the general consensus was that there was nothing to be gained by sticking with the original plan.!:-( L



We decided to cut our day short and look for accommodations in the next town, Ponte Di Legno, which was only a few km away and halfway between Passo Del Tonale and Gavia. Driving on the narrow wet cobblestone streets of Ponte Di Legno proved to be quite a challenge.  My lead to the wrong end of town only served to prolong the experience, but I was just following the advice of that witch Frieda who inhabits my Zumo.  

Fortunately, we were able to laugh about it later, especially the part when Ken tried to stop and take a picture and found that there wasn’t enough room for the car behind him to go around.  In Italy, you are expected to pass the driving test with one-hand, because the other must be on the horn.

So this was Ponte Di Legno



We found a place to park on the town square and took refuge in a nearby coffee shop.  The hotel on the square appeared to be closed.  The proprietor suggested a nearby bed & breakfast.  He called the owner and arranged accommodations for us.  Fortunately, Ken was able to text his wife at home, who cancelled our reservations at Hotel Folgore.





Off we went to Yuri Bed & Breakfast.  For once, zumo nailed the location, which was pretty tricky to find.  That’s why Yuri was patiently waiting outside in the rain with a big umbrella to flag us down.  I swear the guy would have held it over my head as I rode down the driveway; that was the measure of his hospitality.  He pulled his car out and directed us to park in his garage.  

Highly recommend this place.  It’s near the base of Passo Gavia.



We were out of our gear and into his warm basement in a minute.  He said to me, “You looked like a big robot coming down the road on your motorcycle in the rain, like an alien from outer space, but now that you have taken off your gear, I see that you are a real person, very well-organized too.”  Whatever he meant, I took it as a compliment.  He opened his home to us, and I was never so glad for a warm, dry room.  

Yuri’s Bed & Breakfast sat in a small village on the side of the hill with an outstanding view.  The rain blew off after we settled in (Doesn’t that always happen?) and Yuri took us on a guided trip of the village.  





We ate dinner at what may have been the only restaurant in town, and guess who showed up?  The two proprietors from the coffee shop.  



Dinner (Unfortunately, I was not responsible for taking food pics, so you’ll have to wait for those.) featured “typical food” i.e., local peasant dishes and homemade limongello (sp).  I had Gnoc, which reminded me of a favorite Friday night dish that my Mom made for me as a child.  They’re basically nothing more than seasoned potato flour dumplings boiled in water – poor people food as we called it; but Ahh, I’d kill (figuratively speaking PC of course) for another meal like that.



We enjoyed an outstanding meal and a lovely sunset.

[Skee]

Day 8 – Friday, June 24, 2011

Looks like yesterday’s storm had cleared.



Our bikes & gear had dried out nicely.



Look what Yuri was hiding in the back



We were ready to go



Yuri’s family waved bye-bye.  Mama had baked us fresh bread for breakfast.



And we were on the ascent to Passo Gavia



What!:-(  No STN stickers?    



Passo Gavia



On the ascent to Passo Stelvio (Stilfserjoch).  Now that looks like fun.





I know Ken wondered why I took this picture.  It had nothing to do with photographing him in the corner.  I took it for the signposts.  We got a little turned around when I was here before, and it wasn’t until this trip that I actually understood the circumlocutious route that we had followed.  We drove from Santa Maria over the unpaved Umbrail pass to reach Stelvio.  Seeing the signposts helped me figure it out.  Ken just happened to pass by while I was snapping the shot.



There was a party going on atop STELVIO.







The road just hangs on the side of the mountain



According to folks behind him, he took every switchback this way.  I just happened to be taking a photo when he passed by.  He had it up at a good 45-degree angle mid-corner.  I thought it was going to flip.  



As we headed for Schlosshotel Linderhof via Hahntennjoch Pass (el. 1894 m.), the 19 % grades and wide switchbacks seemed mellow by comparison to those we had traveled.