off the grid this weekend...

Till next week, when I return from what should be a roller coaster ride starting in a town called Bolzano, after dropping off a van full of bikes for the start of a Germany tour, to Ferrara, the self billed City of Bikes, which should be a three-day-ride-see-camp-ride-eat-ride-laugh-ride-camp-write-it-all-down-unbelievable-story-camp-ride kind of trip, I will leave you with these gems, photos taken inside an old house nearby.

The story is that the US Soldiers took possession of the house to act as civil police as Italy reformed itself as a nation. The general in charge of the area efforts did a few remodeling numbers, namely scratching out the Nazi insignias, and replaced some of the amazing original fresco work with hand chalked pin-up girl art, of which he was fond. Aside form the shitty pin-up girls, the house is loaded with amazing hand painted ceiling and wall art, a few gems of old technology worth stealing (more on that later) art deco stair railings, and a really old collection of wine bottles, and some sort of bagged meat hung to dry out decades ago...amazing. and quite the little hott sunday evening mission.

Double click the photos for close ups...







crucifix second story wall...









handpainted stencil wall paper...



can you see the nazi eagle and scratched out swastika?











A piece of the ceiling made by smearing plaster over the bamboo sticks.





and the really funky piece of dried meat hanging in the cellar, unless it was actually Hitler's head.

Expect some amazing photos next week, Im planning this ride now, and it is gonna be HUGE!! 3 days, 100+ km daily, and another story to tell....

Scotty

too bad it wasnt a "real" mountain bike ride...

Saturday's ride was a big one...60+ KM and I successfully linked two trails together, two of the most unmarked, steepest and most difficult trails in the little book of pain I use to scout what are usually easy fire road climbs with short sections of single track...what some would NOT consider a real mountain bike trail. But I think any ride you do on a bike is called a bike ride, if its in the mountains, in the dirt, then perhaps...call me crazy...but a mountain bike ride...and with Loni getting an Extreme Makeover on thursday night, she was begging for a little abuse in the dirt.

City Loni...



becomes Dirty Loni...





Big climbs, worth it for the views, quiet like you cant imagine, cold enough air to put arm warmers on at one point, descents roughly constructed of fist to head sized loose jagged rock chunks and enough off-trail exploring with an empty water bottle and not enough food to warrant calming myself down a few times. Seriously. I had to keep repeating my mantra of "this is adventure cycling, if it was easy everyone would do it..." as I painfully decided which song on my barely charged iPod I wanted to listen to as I froze to death in the hills high above Firenze, lost, out of water, and off the trail. Check the late in the day video here...note the hysteria setting in. I still had several miles of climbing and one of the gnarliest descents of my life AFTER this, and the brutal climb back to the car.

This is how it started...



this is how it ended...



Bot loads of this in the middle...



water stop Italian style



cutting through properties...











following sometimes shady trail markings...



up mountain passes...



following pilgrimage markers...







Climbs climbs and MORE climbs...





some more like stair cases than trails...









But with views for days!










can you see the road I was on only a few minutes before... below...
You know Im a sucker for the little guys.....









and look who buzzed into the shop while I was blogging this...a true sign summer has started, the first rhinoceros beetle of the season!



the ride journal reveals this little gem...

"a symphony of birdsong, the grumble, crunch, pong of overinflated tyres on ancient gravel road, the wind echoes softly through stalk trimmed pines (or are they oak?) heart beats heavy rhythm as a plastic jar full of trail mix comically keeps time from deep within my handle bar bag. This place offers me transcendence, these wheels carry feeling up and over, siempre un altra colle! there is always another hill! Not unlike Oregon before Lewis and Clark, not unlike Yosemite before Ansel Adams, and not unlike riding at Annadel before Mark Twain's Daughter was even born - amazing!"

Scotty.

Silvia and I got SO UNBELIEVABLY HIGH last weekend!

2240 METERS high, maybe more...

Here in vague order (thanks to blogger taking FOR ever!) are the photos from the weekend delivery into the Dolomites. Two parties had ended their tours here in the valley called Val Di Fassa, we scooped up the bikes, stayed at a cool B-n-B, and did a stunningly beautiful 90km the next day down valley. Locals said it was the first day of sunshine in almost 3 weeks. Blessed with perfect temperatures, blue skies, and amazing views, not to mention a local festival right around lunch time, the first day of the ski trams running so it was FREE, and a roadside sale of local pastries not more than 2km from a tough finish I could not have planned a better day. No wonder Dolomite rhymes with DY-NO-MITE!

The day started with a sunflower drive...















see the tram lines running into the clouds?



did the work and headed to our hotel and some local cuisine...which included the novelty drink Il Bombardino...





walking home in the last of the rain with improvised umbrella...



and breaking the hair dryer when we got back to the room...



which had the classic Italian room for two...note the phone for scale.

Next morning... clear skies!













We interrupted our ride to check out a tram ride...one used for skiing in the winter, we bet on the price and agreed if it was 8 euro or less we would go up...turned out, it was the first day of operation for the season and was FREE!









Longest ski lift I ever rode!





possibly the scariest lift Silvia has ever ridden.



check out the panorama here...



Back down the hill we headed towards an unbelievably perfect lunch...









for the record that's a whole chicken with chunks of panceta hiding inside seasoned with herbs, 500 grams of polenta, fries and artesionale beers



we opted to ride down to the next village, have a coffee in a strangely nautical themed mountain town...





with music as a central theme...then start the return trip back to the van. We still had a 6 hour drive back to the Farm and were gonna be sore.













Of course we HAD to stop for Gelato...its ITALY man!









and just before cresting the last hill, our tired legs found a what was being billed as a "Festa Del Dolci Locali" and added up to a few more post ride treats...





More guts and another amazing pass before the monotony of the Italian freeway system. At least with a native speaker we can stop for coffee and ask for directions. I cant wait to stop and be fluent with the locals...Listening to Silvia and hearing her joke was a gift for a big delivery drive.







Back at the Farm at 2am with a head full of waking dreams and sights to describe most would not believe, and the conviction of a man whose 4 year plan has blossomed into a 10 year idea...more on that later.

S.