Passo Compalongo
Passo Gardena
Passo Sella
Passo Costalunga
Passo San Pellegrino
Passo Valles
Passo Rolle
Passo Cereda
Passo Fedaia
Passo Pordoi
Can you do 10 passes in a day? Yes you can. Should you? That depends.
Looking at menu last night for tonight’s hotel dinner, there was nothing on it even my newfound adventuresome appetite found appealing. Since we didn’t need to be “home for dinner”, that gave us a longer day to accomplish a big ride.
Awfully big breakfast spread for 2 guests
My organized gear closet (nicer than home)
We headed out of town and right onto Passo Compalongo. Short, not terribly scenic (by Pordoi and Sella standards), and before you know it you’re descending into the town of Corvara. We stopped for gas, which is always an adventure in itself. It had become almost something of a running joke - Jim tries to pay for things on his credit card (gas, pass pins, lunch), and they won't take it. Then I dip into my big batch of Euros and cover him, and we square at the end of the day. Until tomorrow, when the scenario repeats itself.
Another fun road
Next up was Passo Gardena, or Grodner Joch. This was a great ride, very scenic at the top with a different feel to it than anything we’d seen so far. Very remote, with the Dolomites very close by. We fooled around doing pictures at the top of the pass for a while, as the sightlines and backdrop were wonderful.
Jim giving that GS what-for
Coming down Passo Gardena
This may be my favorite pic of me from the trip - good job, Jim!
From Gardena we dropped down onto Passo Sella again, and we were not complaining about having to repeat it. This being a weekday, Sella was much less crowded than the past Sunday. I think we were the only people at the top (come to think of it, we were the only people at Gardena as well). After Sella we started heading further south than we’d been yet.
Looking down from Passo Sella
Much emptier than on the weekend
A boring ride through towns let us to Pozza, and the jumping off point for Passo Costalunga. This pass didn’t connect us to the rest of our route, so we planned to just ride to the rifugio at the top and come back down.
Passo Costalunga won the award for worst pass of the trip. Easily. Lots of traffic, including work trucks and busses, and road construction. On our way up they were paving a section of the downhill lane, so we got held up for a few minutes. No great views on this pass, basically just cutting through the forest on our way up. While stretching our legs at the top, a couple of tour groups went by. I’m assuming they were tour groups because the front and back riders have hi-viz yellow vests on over their leathers. I also saw my first Moto Guzzi Stelvio, but it was fleeting.
Tour group at the top of Passo Costalunga
Speaking of hi-viz, as you can tell from the pictures I brought my hi-viz Tourmaster Transition II jacket with me. It was immediately obvious that the hi-viz thing has not caught on in Europe. With the exception of the above-mentioned bibbed riders, I never saw any day-glo yellow, green or red hi-viz gear. I also noticed that whenever we stopped among other riders, they would be staring in our (OK, my) direction while we dismounted. We were riding BMW’s, so we fit in bike-wise, so I’m guessing the nuclear yellow jacket was the cause. It got to be a running joke after a while.
And then I almost killed someone.
Heading back down Costalunga, we got stuck behind a bus (or truck, I don’t remember) for several minutes. There were a couple of bikes in front of us (but behind the bus-truck), and a string of bikes behind us. Jim found a wide spot and passed on the left, and I waited for my chance. I kept looking around the left for a gap, and checking my six to see what was going on back there. When my gap came, I knew it had to be quick so I swung out left and accelerated to get around the bus-truck. The next thing I knew we were three-abreast on the road, with an R6 rider passing me from behind while I was in the oncoming lane. He must have started his pass a second before me (he was at least 3 or 4 bikes back from me), and didn’t expect me to come out for a pass as well. My heart stopped as we passed with seemingly a few inches to spare, and he zoomed off into the distance. That could have gone so, so much worse – and it would have been totally my fault. I should have given my rear-view a better check before pulling out to pass, I’ll have to be much more vigilant about that in Europe.
Remember that fresh asphalt they were laying down on the way up? Well, we got to ride on it on the way down - couldn’t have been more than 20 minutes old.
We then made our way down to Moena, then up over Passo San Pellegrino. This was another pass that felt really desolate. The scenery (as best I can recall, I don’t have a lot of notes for the middle of the day) was OK, and we didn’t see another bike or car the whole time. I stopped to get a picture of the sign for my good friend Joe Pellegrino – it was the best I could do since there were no souvenir shops open. The southerly descent from the pass was a lot of fun, we were really grooving on the wide-for-the-alps hairpins.
Sorry Joe, this was the best I could do
We needed a lunch stop, and Falcade was the only town between us and another two passes. We managed to find the town center, but didn’t see anyplace obvious to eat. Falcade certainly looked to be off the beaten tourist path, there were no other bikes in town. I saw a sign pointing down an alley for Pizza, so we followed it. That alley led us to another alley, this one a dead-end. At almost the very end of it was what looked like a closed pizza restaurant. Bummer. Rode to the end, turned around, and started riding out when I saw a man walking near the restaurant. I figured he could help us find another place, so I stopped and tried my best Italian.
“Scuse?” “ah, Pizza, aperto?”
To which he nodded affirmatively instead of giving me any sort of directions. It was then that someone poked their head out of the pizza shop and motioned us in. Not knowing quite what to expect, we parked the bikes. This was a closed-looking place, on a back alley of a back alley, in a town that seemed practically deserted. In the states it would have gone out of business in a month.
The Black Rose Pizzaria. Mmmm.
Man, am I glad we stopped. By far the best pizza I’ve had, no question. No one spoke any English, or even tried to. There was maybe one other customer when we sat down, but the place started filling up with working guys on their lunch break while we waited. No tourists (except us), just local townfolk who know where to find a good lunch. In typical Italian fashion, the freshly-made pizza (buffalina in my case) was on our table mere minutes after ordering. Absolutely delicious.
Great food at reasonable prices
Pizza buffalina
We were using Falcade as our go/no-go point on "di dieci giorni passa", or "the day of 10 passes". We had already bagged 5 passes before lunch, so we were certainly a 'go'.
Five down, five to go.
We had to go back up some of the hairpins we used to descend, and that was just as much fun the second time. A couple kilometers got us to the intersection with Passo Valles, our next destination. I can’t really say much about this pass, other than when we got to the top the rain started up again. It was pretty cold (10 C), windy, and rainy – not exactly the perfect day for riding. We did some pictures riding up and down the pass, and I had a hard time turning the RT around on the narrow downhill road. I’d often have to go a km or more down the road to find a little bit of sandy pullout to work with. While I was having no problems with the tight hairpins, one-shot u-turns on roads with no shoulders was beyond me at this point.
The rifugio at Passo Valles
Jim in rain gear
Valles led to Passo Rolle, another “minor” pass that I don’t have a lot of recollection of. I do know it ended up following a raging river for a while, which reminded me very much of riding in the Colorado Rockies (maybe similar to Poudre canyon, or US34 from Loveland to Estes Park). Funny, looking at my pictures I see that Passo Rolle had some great hairpins, but it just didn’t make an impression on me at the time.
The top of Passo Rolle
Coming down Rolle
What a great vantage point for photos
After Rolle we took the main road down to Fiera, and that was pretty crappy. It was raining, there was a lot of traffic, and people were more than happy to ride right up our butts the whole time. I think it was on this section of road that we noticed writing on the street, very colorful and all over the place. Maybe there was an event through here recently, like a bicycle race perhaps? Miles and miles of road graffiti.
Passo Cereda was a very pretty pass, with one section of hairpins in particular that stood out. Four tornanti in a row amongst very pretty wildflowers, you’d almost lose sight of each other in the flowers. We stopped for pictures and some videos (which you can find on my website, www.kendenton.org/ducati, as soon as I convert them). While waiting for Jim to get ready a shot a video of a Guzzi Stelvio coming up, then a longer one of Jim on the F800GS – which, I might add, has a very nice exhaust snarl. The R1200RT sounded like, well, like nothing, but the GS was very pleasing.
Cereda was certainly pretty
Coming up the pass we saw the 2 Germans from Passo Giau, the K12RS and the MR2. Over the course of the week we did run into the same people from time to time, there were a couple of bikes that stood out and were easy to spot. We found it surprising that we had yet to run into any other Americans doing what we were. At none of our stops, or in the towns we rode through, did we find obvious tour groups to chat with, and we never just saw (or more likely heard) other Americans on bikes. Surely there must have been some over there?
After Cereda it was more traffic going up to our next decision point, Rocca Pietore. It had been raining on and off for the past 3 hours, and we were starting to feel whipped. There was one section heading into Agordo that we were being chased by the mail truck, pulling a trailer. No matter how quick we dared push on the rain-soaked roads (some of which were grooved in this area, yuck) we couldn’t shake him. I realize he does this every day, and he’s got 4 big tires to keep him on the road in the wet, but it was still a little demoralizing.
Just before Rocca Pietore I stopped alongside a very pretty lake. I say I stopped, because by this point our Q2 headsets had run out of battery and we had no communication between us. Jim was in the lead, and I couldn’t get his attention, so I just pulled over. I was feeling drained and needed a break. Eventually he came back around and joined me. We decided to get a snack in the next town (we definitely should have brought drinks and snacks with us during the rides, that was a mistake) and figure out what we wanted to do for the rest of the ride.
Just past the lake I saw a sign for a Gelateria, so we pulled into a very cute little cobblestone piazza and parked. Jim went in search of an ATM for some Euros while I took some pictures. I was trying to get a nice shot of the 2 bikes and the piazza when I heard a small crash on the ground, the sound of metal and glass hitting cobblestone. Turns out the filter on my camera lens had come apart, and fallen right off the front of the lens. I can’t believe the glass filter did not break.
A great spot to recharge
Still can't believe it didn't shatter
I'm from Long Island, and never heard of a LI Iced Tea until I went to college in Albany
Nice view!
Shameless artsy shot
We had some caffeine and sugar (cappuccino/coke/pastries), and instantly felt revitalized. This 15 minute break off the bikes really swung our moods right around, and we decided to keep pass bagging and not head back the easy way to Arabba. Walking back to the bikes, I noticed the sign that said we were at "Piazza Kennedy" - had to get a picture of that.
We're back in the heart of the Dolomites again
Shrine to WWI and WWII soldiers
Piazza Kennedy!
We swung a left at Rocco Pietore and watched for signs for the last new pass of the day, Passo Fedaia. The weather had cleared, and since we were in the northern section of the Dolomites the scenery was getting more spectacular again. Those sand-castle mountains were once again right up next to us, and the roads rose up over the treeline to afford spectacular views.
At the first hairpin was a man sitting in a chair by the side of the road. Since this tornante was unmarked, I can only assume he was there to hopefully watch some carnage as unsuspecting vehicles got caught out. Only a couple of hairpins out of town we came to a small bridge leading into a tunnel, and I took a quick look to my left and was amazed at what I saw. There was an incredibly deep and narrow gorge, with a river and a small road running through it. I knew I wanted to stop and check this out, but we had no intercom and Jim was in the lead. I honked my horn as we went through the dark tunnel (blasted sunglasses!), waved my arms when we were out of it, flashed my lights, generally did everything I could think of to get his attention. I’m not complaining, it’s very hard to keep the ride in synch without headsets. If I was in the front I’m sure I wouldn’t have noticed his actions either. Being the photographer of the group, it seems I’m always the one who wants to pull over to look at something. Eventually I just pulled over and waited.
Only took a few minutes for him to circle around again, and I explained we had to go back to check out the gorge (and the gorgeous waterfall I spotted after the tunnel). We zoomed back to the first tunnel (w/o sunglasses this time), and spent a few minutes looking down into the gorge and shooting pictures. After the gorge we did the short ride to the waterfall, more pictures, then on our way again. I told Jim to go on ahead to the top of the pass, I might stop for more pictures along the way.
Wow, that's quite a drop
The road winds past this little chapel
Looking over the other side of the bridge, this is where that trail starts
On the road again...
Heading into the gallery (tunnel) by the gorge
If I had a few extra hours I'd have loved to check out that trail to the waterfall
A very nice twisty road up Passo Fedaia
Eventually we met near the top, just when the scenery was really changing. A seemingly out of place lake at the summit turned out to be formed by a dam. This was an area called Marmolada, and it was quite beautiful, almost in an other-wordly way. It was very stark, with gray mountains, gray water and gray sky only broken up by some white snow.
The top of Passo Fedaia
A very surprising view at the summit
Kind of reminded me of Tenaya Lake on Tioga Pass in Yosemite
Hmm, this weather isn't getting any better
This was very cool, being on a cobblestone road over a dam in the middle of the mountains
Jim thinks so too
Heading back from the Marmolada gift shop
We rode our bikes on the cobblestones over the dam, which was pretty cool. Got some trinkets at the gift shop on the other side, and rode back again. Passo Fedaia ended in Canazei, where we picked up Passo Pordoi to take us home. We had a fun run over Pordoi again, further cementing it’s position as our #1 pass. It didn’t hurt that the last tornante ends in our drive way at the Hotel Mesdi.
Yup, this is the way to Mordor all right.
Fun on Passo Pordoi again
Arabba is down in the distance there
Since we were skipping dinner at the hotel that night, we got changed and walked into town to find something to eat. We decided on the Pizzaria Al Table, located on the roundabout in the center of town. We sat at outside tables under a tent, and we were among the very few customers. A two-pizza day for me, no complaints.
Just a plain Margharitta this time
Not exactly USA Big Gulp portions
The rain started again as we walked up the hill back to the hotel.
Tomorrow will be a less ambitious day, but we’ll hit some new passes.
Map for the day