Today we drove to the town of Palavera to start a hike up to the Rifugio A Sonino, up toward the Civetta, a famous rock face. The trail was very steep and rocky, but amazingly we saw bicycle riders!
Two young guys from Germany were biking, often carrying, their bikes along the trail. We noticed they had heavy backpacks, no panniers. I asked one of the fellows why no panniers. He explained in excellent English how panniers made it difficult to handle the bike, put the balance off, and he said, "Besides, it doesn't look cool!"
On the way down, we switched to a less steep route. From there we drove to Rifugio Staulanza, a Rifugio accessible from the road. A German couple we met the day before had started here and hiked to Rifugio Venezia. The great part of starting from this direction is the possibility of taking a brief detour to see dinosaur footprints. This Rifugio seemed less charming and less welcoming, perhaps because it was so close to the road system.
After a coffee, we started our drive up through the mountains toward villages of Arraba and Cancia. Mountain biking and hiking are big summer activities, but the area is even better known for winter skiing. The network of trails, skilifts, and huts goes on for miles. You can link up a multi-day journey without ever going down into a village.
People were also parasailing and using the lifts to get themselves to various mountains to launch. We thought about overnighting in Arraba and stopped to walk around. John saw someone handing out yellow flyers at the cafes. As we came around a corner, we found one posted to the side of a building with today's date. I knew enough Italian to make out that it was a health advisory about the water in the town- it was contaminated and the authorities were taking action. People were advised against using the water for food preparation. At that point, we got back in the car and drove on.
In Cancia we found an Albergo and stopped for the night.
Below
A view in the Dolomites
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