I've been trying to take notes so I can remember when we have visited places, what we did and how we felt about it. What is interesting is that on the first days in the Dolomites I was constantly confused about where I was. The mountains are funny. At first, they are so big and majestic you are overwhelmed, and everything is beautiful, but everything is the same. It is only after time that the individual peaks and valleys start to have their own distinguishing features which give them meaning. While exploring the first few days I was still trying to orient myself to my surroundings which gave everything and extra layer of excitement.
Day 2: Tuesday July 19th – Funicular Resciesa
Our first point of business was to pick up eight E-MTB's. You may have seen E-Bikes going up and down local bike trails at 20MPH with zero regard for hills. I had been actively trying to rent non-electric bikes as I have viewed the motor power as counter to the biking experience. AFter walking from the town center to our house I understood the value of the E-bike, and why that is all anyone with any sense would choose to rent for family biking.
We biked the town for a bit trying to find the base of the Resciesa Funicular. We were immediately glad we had the bikes and the kids could zip up the hills and it kept complaining about sore legs to a minimum. Either we couldn't figure out how to get eight bikes on the funicular, or we didn't want to pay the 5EUR/bike to take them up, so we took them back to the house then walked the five minutes back to the Funicular and went up. It turns out the house if 5min from the Funicular, 10min from the Seceda Gondola, and 10min from the Alpi di Susi Gondola. It's a truly amazing location for getting into the mountains while being 5min from town.
At the top of the Funicular was a short hiking trail to the Resciesa Refugio, our first refugio of the trip. I was not familiar with Refugios. The idea that there is a restaurant /hostel on the top of a mountain with excellent food and drink is a fantastic concept. The Resciesa REfugio had the added benefit of being surrounded by Cows, Horses and Donkeys, which added another level of excitement.
Excitement was so high that after a few beers and a delicous meal we kept hiking to the peak and additional 30min past the refugio. The kids were all amazing and scrambled up the side of the mountain ahead of the adults.
It has been wonderful to see John, Kerry, Finn and Nate. Our group is so excited to see their friends from home. It's a perfect injection of new people.
After descending John and I decided to take the bikes out and went up the gondola on the other side of the valley, the Alpi Di Susi. I'll write more on the Alpi di Susi later, but it is a high mountain valley. We rode around it in search of mountain bike trails. We didn't find any, but we did find miles of small, paved roads perfect for a family ride which we planned for the next day.
We had another dinner at the house enjoying the views of Sassolungo while enjoying
the Pino Nero. Days go by fast in the mountains.
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