Offroad Bikepacking: The Veneto Divide (Pt. 1)

That was like the sketchiest thing I've ever done on a bike. Yo, this is so insane. So surreal. That's the most epic road I've ever ridden. So we were planning on taking the train to the Pyrenees tomorrow, but it turns out that we were a bit late on time. And so there's no more reservations available through France tomorrow. That means that we have to change the plan and now we're going to Italy. We're pretty excited. Hi, I'm Eric. I'm Henrik's neighbor. This is my third bikepacking tour, whatever. And I'm excited. I've been packing for quite a while and it is coming together. These bad boys are filled up. Got the two big bags in the back with a solar panel and the handlebar pack. And this little cockpit bag. It's 6 a.m. and our train goes in one hour. And I'm excited. I've got the bike packed into this bag. Let's go. With an interrail ticket we got on the train in Freiburg and switched trains in Zurich and Milano. The train ride through the Alps was really cool and we also passed through the longest rail tunnel in the world, the Gotthard Base Tunnel. After only 7 hours we went off in Peschera del Garda to set up our bikes and start the ride. Yo, so we're at the Lake Garda and we're excited to start the tour. Yeah, today is basically only uphill and let's see where we'll camp. But the weather is great as you can see. The route that we chose is called the Veneto Divide. It's a famous mountain bike route across the southern Alps in the Veneto region of Italy. As this route is made for mountain bikes we often struggled with the rough terrain both uphill and downhill, since our bikes have no suspension at all. But that just made it even more adventurous and challenging, so we enjoyed it nevertheless. Look at this camp spot. Got the sunrise in the Lake Garda down there and some lights down here. Italy man, it was beautiful. We had an amazing camp spot this night and now we're having breakfast. It's like 7.30am and then we're off to the mountains. It's 1700m high and we only have like maybe 500m of elevation already done. Yeah, and 50km, so it's gonna be a good day. At least the weather is good and I hope the roads are not too bad. This second day led us up to 1700m above sea level with lots of climbs and short descents. Those gravel back roads were beautiful as there were no cars whatsoever and we could enjoy the rough landscape. Pretty much every time we saw one of those restaurants or mountain huts on top of a mountain we got a beer to treat ourselves. So we just had to push our bikes for like 15-20 minutes because it was all just huge rocks and roots and it was even hard to push the bikes up there at all. But yeah, at least it doesn't get boring. Just taking a break in our first half of the day. The roads are really bad and you can't really call them roads. It's like little paths that we often have to push our bikes because there's lots of rocks and roots. And our bikes are not really fit for the job. Sick. Two beers. Let's go. So the past few kilometers have been pretty insane. We've been riding along like a ski piss. And yeah, the path is accordingly really fighting for every bit of grip. But it's really fun. We're about 1700m above sea level. I think during this afternoon we realized what a challenge we had gotten ourselves into with riding this route. And as an additional difficulty we did it in March where there's still lots of snow up there. I guess we should have expected that though. Just about to take a break. We're both really exhausted from the day. It's just been all this snow and mud. So it's really hard to keep the bike upright. And yeah, we've got like one and a half more hours to go. But with views like these, it's alright. Oh my god. The sketchiest thing I've ever done on a bike. Yo, this is so insane.