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2023-04-14
Vacations » '22 - Dolomites & Slovenia
The Dolomites
Trekking in the Dolomites – the Italian Alps – should be on everyone’s bucket list! It’s just that good. Ok, maybe not everyone’s list, but certainly on every hiker’s bucket list. Arguably, one of the world’s most beautiful and accessible regions for day-hiking and long-distance trekking, the Dolomites are a UNESCO World Heritage Center, offering a series of highly distinctive mountain landscapes that are of exceptional natural beauty. This trek had been in the works for a number of years
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Lago de Braies – Day 1
After a short stay in Venice/Lido, time we always factor in to our trekking adventures to assure our backpacks, arrive successfully, we were ready to begin our long awaited hike on the Alta Via 1. Our “base camp” was a village just south of Cortina, San Vito di Cadore. With a population of around 2000, it had a “chill” vibe and enabled us to have a starting/ending point for our trek – where we could leave some luggage. We stayed
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Pederu to Fanes – Day 2
One of the challenges in planning a multi-day trek is being able to make all of the reservations at each of the overnight stops. We were “mostly” successful on this trip. The first leg from Lago di Braies had been longer than desired (11.2 mi), but that meant our second leg – Pederu to Fanes – was short and sweet (3.9 mi). Accommodations at Rifugio Pederu had been great and, despite weather app’s predictions to the contrary, the morning turned
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Fanes to Lagazuoi – Day 3/4
We knew this was going to be a big day – spoiler alert – it was! But it was also an amazing hike all around – the terrain, the elevation changes (ascent: 4000ft, descent: 1800ft), and the distance – 10.5mi all combined for an epic day. Again, the weather apps were wrong – they’d been predicting 70% chance of rain each day – just wasn’t happening. After yet another amazing breakfast spread – meats, cheeses, yogurt, granola, boiled eggs (the
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Lagazuoi to Averau – Day 5
Next morning, we were off, back on our Alta Via 1 trek, to Rifugio Averau, a relatively short distance on the AV1. We’d decided to shorten even more by taking the gondola to Passo Falzarego. It’s the journey, not the destination. But not to get ahead of ourselves, we first enjoyed an amazing sunrise and morning at Rifugio Lagazuoi – the clouds offering far more color and richness to the sky – than a cloudless sky. Soon enough, we were
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Averau to Croda da Lago – Day 6
Sunrise in the mountains, is almost always a special treat – more so when the weather reports were wrong – with a prediction of rain. Blessed with another special morning, I couldn’t help but snap a few pix before breakfast. But before saying goodbye to Rifugio Averau, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful morning and try again to get to Rifugio Nuvolau. And we were not disappointed. The skies were continuing to clear, offering some unusual backdrop, especially
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Returning to San Vito – Day 7
This was our last day of trekking – saying goodbye to the Dolomites and the Alta Via 1 and returning to our home base in San Vito. Today’s trek, while not especially long, a bit over 8.5 miles, had nearly 4,200 ft elevation loss – LOTs of downhill. We had been in a shared bunk room at the Rifugio, fortunately, just us and one other trekker – so overnight noise wasn’t an issue. As with all the others, the Rifugio
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Slovenia and beyond
As is our custom, our travel plans included some time in “the front country” – away from the trails and the woods – though we might not quite call what we’d enjoyed anything like the back country of New Hampshire. Spending time in civilizations and exploring other areas of the world are always enjoyable. Since we were already in Northern Italy, we had heard great things about the Istrian Peninsula – part of Croatia on the Adriatic. Our time off
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