MounTminBike Soca Valley Slovenia

Upper Soča Valley does not provide really a vast choice of mountain bike trails, but those which do all get at least four marks out of five. It's unbelievable where and what sort of single tracks you can find in those mountains where only sheep and goats dare to explore the ways ... Impressions

All day long trip toward Stol from South side. Where ascent never ends. The uphill road is loooooong. The only good thing is the view and the warm sun keeps you in a good mood. On top the 360 view is absolutely fabulous, and the 4 km long descent along the Stol crest is another superlative of this mountain. The good descents are rare, but the one directly down to Kobarid tops the dh choices.

Continuing on the road that heads to the MTB Park Kanin starting point you come to a mountain pasture Krnica under the Kanin ski area where a steep zigzag path rides the right side of Rombon mountain and drops you back down to Bovec city centre. This path is certainly more ride-able than the park one and offers from fast DH parts to some almost unridable down steps over some difficult rocky sections. This one is tricky, but in a way one of the most beautiful truly alpine MTB tracks in Soca Valley. Certainly in the club of Matajur, Stol and Razor ones!

Where there is a cable car, all you need to find is an old shepherd path that goes down near it and you've got the MTB Park. And that's it. Bovec MTB park it just that. The downhill section is divided in three parts due to two road crossings and the most difficult part comes in the lowers part that brings you back to Bovec. The park is equipped with "north shore" construction elements to allow fast curving, challenging obstacles surmounting and dare testing for the brave ones.

Short-but-fun. Many hill tops around Bovec are steep and unapproachable by bike, so all it is there are the one way valleys. The one to Možnica has a nice return path that goes through the Možnica river gorges and back out to the road to Kluže, a monumental fortress dated centuries back. Although short these valleys lower part is very picturesque and impressive.

Reaching the Mangart's mountain hut at 1906 m this is the Soca Valleys highest MTB destination. Although it seem that nothing is ride-able from up there the alpine path that drops down to Mangarts mountain pasture offers a tricky but doable descent. Taking a trail above Strmec village makes you avoid the main road and gives you the possibility to drop down to Loška Koritnica with a total of more than 500 m of an interesting single-track descent. Some parts on this one are tricky though and require excellent technique and self-confidence. Try yourself out.

It seems like an innocent small hill looking at it from Tolmin or Most na Soči. But proves to be a hard one. The overall length of this tour hardly beats the one to Vodil Vrh but even if you tried that one and think it is hard to seize than Bučenica will remain an unconquered hill top for you. The uphill part is so difficult due to terrain that the cycling do-ability is on its extreme limits ... but once on top it all gets repaid with two amazing view points. The downhill single-track offers a fast and smooth descent back down to Most na Soči. And a beer or two makes you wonder how come this short trip was so fatiguing ...

A difficult and fatiguing climb to Pretovč on one side and a super fast single track downhill descent can be a shortest description of this trip. Pretovč offers many descent possibilities but also a much easier ascent by one of the most steep uphill tarmac roads :) It takes time to get to the top, but you get down in seconds .... Find it in cloudy Google Earth

A 1000m ascent to Kuk, another hill on Slovenian - Italian border, is not easy. The slope in its first half is very steep, but yet not so difficult as some others since all the way to the top is asphalted. The descent takes you across the border toward Topolovo and switches back to Livek from where a funny descent to Idrsko is available. Funny cors there are so many forest roads you easy miss the right one but eventually get down to Idrsko village.

The Italians call this village "The one with that name ...". Just try to pronounce it. Well, the Matajur/Montemaggiore hill is full of beautiful single tracks. Especially ones on the Italian side. This one is a shorter version of the one to ŠpieterSlovenov/SanPietroAlNatisone and spares you the fatiguing return. There is an extended verison of this ride available: g+ users see it here  else  slideshow  is available for public viewers. Trail map download: Mountminbike_Čeplešišče_Map_ENG.pdf