MounTminBike Soca Valley Slovenia

A nice round trip through a very interesting village Robidišče - the most western settlement of Slovenia, reached from Podbela and extending the trip across Italian border to the Vogel hill (1124m), climbing down to Montefosca and descending by a typical well-done-Italian-rock-paved path (il sentiero) down to Stupica/Stupizza and back to Kobarid. If you avoid the 735 path from the top of the hill to Montefosca and return by road you easily avoid some 3 hours of bicycle carrying to reach the village. The 735 way to it is a clear case of no way.

1300m of altitude difference, 10km of ascent, 13% of average slope, with 20% steepness on the very beginning of ascent just outside Zatolmin - these are some facts that make this way up to Sleme not very popular among mountain bike riders to say the least. But there are some who like it just for these facts. The way up takes some effort but when you get to the top where the highest mountain pasture of Tolmins region lies the view opens to the Julian alps on the East and West side. From here many possibilities for descent are available. The most popular is to go down to Mederje and via Pretovč straight down to Zatolmin. The single track is always empty and it allows a very high speed descent with some rocky sections just to keep the thing interesting.

The Vojsko plateau offers some splendid mtb rides on plenty of tarmac roads. And there are also some single track descents down into the Trebušca river valley. The best among them is the descent down the Pršjak valley which brings you to a splendid viev on the 27 meter high waterfall on this stream.

A very interesting visit to a nice Italian village just across the border. If you pay a visit to this village try to do it in July when Postaja Topolovo - an artististic project - takes place. There are several nice paths available to reach this settlement by mtb. The latest version we did was down to the village directly from the Kuk mountain. The path itself can be described very easily: tep, tep, tep, tep, tep, tep, tep, tep, tep, tep, tep, tep, tep, tep, tep, ter, step, tep, tep, tep, tep, tep, tep, step and when you think the rocky steps are over in strats again tep, tep, tep, tep, tep, tep, tep, tep, tep, tep, tep, tep, tep, te, te, te, tep, te, tep, tep, t, t, t, t, tep, step, step ... all the way down to the church back yard. Fatiquing but very nice path. Here are some impressions: FOTOS FROM 2010

Korada lies south of Tolmin, with some 20 km by car to Plave from where a nice path takes you to the top where a nice cottage is located. They serve beer and food. The view from the top reaches many Italian villages to the west, Sveta gora above Gorica to the south east and Julian Apls to the norh. The descent is mostly rocky, with some nice details. But it allows high speed downhill if you dare. Click the picture for photo gallery.

MTB - Mountainbiking in Tolmin (T'min) area = MounTminBike As Soca Valley is a very fine place for mountainbiking I've decided to set up this blogger. Therefore links to photo galleries will be posted, paths descriptions and other usefull stuff which is needed to know when visiting Soca Valley for biking purposes. Links to friends webpages, photo albums and other will also be availeble here.