Monthly Archives: September 2011

Cycling trip Choceň – Seč and back (Day 1: “highlands”)

My college semester starts next week and, to have a nice end of “holidays”, I decided to go for one last cycling trip. I’ve never gone to a (cycling) trip longer than one day and this seemed as a nice opportunity to try it.

On Monday evening I packed a tent, sleeping bag, some clothes (and all other things necessary for two days’ long trip) and loaded it on my bike – wanted to be ready and able to set out early on the next day.

Start Finish Distance Max. elevation Min. elevation Total ascent
Choceň Seč 122.2 km 758.6 m 280.4 m 2051 m
Elevation diagram - from Choceň to Seč via Žďárské vrchy

Elevation diagram - from Choceň to Seč via Žďárské vrchy

On Tuesday I left my home at 7 o’clock and headed to the south-east. The first 50 kilometers were almost the same as during my trip to Znojmo – I went via Litomyšl and Polička to Jimramov. The only difference was that while on the first time I went from Polička to Jimramov along the valley of Bílý potok brook, on the second time I used a little shorter, but much more exhausting way via village Korouhev, during which I had to climb to more than 645 m ASL! Read More (photos and rest of the story) »

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Corsica 2011 – Lac de Nino (21st July)

For our second (and last) day in Niolo, we had planned a trip to Lac de Nino – one of five most famous Corsican lakes.

Start/finish Main POI Distance Max. elevation Min. elevation Track record
Maison Forestière de Poppaghia Lac de Nino 10 km 1762 m 1061 m GPX file

The track begins at Maison Forestière de Poppaghia (1061 m ASL), few kilometers down under Col de Verghio mountain pass. The hike is very well-known and so we met a lot of people there. It surprised me that most of them were French – usually tourists in Corsican mountains are mainly Germans, Czechs, Austrians and Slovenians.

Lac de Nino from Bocca â Stazzona

Lac de Nino from Bocca â Stazzona

We set out from the parking place at 9:22 and set out to the south along the marked trail to Lac de Nino. At first it ascended quite gently through the beautiful pine forest of Valdu Niellu (“Black Forest” in English???); however, this changed after about 3 kilometers, when we came out of the forest near “Bergerie de Colga” (1412 m ASL). Read More (+ elevation diagram, waypoints, photos) »

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Corsica 2011 – Viru valley (20th July)

Well, after a short cycling break I’ll return back to writing about Corsica. Weather wasn’t very good on our first day in Niolo. It was quite cold (approximately 13°C), very windy and it was raining. Despite that, we set out to a trip to Viru valley – a track from Klaus Wolfsperger’s guidebook.

Start/finish Main POI Distance Max. elevation Min. elevation Track record
Parking near Calasima Bergeries de Ballone 11 km 1442 m 1056 m GPX file

The hike starts near Calasima – which is, according to the aforementioned guidebook, highest-located Corsican village. We left our car at ten to eleven on a small parking space on the road to Viru valley – it is very easy to found: the tarmac road from Calasima changes here to the unpaved, gravel one.

Viru valley

Viru valley

Main target of our trip were "Bergeries de Ballone", that are located on famous GR20 route near Viru brook. At first we went to the west along the gravel road. After about 1.5 kilometers, it changed into a narrow forest path and gradually turned to the north-north-west. Even though the track was quite well marked, we still had some problems with orientation and I was quite happy to have my GPS with me. Read More (+ elevation diagram, waypoints, photos) »

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Cycling trip to Zemská brána and Deštné

The weather was very nice on Saturday and that’s why I decided to go for a little longer cycling trip. I wanted to see Zemská brána (literally “Land’s Gate” in English), beautiful natural reservation on Czech-Polish border.

Main POIs Distance Max. elevation Min. elevation Total ascent
Zemská brána, Šerlich, Deštné 137 km 1013 m 272 m 1720 m
Elevation diagram - to Šerlich and back

Elevation diagram - to Šerlich and back

I set out from Choceň at 7:40 a.m. and went along the river Tichá Orlice (“Silent Eagle”) via Ústí nad Orlicí to Letohrad. There are nice and comfortable cycling tracks (route nr. 4061 Choceň – Ústí nad Orlicí and route nr. 4048 Ústí n. O. – Letohrad), so after less than two hours I got to Letohrad. Read More (photos and rest of the story) »

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