Secret spot and a hidden trail - Punta dei Larici

Trail map from Riva to Punta dei Larici.

Short but still one of my favorite trails starts from the "secret spot" at Lake Garda. Punta dei Larici is located at 908 meters on a beautiful peak with a gorgeous view over the lake and down to Limone. There is still a price to pay to get up there. Reasonable climb of 800 meters sounds ok but the final 350 meters of the pedaling goes up on a steep dirt road. Biking uphill on a dirt road starts to feel an excercise when temperature rises up to 35 celcius degrees and the rider has a heavy trail bike.

Our trip started from Riva nearby the car tunnel on the western side of the city. Trail was closed around 2003 or 2004 because of heavy rains, but luckily it was re-opened and is now in use for trekking and mountainbiking purposes. This old trail is one of the most beautiful bike climbs at Lake Garda and during the early afternoon hours the road is usually full of tourists.

Heta, Jarkko, Sami and Mika posing at the secret spot.

After the scenery road ends the pedaling continues towards Pregasina. Road to Pregasina has good asphalt and is easy to pedal. Our trip's halfway hotel was at La Madonnina statue. From here the road continues towards Pregasina village that had the last spot to fill water reserves before Punta dei Larici. From Pregasina to the Punta dei Larici the road became more rough and steep.

Final spot Punta dei Larici found by turning left at the crossroads with trail 422bis. This secret spot offered a great place for relaxing and getting energy for the best part of the ride, trail down to Pregasina.

Our speeds and altitudes during the day.

Going down the main road would be a waste of effort in a place like this. Still most of the riders seems to go down to Pregasina via the main ascent trail 422bis. Over the years I have found a great alternative trail that crosses the main 422b few times and eventually ends up to the main road. This path is marked on some maps as a river or rivulet. To find the starting location we headed down via the 422bis but on a first steep right turn we headed down to woods. Starting point should be easy to find by keeping eye on the right side of the road. I'm not going explain more about the delails, let the video show the rest. Videos are still pending due our limited internet connection.

See photos from Flickr

Trail riding nearby Pregasina.