August 23 – 29, 2026
Day 6: Sunday, August 23… A long day yesterday left us with a mere dozen miles to reach Feltre. That was by design. We wanted adequate time to organize gear and nail down transportation for our travel day tomorrow. Success on every front. It was beautiful riding along the Piave River.
The last few years have offered up a crash course on navigating public transport. So far we’ve only been kicked off one train and gotten into an argument with one bus driver (I’m especially proud of that one – since it was in Spanish). Which is all to say we finally ended up with the means to get from point A to B … we think. Tomorrow will tell the tale.
The rest of the afternoon was equally productive. We sorted gear. We packed excess gear and found a safe home for our bikes for the next two weeks. We feasted on another grocery store dinner. We even had time for a walk around the neighborhood before settling in for the night.
Day 7: Monday, August 24… Forty one years ago Sharon and I said “I do” to a life of adventure together. And what a wild ride it’s been – and continues to be! How apropos that we celebrate our special day in a charming city in the heart of the Dolomites of northern Italy.
It took six hours, three different trains and a bus criss-crossing the Italian countryside to get us from Feltre to Bressanone. Well worth it.
Tomorrow we head out (up) into 100% chance of rain and thunderstorms to begin our twelve day trek back to Feltre and our bikes.
Day 8: Tuesday, August 25… It was a day! One hour of bus and gondola travel saved us 6,000′ of climbing. (Good idea!) Hiking in the clouds and rain? (Meh!) Amazing views when the clouds broke (Outstanding!) Confusing trails and signage, especially in impenetrable fog (Could be better!)
Overall – it was an amazing day in the Dolomites. Whenever the clouds lifted, we were treated to sublime views. All around were peaks, ridges, spires and valleys. We met interesting people along the trail and in the rifugio.
At one point during the day, a dozen cows and an equal number of hikers all took the same narrow trail. That worked fine until the cows figured they’d gone far enough. Gridlock ensued.
Chaos and confusion reigned, until one brave cow led the herd to a slow vehicle pullout. All hikers safely passed and order was restored to the forest.
Cows weren’t the only thing making life difficult. On again off again misty rain was a bother. It was a long uphill grind did the most to wear us down.
We topped out in a soupy fog. However, as we made the final traverse to the Schleuter Hutte, the clouds parted. We were given a tiny preview at what we have to look forward to on clear days.
Our first night in a rifugio was mixed. Staff was super good at organizing the chaos of many dozens of hikers seeking food and shelter. Excellent food and conversation around our communal table made the evening fly by. The downside is that rifugios are busy, boisterous places with very little privacy. Eight of us shared a tiny room. As son Kevin commented, “So you’re saying the old college cram isn’t really your jam anymore?” Very astute grasshopper.
Day 9: Wednesday, August 26… Sharon and I have done some hiking. We know what distances and altitude we can handle. We used that experience to plan this hike. Turns out we may have underestimated the difficulty of hiking in the Dolomites. This day was a butt kicker.
This little gem was our second climb of the day
But wait, if you order now we’ll throw in an extra set of gnarly climbs at no extra cost!
Kind of unseemly complaining about hiking when we’re wandering through this landscape… so we won’t. Suffice to say we earned every one of these views.
One measure of the popularity of these hikes is that all lodging on the trail had been completely booked in February. We detoured off trail several miles to Badia to reach our hotel for the night.
Day 10: Thursday, August 27… “We didn’t see that coming!” We knew it was going to be a big climbing day – over 4,000′ vertical. For comparison, you gain 3,300 vertical feet climbing Humphreys peak outside Flagstaff. Getting to the top of Engineer Peak north of Durango involves 2,200′ -ish feet of uphill travel. What we did not expect was hundreds and hundreds of feet of via ferrata climbing. It wasn’t a designated via ferrata route…just the regular trail. We both enjoyed the challenge, but it was much steeper and harder than anticipated. Our motto for the day “We’re not slow! Its just slow going!”
We also did not expect surrounding peaks to be hidden behind a thick haze. We assumed forest fires were to blame. Apparently “high summer temperatures and humidity frequently trap moisture and fine particles in alpine valleys, creating a milky or hazy obstruction around high mountain passes.”
The haze did not do any favors to the Sella massif. We spent much of our day passing through this luna landscape. It was interesting, but…unimpressive. The last bit of “meh” came after Rifugio Boe. A gondola deposited hordes of daytrippers at elevation only a few miles from the rifugio. We found ourselves in almost unbroken conga line stretching in both directions. I
With age comes wisdom. We followed the conga line to the top of Sass Pordoi tram, flashed some plastic, and miraculously were transported thousands of feet to the valley below. Brilliant!
Day 11: Friday, August 28… Fun facts. The road over Passo Pordoi was built in 1905 to open the area to tourism. This second highest pass in the Dolomites has been featured in the Giro d’Italia bike race over forty times, and four times as the finish line. During WWI, brutal fighting took place between Italian troops and Austrian-Hungarian forces. The high peaks and ridges of this area served as the front lines. Hard to imagine.
Our Italian word for today is “Ventoso” – “very windy” perfectly describes our day today. We had a very civilized six mile hike from Pordoi pass to Fedaia pass.
Yes, there was still plenty of elevation, both up and down, but more gradual. The trail was better. We exchanged yesterday’s lunar landscape for verdant valleys and honrst to goodness glaciers! It was all good, except for “ventoso”. Wind gusts were strong enough to literally blow Sharon off her feet. It was ventoso enough to require shouting within a few feet of each other to be heard. As we passed Fedaia Lake, gusts would drive freight train walls of spray the length of the lake. Other times, downdraft microbursts would hit the lake and explode – sending up huge plumes of spray. Wild. We were happy to arrive early at our rifugio.
Fun fact. The barely visible Marmolade glacier has shrunk by 90% in the last century. In WWI, the front lines actually crossed the much larger glacier. Austrians actually carved out and built an “ice city” inside the glacier. As the glacier melts, war artifacts are still being found. Now you know.
Day 12: Saturday, August 29… Rifugio Fedaia seems to be a family run affair. The accommodations were very nice. The food was excellent and plentiful. The family in charge were grim and grumpy. Somebody doesn’t love their job.
I feel like we hit our stride today! Caught the local bus and skipped three miles of trail that just followed the road three miles down to the bottom of the valley. We hiked today with youngster Marwen from the Netherlands. He was born there, but his family came from Morocco and Tunisia. When he is not squeezing adventures into his busy schedule, he works part time while attending pharmacy school. Our conversations made the time pass quickly.
And just like that we had topped out at over 9,500′. We joined an organized group at a small summit. It included a young woman from Chicago, two Irish lasses, Brits and Kiwis. Before the trip they were complete strangers. “Now we know everything about each other” they said. Clearly they were having more fun than humans should be allowed. We also ran into Leo and Abby from Denver. We’d spent several hours in their company on night one. Felt like running into old friends. Funny how that happens on the trail.
A quick hike down (with one quick stop for a rifugio beer) brought us to San Pellegrino and our lodging for the night. We said good-night to Marwen with every expectation that we will cross paths again.
Tonight is our last hotel of our trip. Except for the first night, we’ve ended every day and spent our nights where a busy road crosses a popular pass. Going forward, it looks like we will be in rifugios in a more remote region. In fact we may not cross a road again until we reach Feltre at the end. We’re looking forward to it. Our trip in the Dolomites really hasn’t felt like a “through hike”. It has felt more like we are doing a series of day hikes connected by posh accommodations. I suspect that feeling will change.
But that’s to be seen, and of course we will let you! Until then, seize the carp people!
