It’s a beautiful day. The official tour with the group doesn’t start until tomorrow but a suggested ride for early arrivals was Mt. Grappa. It’s 66-mile loop from Castlefranco. The first few miles are flat as a pancake. That’s not something we do a lot of in Salt Lake and it’s heroic feeling when you can travel at 20 plus mph for long distances. You get miles under your belt quickly. From the base of Mt. Grappa its 27 kilometers (about 16 miles) uphill until the summit. You gain a lot of altitude rapidly. It’s a narrow road and seems to be a popular Sunday drive as there are a lot of vehicles on the road. They are all in some sort of race, which seems odd to me if it’s a Sunday afternoon drive. The altitude is not so much the difficulty as is the unrelenting incline. But, hey, that’s why they call it climbing and that’s why we’re here.

The first bit of the climb is trees and then you break above tree line into grassy pasture full of cows with bells on. Lot’s of clanging going on as most of them seem to be wearing bells. There were a couple of roadside stands with people selling cheese and sausage from the cows and pigs raised in the area. I did stop at one of the stands on the way down and had a chunk of sausage and cheese. It was just that but somehow the experience made it seem all the tastier. Did I mention it got very cold as we got to the summit?