Summer in the mountains

Mountain Biking

I suppose the ski season does have to come to an end at some point!!! (I don’t know who decided this, but whoever it was should have been hung drawn and quartered, very, very slowly). 

The depressing task of packing the snowboard away to collect dust for the next few months having been completed, our attention turns to how we should spend the long hot summer months.  

With countless dirt tracks and small winding roads which lead off to neighbouring villages we decided that maybe we ought to buy ourselves mountain bikes. Bikes bought and checked; off we set, not really knowing where we were headed. Eventually ending up in the next village 5kms along the valley we prided ourselves on the ease of the ride. ( A little premature) We then had to turn tail and get back to Bansko, its only half way back we remember that living in the mountains, no matter where we go, one way is always up!  This said, we survived and felt quite eager to plan our next jaunt.

The next afternoon after studying a map, we decided we would take one of the tracks that headed out to the west of the town, as the map clearly showed two small caves, one either side of the road. The tarmac soon disappeared and we were going along a reasonably good dirt track road, overtaking horse and carts that were taking the owners to their garden plots. Thinking (like you would) that a gentle bike ride along the track, find the caves, investigate a little and then turn tail for home, we then came to a small rutted (did I say small)? section of the road that climbed steadily for about 100 metres. Huffing and puffing in the ruts that reached almost to the top of the wheels, we were determined to get to the top without having to get off and push!! Hmm why must we always be so obstinate!  Legs on fire, muscles about to shred we reached our goal only to find once over the top, the ruts got no smaller and there was indeed yet another climb!  One hour later, ruts all the way, a ride through an abandoned army tank firing range, a wrong turning, we were still looking for the said caves. Needless to say at this point, we headed for the nearest road and took the easy route home.  The caves? We have never found them to this day! 

A few days later and still a little saddle sore (I thought this was a condition only endured by horse riders, but believe me cyclists suffer just as much), out came the bikes again and this time we headed off to the East of the town along a track that runs along the base of the mountains toward the next village. This track compared to the previous one was quite gentle on both our bikes and our bodies! and passed a couple of reservoirs en-route. The only problem being that for some reason the track kept coming to complete dead ends! How can a track be so clearly defined and then suddenly just run out?  Only to see maybe 50m ahead it actually starts again. This happened not once, but several times. Do Bulgarians have horse and carts that can do the Long Jump!  

We really enjoy getting the bikes out on our quiet days and have investigated many of the too numerous to list tracks around Bansko and have tales to tell about most of them. But the one that as yet, we haven’t been brave enough to try, is cycling up the mountain to the ski slopes, as this is a 12km jaunt up a winding mountain road, that if you were coming down on skis would definitely be classed as a hard red run in many places. But, we know a man who, as a seasoned mountain biker has, it took him 4 hours and nearly killed him in the process. Maybe after a few more seasons of us sticking to the rutted and disappearing tracks we may give it a go!  

 Glynis

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