Together with LOOSE Cycles in Ljubljana we hosted the first Loose in the Woods Bikepacking event. 3 days cycling on gravel roads from Ljubljana all the way into the deep forests of the Snežnik Mountains and back. But how we got there is a long story!
Žan and the Slovenians
The road to getting to know Žan is a long one. It starts with the creation of the Lynx Trail Bikepacking route. At the time the biggest project gravgrav has taken on.
With LIFE Lynx and the University of Ljubljana involved we also got feedback from scientists to actually make this route a credible and valuable project where people could learn something about large carnivores in the Dinaric Mountains and especially about the Lynx.
At some point the LIFE Lynx Team told me they had a colleague that really liked to ride bikes and that he would love to join us for scouting the route. I was unsure what to think. What does it mean “He likes to ride bikes”? Would it be a guy that shows up on a trekking bike with 50kg panniers?
I wasn’t too sure and honestly a bit relieved when they told me that he couldn’t make it on our trip.
Later I learned that colleague was Žan and that he was indeed an avid cyclist and bikepacker! Just before we went to scout the route for the Lynx Trail he rode Istra Land and got saddle sores so bad, he couldn’t sit let alone ride a bike for four days.
However we were now in touch and it was a blessing to have someone to talk about the scientific and organisational aspects of the route that was actually not too far from where the route was AND that spoke the same language as me.
It didn’t take long before we talked about organising rides to get people out in those woods and mountains. The Lynx Trail Overnighter we hosted last year was the first step onto this. There I got to know a lot more crazy Slovenians who really like to ride bikes and sleep in a tent in the woods. One of them for example was Jan and the other Marko.
Jan is a character that is hard to describe. Quite silent most of the time, but when his dark, sarcastic humor strikes, it strikes hard. He is also a very avid photographer.
Then Marko… he looks like a bear. But his smile is warm and you wouldn’t believe it but he actually had a fight with a bear. Or well the bear hit him really hard. A tattoo documents this incident, still he talks kindly about bears and loves to spend time in nature.
You might say he also really likes bikes. So much he created a bike store with his friend Tine in Ljubljana Loose Cycles. Arguably the coolest bike shop in Ljubljana. We contacted them when we somehow looked for a hub that was easily accessible to start our rides in the way more reachable capital of Ljubljana.
There are way more characters I should name here but you get the picture:
If people are passionate and willing to make something happen you suddenly have a community.
We agreed very quickly that we wanted to host a bikepacking event and that we wanted to work together on this. Marko designed the Logo and some Graphics, Žan designed a route, wrote a roadbook and oragnised the campgrounds, Jan scouted some of the stretches and provided some pictures and I created a page for it, setup payment and registration and voila! We were up and running.
Well… ok there was a lot more steps in between and even after. Events are… lets say they can give you gray hair. But honestly it felt way easier than other events I organised and that is because of great passionate people that worked together on this.
So I guess the thank you part comes first in this report!
What’s even more astonishing than the people who invest all their time in this is how fast we sold out. We increased capacity with the campgrounds two times to allow more people to come.
The nationality of most of them? Slovenian!
And while the fitness levels and ambitions couldn’t have been more different the group we had for the event was an absolute dream!
A lot of laughs, shared meals and roads, there were groups finding each other to share this experience and I really hope no one was really alone.
Thank you all! It was a blast and I hope we will have amazing participants like you were again next year! (And to see lots of you again.)
A Loose start from Loose Cycles
The event started with coffee, Manner waffles and croissants (God, why do we not have pistacchio croissants in Austria?) at Loose Cycles in the North-West of Ljubljana. Some good chats and curious looks at all the fancy bikes and setups before we rolled out.
Some last minute fixes were also needed.
Usually getting such a large group out of a city would be nerve wrecking. Ljubljana has a park however that connects you on some nice gravel road directly to the Lubljana March in the South from where you will get into the mountains without much traffic!
The group split quickly and a lot of riders were riding in groups at different paces. A good opportunity to get some pictures.
On the first long climb i went ahead and then went down again to the last person, taking a picture of pretty much everyone.
The last were Tine and his girlfriend. They were on single speed bikes taking it easy. I took a picture and went up again passing a lot of riders. I had to laugh seeing Samo at the side of the road smoking.
It was already 1,5h of riding!
Until I reached the first riders again it took me a bit over 2 hours and we reunited with most cyclists at the supermarket in Cerknice. Rider Vid invited us to his parents for a coffee then. What an experience!
Avoiding the storms
Now we went on the Sveta Troice. An old church towering above today's destination Pivka.
The climb there is long but manageable. Only the last bit is very loose (Ha, pun intended.) and steep. I went ahead again and took pictures of the other riders pushing their bikes up. What a scenery and well worth the effort.
It was cold and windy up there and in the distance we could see a storm moving towards us. Checking the weather radar we saw that this one would miss us, but there might be more rain coming later. Off to the camp! Let’s stay dry.
Fortunately it was almost all downhill from here and we just enjoyed a descend on perfect gravel roads down into Pivka. A few turns on windy gravel roads and we made it to Camp Plana.
Little Germany
Gisela is probably the name that will haunt me in my sleep. The campground in Pivka, the destination of our first day, is owned by a german lady. She prefers to talk german, so obviously i was responsible for communicating with her.
It is a very clean and nice camping ground. We had loads of space and food and drinks were also available. Some decided to have food in town, some stayed there. We went for a Pizza.
It didn’t take long before Žan received a call and just handed me the phone.
There are only 4 cyclists sitting on my terrace but the bill is around 200€. Who is going to pay for all this?
We discussed everything and I went back to sort all that had to be paid. In the end participant Samo payed the bill by card, the others gave him cash. All good.
We soon went to bed after some good stories and a few beers, ice cream etc. My night was not very pleasant. Unfortunately it seems I caught a virus and was puking for my life paired with horrible diarrhea throughout the night.
The next morning I was barely able to stand up. It rained for most of the night and everything was wet. That didn’t increase my motivation to get up and packing but surprisingly we were even greeted with some sun!
Into the wild Snežnik Mountains
Breakfast was served at the supermarket. I wonder what people were thinking when the whole place before the super market was crowded with cyclists buying crazy amounts of sweets and drinks.
It is surely a strange scenery especially for a place like Pivka. I was hesitant and only had some food but all around the packing game was strong: Where to put those bananas? Another coffee?
The mood was good and small groups all took off at their own pace.
Todays stage was all about reaching the mountains over a long but gentle climb up to Mašun and its forrest house before everyone could enjoy some premium slovenian gravel roads that went up and down along the croatian border before dropping down to Babno Polje and shortly after to our camp for the night at Kamp Beli Ghaber.
I can’t tell you too much about the route as I still battled sickness and unfortunately gave some participants some horrible images for the day. I have to say thank you though. I was overwhelmed by how friendly and helpful everyone was.
Ukrainian rider Kyrylo gave me a little sachet with cyryllic text on it. The fairly tasteless liquid calmed my stomach and I crawled to Mašun for some dry rice and pancakes with jam.
That was the first meal in nearly 24h i kept in.
Kamp Beli Ghaber
I decided to take a shortcut to camp and get some additional rest. I slept on a wooden plank for 3-4 hours after a much needed warm shower.
I could hear the participants rolling into camp. Some asked me how I was doing but honestly I don’t think I interacted with them much.
All of them seemed to be in good spirits and enjoyed the route and the nice company for their rides. They all had beers and snacks until the lovely camp crew made a vegetarian stew for us.
Carnivores could have sausage with it and vegetarians got some fried veggie dough pads.
Participants must have been very hungry, the food didn’t last long!
Rain was forecasted for the night and most participants gladly took up the offer to sleep in the hay rack. I was the first to go and slept for a wonderful 13 hours after watching Pauline Ferrand-Prevot win the queen stage of the Tour de France Femmes and put on the maillot jaune which she wouldn’t give up anymore.
Riding back to Ljubljana
Breakfast was amazing. Locally produced yoghurt, good bread, jams and bananas and muesli. Couldn’t have been better. Instead of coffee I still opted for tea to not upset my stomach.
After a long and nice breakfast we all packed up and took a group picture. Jan had to get quite far away to get everyone on the picture.
We then also took a portrait of each rider and their unique setups.
The groups spread out pretty quick again but I was happy to ride more like my normal self and enjoyed taking some pictures.
At a lake we took a short break and enjoyed some coffee and ice cream. It wasn’t very warm but come on what is a ride without ice cream?!? I really loved Martin’s approach of making his own affogato with ice cream and espresso.
The vibe was great here. As you can see Jan was feeling fancy with an alcohol free dark malt beer. King of the lake!
Through a beautiful george we winded our way down and back up before reaching the Ljubljana Marsh once again. Rider Martin said:
I lived in Ljubljana for years but i have no idea where we are!
I take that as a compliment. We rolled into Ljubljana for some Falafel Wrap and said goodbye at the Loose Cycles shop. What a ride!
Time trial to the train
There was one problem: I was unable to book a train from Ljubljana to Salzburg with a bike.
I could however book it from Kranj!
No Problem!
says Žan and we embark on a furious ride to make my train. We broke quite some of his PBs and I was really thirsty afterwards but I made it to my train and got home before midnight. Thx Žan I hope the Trauma doesn’t sit too deep.
Slovenia has great people
When I first rode my bike through Slovenia I was stunned by the landscapes. I had great interactions with people and I decided to come back multiple times.
I couldn’t have foreseen how much time I would spend here and clearly building projects like the Lynx Trail and now Loose in the Woods has created strong bonds with the country and its people.
I have made real friends here and everytime I am surprised by how passionate people are here and how they just want to do things. I don’t take that for granted, I really appreciate all the efforts and I can’t wait for the next project with the slovenian friends I’ve made.
I hope to see a lot of familiar faces at the next event and can’t wait to ride with all of you again. (Hopefully without the puking and diarrhea part.)
Checkout this years route in the RWGPS embed and sign up for our newsletter to know when registration for our next event opens up.
Thank you to everyone involved. Hvala!
