Petralia Soprana Loop Ride

April 21, 2023

We weren’t sure if we would get rained on today but the forecast indicated only very light rain. The young woman at the hotel desk, a local, didn’t think it would rain. And we really didn’t know what we would do with ourselves if we didn’t ride, so we kept with the plan of a loop ride in the Parco Madonie. Besides, we’d need the layers for the descents if nothing else.

The first 25 km of today’s route were the same as planned for tomorrow’s ride to Cefalù. We decided that some changes would be needed by the time we had ridden the first 5 km. Descending through Petralia Sottana was (for me) terrifying, on steep, bumpy cobbles. We went down and then up, and discovered a road intersecting with our route that might have been better so I made a mental note to check it when we got back.

We continued climbing a long way, gaining over 900 metres elevation, all the way to Piano Battaglia. The scenery was okay, the road was okay in places and terrible in others, but there was nothing that made us think we wouldn’t mind doing this again tomorrow on loaded bikes. (Speaking of rough: every bridge, and there were quite a few, had very deteriorated expansion joints every 10 metres. Plus some of the potholes were big enough to swallow a vintage Fiat 500.)

Approaching Piano Battaglia. Pretty but not pretty enough to warrant doing the climb again.

There’s an observatory up there and what appear to be ski runs down. Though we didn’t see any lifts, there’s a ski resort up here somewhere.

View from just over the top, descending on SP 119.

The road to Collesano, the one we had originally planned to take tomorrow. We won’t.

The descent through alpine meadows was beautiful (and the road was smooth until about 5 km before Polizzi Generosa).

Looking back up at the switchbacks through the meadows.

My jacket stands out on the road but blends in here. Photographing flowers does require much stealth, though.

Below the meadows, the flora changed to pine forest. There was fauna too: Al saw a deer when we were climbing and I startled one during the descent through the pine forest. It was on the road, between the wire fences along each side, and panicked when it saw/heard me. On its first attempt to get off the road, it got tangled in the fence and I was quite concerned (I’d stopped when I first saw it) but it managed to free itself, bound down the road, and clear the fence in a different place.

Al wasn’t with me because he had stopped to take a photo of something we had first noticed elsewhere but saw a great number of today: caterpillar trains and evidence of former ones.

Part of a caterpillar chain. These we’re everywhere on the road through the pine forest.

We bought some pizza-by-the-slice in Polizzi Generosa, found a bench on which to sit and eat it, and stopped by the cemetery on our way out of town. We discovered recently that Italian cemeteries often have washrooms so use them occasionally.

Continuing our loop, we descended past Castellana Sicula then on a lovely quiet road to cross the Fiume Imera Meridionale and then started our climb through Blufi, Giaia, and Fasanò and eventually back to Petralia Soprana.

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Scott AndersonThat descent to Petralia Sottana was terrifying for us too, especially in the strong crosswinds we were experiencing. We walked the whole way and it was still unnerving.
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1 year ago

Jacquie GaudetTo Scott AndersonI rode the first pitch and walked the second and decided that, if I had to do it again with a loaded bike, I’d change my shoes to walk down. My cycling shoes are just too slippery now that they’re old.
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1 year ago