Monthly Archives: October 2018

Samobor Oštrc Japetić Pleševica Okić

Country: Croatia
Mountain: Samoborsko gorje (Samobor hills)
Length: 50,3 km
Elevation gain: 2129 m
Maximum elevation: 839 m
Tehnical difficulty: 3/5
Download GPS Track: Samobor Oštrc Japetić Pleševica Okić
Date of ride: 20.10.2018
Suitable for E-bike: Yes (if e-bike has push assistance)

Samobor is small town near Zagreb with a population of 21 000 people. According to legend Samobor was named like that, because long time ago in nearby forests ( Stražnik and Tepec) grew only pines ( Only –Samo, Pine – Bor on Croatian).  Samobor  has that medieval vibe, even now you can see knights, taverns and old mills when you look deeply in some houses. Every year there is historical reconstruction of the battle dated in 1441. Today I wanted to relive something less violent, so I decided to see where fairies and giants lived. Best place for the search is Samobor hills. So, when searching for a route I found some interesting tracks on internet and adjusted them to make a real all mountain ride with great sightseeing spots, singletracks, steep uphill sections and some hiking sections. Considering that Samobor hills isn’t very high, and I wanted to ride all day I visited four peaks (Oštrc, Japetić, Pleševica and Okić).

If you are in Zagreb, you can pedal from Zagreb to Samobor, but I’m not so into the paved road, so I decided to travel that part with the car and I sparred some time for a coffee on the main square.

First 11 km are on paved road  and it is very good for warming up.

After the paved road comes combination of unpaved road and singletrack. Last time when I was in Samobor hills I was hiking to peak Oštrc, and there is short but technical descent from peak to Željezničar hut. Near mountain hut Željezničar I decided to go over the ridge with beautiful singletrack section. This section is combination of hiking and biking (If you ride downhill section from Oštrc and downhill section on the ridge, then technical difficulty is 4/5). 

You don’t have to carry much food because there are mountain huts where you can buy food. Žitnica hut, positioned bellow Japetić peak, is famous paragliding spot. I met there some paraglider who told me that once he traveled from that spot to Graz with his parachute and that paragliders can be couple of hours in the air.

Left – singletrack section over the ridge near above  Željezničar, Right – paragliders preparing for take off.
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Omiš Imber

Country: Croatia
Mountain: Omiška Dinara
Length: 17 km
Elevation gain:1087 m
Maximum elevation: 696 m
Tehnical difficulty: 4/5
Download GPS Track: Omiš Imber
Date of ride: 04.07.2018.
Suitable for E-bike: No

Omiška Dinara is Hill near Omiš town surrounded with beautiful Cetina river and Adriatic sea. Its highest peak is at 864 m. Omiš is  great town because it has a lots of potencial for outdoor sports (zip line, rafting, hiking, climbing, swimming and of course mountain biking). I heard of Imber trail from a friend from Pelješac, so i decided to visit Omiška Dinara while I was traveling from Ploče to Zagreb. Luckily, I already bought gimbal while riding this trail, because it is very rocky, and stabilization had a lot of job.

I started biking pretty late, at 12:00 o’clock and it was already more than 30 degrees Celsius so I drank a lot of water. At first there is ascent on paved road, then 1 hour hiking . At the top you can enjoy the site, and a rest a bit for downhill section.

I like this trail a lot because it has everything, nice view, rock sections and flowy sections in the woods. On the end of the descent there is Cetina river so you can refresh a little bit before coming back to town. On the beginning of the route, near parking spot, you can see climbers.

Note: This route can be combined with Omiš Kostanje Gata Zakučac route : http://cyclotrail.com/omis-kostanje-gata-zakucac/

Climbing rock in town Omiš
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Prenj – Borašnica

Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Mountain: Prenj, Borašnica Peak
Length: 36,03 km
Elevation gain:1228 m
Maximum elevation: 1879 m
Tehnical difficulty: 2/5
Download GPS Track: Prenj_Borašnica
Date of ride: 19.05.2018.
Suitable for E-bike: Yes

Prenj is mountain range in the Dinaric Alps of southern Bosnia and Herzegovina located near Jablanica, Mostar and Konjic. It has 11 peaks over 2 000 m. For this trip guys from Mostar (Đani and Ivo) and guys from Konjic (MTBA Konjic) decided to show me one of the peaks bellow 2 000m. I’m very lucky to met these guys from BiH, not only that I found people from other country that share same interests as me, I also found people who made me feel home even though I was far away.

Borašnica peak is known sightseeing point. During ascend you can see Boračko lake, Rakitnica canyon, town Konjic and local mountains.

We started climbing few km above village Borci and there we met MTBA Konjic crew. (Đani, Ivo and I came from Mostar through mountain road with Đani’s jeep, I think he can put at least 12 bikes on that giant).  This whole route was recorded before I bought gimbal, so video is little shaky but I think I can salvage something from clips.

Most of the route is unpaved road. But guys from Konjic showed us singletrack that ends in Džajići village.  (We had Đani’s jeep that welcomed us there so we didn’t have to pedal back to starting point.

Some areas out of road and near peak could be mined, so you should be careful. This is Zlajo trying to tell you that.

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