Eremo nuovo, Bertesca, Siepe dell'orso, Chiardovo free ride variante Cocco

One of the most beautiful tours of the Casentino Forests, also known as the Sacred Forests.

Departing from San Piero in Bagno in the province of Forlì-Cesena, you can park at the cemetery parking lot, then head to the square and cross its length. You will go up on a paved road, via Paganico, that leads to Monte Piano, before reaching the pass it becomes gravel; when you get to the pass on the left you will find a bar, cross it and continue for about 5 km during which you will pass the entrance to the path that leads to the sanctuary of Corzano, you will pass by Monte Castelluccio, Monte Carpano where you will find a table with benches and a crossroads at which you will proceed straight, then the road will start to descend slightly until you reach Poggiaccio, shortly after be careful, on the right is the entrance to our first single track, take the one that descends and leads directly to Eremo Nuovo, it is also known as Gatti trail. This is a medium difficulty trail, there are no difficult passages, in some places it is a bit steep with some hairpin bends.

When you get to Eremo Nuovo, go up the mule track, the only way up, until you cross the forest road, keep left, after a while you will find on your right a fountain at which you can refresh yourself. Continue along the forest road, here the forest gives a truly magical environment, pay attention on your right you will find the path, marked with special sign, that will take you to Poggio della Bertesca. The climb is really challenging, with an e-bike it turns out to be fun, in some places technically difficult even with this kind of "electric devices", but here the forest is majestic.

You come to a crossroads, every path here is a fun fair for downhill lovers, but you turn right and take the path that will lead us to Siepe dell'Orso, this natural path is technically difficult, I would say that protections are mandatory, forbidden to get carried away and increase too much speed in the most flowing points that certainly do not lack, but then hide pitfalls. When you reach Siepe dell'Orso you have to keep your right and take the path that passes from down below the house, this is also a technically difficult single track, which leads to the church of Pietrapazza, until a few years ago without a roof but now renovated, before arriving at the church, in the summer, you can cool off with a bath at the small waterfall.

From here you go up along the forest road for about 4.5 km until you return to Monte Carpano, at the crossroads you will find the table with benches again, retrace the road taken on the way up until you reach the ascent, stop at the point, quite steep, where the forest opens up, the mule track makes a left turn and the fence on your right is open, here begins the last downhill sigle track known as Chiardovo free ride, once again you will be dealing with a rather difficult single track where there will be no shortage of flow parts and technical passages, to one in particular you will have to be careful, I recommend leading the bike by hand, personally I have seen few people close this passage and not without difficulty. If you can follow the trail well, we did the more flow variant of this trail, but even if you make a mistake at the poorly visible fork there is no problem, you will still arrive at your destination, but at the end of the trail you will have to make a small ford, the bridge has collapsed. Tour doable all year round, better if dry.