Valmalenco - Chiesa-Primolo-S.Giuseppe

I started from Chiesa Valmalenco contrada Costi and rode the bike/pedestrian section upstream from the main road that starts behind the Pizzo Scalino Residence. You soon arrive at contrada Somprato (here there is a possibility to get water, if you wish) where a short single track starts, first uphill (some rocks not very easy to overcome) then downhill that ends on the paved road leading to the hamlet Primolo. You go all the way along the paved carriage road -noisy, not too steep- and in about forty minutes you reach the hamlet. You cross it all the way to the shrine of Santa Maria delle Grazie from where, on the left, a fairly steep but short section starts that leads to the Primolo pine forest (there is a fountain to fill your water bottle just after the second tennis court).

Here the fun begins: nice, easy single track downhill with an initial section through the woods. Nothing difficult, but fairly busy: watch out for people on foot. Continue downhill with a nice view of the soapstone quarries. At a certain point a scree is encountered, and the trail begins to climb and has many difficulties and several technical sections. In my opinion it is not very rideable, but it is short. When you reach the end of the climb, you descend on a single track with a few steps, but nothing major, to the bridge that crosses the Mallero stream and then climb, not without difficulty, to the other bank, where you cross the Rusca trail: to the left (upstream) you continue to Chiareggio and, further on, to the Muretto pass.

To the right, however, you return downstream and toward Chiesa Valmalenco. For those who want to, there is a very steep and short path just in front of the exit from the bridge, leading up, to the hamlet of San Giuseppe. For the return, I opted for the same road in reverse, which is totally rideable, but with some not-so-simple technical uphill sections just after the bridge over the stream. Once past the town of Primolo, instead of continuing along the road, there is a nice single track to the left (towards the cemetery) that leads back down to Chiesa. It has a few technicalities and a couple of nice tight switchbacks and leads toward the Somprato district of Chiesa Valmalenco.