SK, Oravska Lesna – Mountain Biking Around II

Beautiful views, fresh mountain air, getting fit, and overcoming challenges make this sport my favorite. The very views, nice smelling air, steep hills were things I would have to force out of my mind, yet they were plentiful Oravska Lesna. The very first view scared me. It was very near to Oravska forest railroad station - Tanecnik. There we took the first break. Our final destination was picturesque town of Oravska Lesna. The interdestinations were dependent on current weather and our physical condition. Despite not favorable weather forecast, we omitted heavy rains. Moderate drizzle didn’t last more than half-an-hour. It pleasantly refreshed us so eventually we managed to do a pretty long stretch.

To my surprise, we managed to get on the top pretty quickly. There we were very close to Sedlo Beskyd. This stretch was rather a pleasant bike ride on the ridge providing us with beautiful views over the landscape. The region of Orava is crossed with many tourist trails and with increasing amount of well-marked bike trails. This part of the region is no exception. This was far from everything this place had to offer. There is a beautiful wooden tourist observation tower. We locked our bikes together and both of them attached with a lock to the tree and hiked to the tower on foot. It would be crazy to not visit it! The wooden tower of two floors provides an amazing view to the landscape. In case you travel there by train, make sure you utilize a break at Sedlo Beskyd station and run up to the tower. It is really near. Even your kids would easily get there. The view is really worth few more steps. We didn’t stay for long since our bikes waited for us near the station, and our stomachs growled with hunger. So we took a break, an eating break. We were on the ridge already so we enjoyed “lepenak” as we call an open sandwich wrapped in paper napkin. We make them everytime we go on a trip where are no buffets to buy some refreshment. Indeed, we had a cookie as a bonus, and liquids. And a twenty-minute siesta that helped us to process the food. We really didn’t want to feel sick when getting back to pedaling again.

Even though we thought about going down to Vychylovka and visit the Museum of Kysuca Village however eventually we decided to return along the same path. We went back just to the point where the crossroad was where we got on the ridge trail before. We didn’t go downhill to Tanecnik station, our first stop, this time yet we continued along the ridge. Another interdestination was a beautiful chapel above the upper station of the cable in local ski resort. But more about it will come next week.

Text and photo: O. Maňáková