IndraTrail, a circuit by Indratrek.

Since many years now i have been traveling through the Pesaro Apennines Range either on foot or by bike, always searching when possible for new routes and connections between toponyms and places more or less known to most of the people, and since the beginning I have had the habit to record my wanderings, at one time tracing them directly on the map or drawing them on some notebook, now with more modern tools. In this manner I may say that throughout the years I have developed a symbiotic interaction with the territory, being able to move now with ease on most of the slopes and ravines of my mountains.

Then a few years back, the friend of a friend, originally from the area but mostly living abroad, tells me he is passionate with Mountain Biking and that he would love to do some nice ride “in the mountains”. So an idea pops up in my mind to put together different routes in a kind of circuit, which would present a general overview of the territory and then possibly allow for later insights. After a couple of easy rides in the hills to warm up the legs, the “tour of the mountains” began, starting from the track that in my opinion is easier either logistically and for difficulty, but not for this less beautiful: Mount Paganuccio, inside the Furlo Nature Reserve.

The tour is very successful and in the following weeks of that same Spring more materialize on other mountains: Pietralata, Nerone, Catria, Tenetra and Acuto. Then the good season ends, and due to the heat on our too-low mountains, the tour ends leaving in me a nice aftermath.

Since that first time this circuit has become for me a way to stay in contact with the territory. It is a track, a kind of checklist, providing me the necessary pace to keep the symbiosis firmly in place; it represents the bare minimum when time is very difficult to be found.

So now every year in Spring I find myself riding my bike and repeat the circuit, changing and possibly adding a piece every time. It is a way that, with the little time available, allows me to have at least an overview of the overall situation. I like to see how the mountains change from year to year, and yet remain the same. You can become aware of the little changes on the trails, the collapsed or restructured constructions, the damages caused by nature and unfortunately the true horrors made by man.

The tours are all easy logistically although quite hard. There is a lot of climbing but no real technical difficulties. They mostly run along old roads that were even completely paved at the time of the post-war construction madness, but where nowadays asphalt and cars are barely seen. In the same tour there might be kilometres of paved road and others on foot pushing the bike by hand through a forest, challenging descents and summit arrivals, but the common denominator is always the landscape. The tours in fact allow you to admire and cross many of the most beautiful areas that exist in my opinion in the mountains of the Pesaro and Urbino Province.

The circuit clearly represents only my “point of view”, it is certainly not the only one and it is certainly not exhaustive since there are still many other areas that would deserve to be part of it, as well as there are many routes that exist to connect the same places within it.

Certainly, if those who walk its stages are outsiders or not familiar with the territory, they will be surprised by the variety and beauty it has to offer, but I also hope that this set of routes can be appreciated by those who have always known and frequented our mountains, even if simply to admire them from a different point of view than their own.

October 2021

Post Scriptum: in the drawing the box behind the bike is not a battery, it’s the bike rack!