From Ierápetra to Agia Fotia Beach through mountains
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 16.35 mi
- Elevation gain
- 2,457 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Moderate
- Elevation loss
- 2,126 ft
- Max elevation
- 1,901 ft
- TrailRank
- 30
- Min elevation
- -41 ft
- Trail type
- One Way
- Time
- 4 hours 2 minutes
- Coordinates
- 1295
- Uploaded
- June 1, 2018
- Recorded
- June 2018
near Ierápetra, Crete (Greece)
Viewed 189 times, downloaded 3 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
This is a nice MTB track that does not require reaching high altitude and is therefore relatively easy to perform although the ascending path contains steep segments.
Starting from Ierapetra, the main road leads to Kato Chorio where a turn in direction Thripti is necessary (close to a church if I remember well). The ascent begins on a concrete road not always in good shape - strangely, it improves to a nice asphalt road higher in the mountain - , goes up passing a nice little church (Ekklisia Afentis Christos) surrounded by a wall and gorgeous trees providing necessary shade (an ideal breakpoint) up to the necessary abrupt turn right leading to Agios Ioannis on a dirt road. The most difficult part of the trail begins here. I was lucky to have relatively strong winds mostly in the back, with double benefit: it cools you down and pushes you (a lucky day). Having reached the col close to a nearby little church, you will have to open (and close) a barrier for the goats.
From then on it is only a descent. Once Agios Ioannis reached, I choose the option to avoid asphalt roads and my gps was not acurate enough to optimize a calculated path, so I rode by instinct, taking benefit of the altitude to estimate how I could join the different segments seen from above. This was a very pleasant experience, with the notable exception of a puncture 3 or 4 km before reaching the asphalt at the bottom.
Starting from Ierapetra, the main road leads to Kato Chorio where a turn in direction Thripti is necessary (close to a church if I remember well). The ascent begins on a concrete road not always in good shape - strangely, it improves to a nice asphalt road higher in the mountain - , goes up passing a nice little church (Ekklisia Afentis Christos) surrounded by a wall and gorgeous trees providing necessary shade (an ideal breakpoint) up to the necessary abrupt turn right leading to Agios Ioannis on a dirt road. The most difficult part of the trail begins here. I was lucky to have relatively strong winds mostly in the back, with double benefit: it cools you down and pushes you (a lucky day). Having reached the col close to a nearby little church, you will have to open (and close) a barrier for the goats.
From then on it is only a descent. Once Agios Ioannis reached, I choose the option to avoid asphalt roads and my gps was not acurate enough to optimize a calculated path, so I rode by instinct, taking benefit of the altitude to estimate how I could join the different segments seen from above. This was a very pleasant experience, with the notable exception of a puncture 3 or 4 km before reaching the asphalt at the bottom.
Comments (1)
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the col is about 600 m and is not that easy to reach via a dirt road. The long descent is rather pleasant but rather tricky with so many crosses and paths to nowhere. Many stones and thorny plants led to a flat tire.