Riza Agripidokampos Paliovouna 27k +1100m, Achaea 20140803

Route to the peak of Paliovouna from village Riza with some extra detour through Agripidokampos. About 50/50 of dirt roads and trials with small section on asphalt (no way to avoid).

0,0k at 40m - Riza / Start. We parked on the main crossing in the village, next to some monument. We followed a bit of asphalt to get out of the village and very soon (after last house) reached dirt road with mild ascent - very nice for a start.

4,0k at 220m - Crossroads. After few kilometers of ascent, we reached crossing of few dirt roads and started short descent. It didnt last even 1k before we started another very very mild climb still on dirt road all the way to meet the spring and start of forest path.

8,2k at 215m - Forest Path / 1st part. Dirt road crosses the spring, while the route follows forest path to the left. This is where really nice part of the route starts and follows exactly the route of October's race organized by Lepanto runners from Nafpaktos (I hope I will make it this year). This section follows awesome path with full shadow all the way parallel to the spring (and even crosses tiney wooden bridge, built specially for the race last year). After about 1.5k path reaches Agripidokampos and dirt road.

10,3k at 285m - Forest Path / 2nd part. We did some walk/rest on the dirt road to start another section of forest path very soon (still following race's route). This time path was much steeper and for most part forced us to power hike.

10,9k at 380m - Forest Path / 3rd part. Before reaching third and last seciton of forest path, we managed to catch our breaths on about 200m long dirt road part. Again third part was pretty steep and done power hiking.

12,5k at 475m - Asphalt road. We reached asphalt with a dirt road and a bit of flat/descending section. Asphalt was boring, hot and ascending - sucks, sucks, sucks. Fortunately with conversation tempo we managed to get to dirt road again.

15,3k at 640m - Dirt road. Quick flat section with dirt road until base of final climb.

17,8k at 670m - End of dirt road / Hiking Path. Last big ascent to the peak, all with nice hiking path (marked), full of loose rocks and mostly offering lots of shadow (only last 200-300m are open).

19,7k at 1020m - Peak of Paliovouna. Great views in all directions: Patra, bridge, Panachaiko, Ionian islands, Varasova (see photos). We took our time for rest and snack before starting descent - pretty fast tempo, same paths.

22,7k at 650m - Right with hiking path. We reached same crossing as during ascending, but this time took much shorter hiking path (again signposted) to the right, straight to Riza. Fun descent offering some shadow on the way.

26,0k at 110m - Wrong way. Hiking path ended about 500m before and we followed dirt roads. The markings were still there but they led to closed gate and we got confused (later I checked we actually should have crossed the gate to continue with hiking path) and continued with the riverbed (more like dry spring :-P). It was a bit tricky to get through some sections but finally we reached the village and found our bike.

26,8k at 40m - Riza / Finish. We found water spring and drunk more that 2l of water each! Very hot.

I mark it difficult (as I do for most 25k+ running efforts). Technically only the parts done with hiking paths (around Agripidokampos, climb to Paliovouna and all descent) were difficult, rest on dirt or asphalt roads were easy. The biggest problem was actually heat and lack of water on the route! The only spring available was in Agripidokampos that we reached after about 1h while still having lots of supplies. Probably better idea is to make this route reversed and pass through Kalovriza. This way You can refill twice after about 10k and 20k.