Experimental Tree Farm Trail

Dogs Unknown

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This trail is mostly doubletrack, but there are two miles of singletrack in the middle of it. The singletrack segment is all downhill including a half mile segment of 20% downhill grade. The doubletrack becomes very faint in places, so it is a good idea to have a GPX track.

This trail starts off on an unnamed paved road about half a mile from the state road SS17bis. When the unnamed paved road makes a 90° turn to the right, a doubletrack continues straight (this is the start of this trail).

The fun singletrack section starts at the top of a climb about 1.2 miles from the start of this trail. At the end of the singletrack section, there is a 1.5-mile gradual downgrade that you can coast down, which might be very welcome if you are doing this trail as part of the Campo Imperatore (The Emperor's Field) loop.

The last three miles of this trail include another 400 foot climb. The last 100 feet of the climb is particularly steep (>10% grade). Starting at the top of this climb, the surface is paved for the one mile descent down into Santo Stefano di Sessanio.

What's in a name?
As far as I know, this trail doesn't have an official name, nor do for that matter any of the other trails that make up the Campo Imperatore (The Emperor's Field) loop. Trails in Europe aren't methodically named like those in North America and if they do have a name it is just as likely to be the place names at the beginning and end of the trail. The other end of the Campo Imperatore (The Emperor's Field) loop has the Experimental Sheep Farm Trail. The only distinguishing feature of this segment are the stands of perfectly planted, perfectly straight trees towards the beginning. So it seems appropriate that this should be called the Experimental Tree Farm.