The Central Bohemia Nature Park has an area of 4,575 hectare and starts at the southern edge of Prague (near Zbraslav) and goes through forest areas through Závist, Zvolská homola and Zahořanské údolí to Petrov. Through the Zahrádka forest, it reaches the right bank of the Sázava River and continues through Medníky around Krňany along the right bank of the Vltava to the Slapy Dam.
A very small parking lot at the gas station at the road 102 served as a starting point for this ride. Most of this trip was on very reasonable forest roads, but in several spots the GPS was not exactly showing the path on the map. For example, from point 3 to 4 you will have to improvise – just follow the forrest on your left side as close as reasonable using the tracks in the field. From 5 to 7 you may decide to follow the regular road, but if you like a little adrenaline, follow through the point 5 and enjoy the short and steep ride downhill. At point 8 you may look at the waterfall from the different angles to see how the river first turn left to eventually go right. If you want to stay on the road to avoid downhill ride through point 11, you will miss a nicely decorated fence.
Two stretches where you should pay attention are between points 2 and 3 and also 13 and 14.
Following the green tourist mark along the river Kocába is a nice reminder of the “tramping” movement (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_tramping), very unique Czech phenomenon of the beginning of 20th century when a lot of temporary encampments in the woods were created. Some of them still exist (in a very much modified form) till today. One of the most famous was camp Askalona, which you will be passing around at point 19.
The only dangerous part of this trip is the downhill slope from 18 to 19, which you definitely should not try to ride – even walking your bike down is tricky. And crossing the river at 19 will require going over several steps to get across the bridge. From point 19 it is a long stretch uphill, so make sure that you saved some battery power for this last piece. And if you decide to re-create this ride keep an eye out for Polly’s driver’s licence and insurance card. Well, we did ride this trip backwards to try to find it, and we realized that even this trip direction is quite interesting.
https://en.mapy.cz/s/gajuvuvado 27 km, 603 m elevation gain
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