Beloretsk lies in the southern Urals, in a river valley surrounded by forested mountains, and it is the kind of place where the road really starts to feel like a mountain road. The town was founded in the eighteenth century around an ironworks, built beside the Belaya River, and it is still a steelmaking town, with a big wire and spring factory that has operated for more than two hundred years. The name means white river-bank, and the water here is clear and cold, running fast over stones. The town has about seventy thousand people and a plain, industrial look, but the surroundings are beautiful.
The Bashkir people, a Turkic-speaking nation with a long history in the southern Urals, are the indigenous inhabitants, and Beloretsk is in the heart of Bashkortostan. Their culture is tied to horses, honey and the epic poem Ural-Batyr. Wild-hive beekeeping in the hollows of trees, a tradition of the region, produces a dark, fragrant honey that is a local pride, and kumys, fermented mare's milk, is a summer drink. The food is a mix of Bashkir and Russian, with dishes such as beshbarmak and sweet pastries to accompany strong tea.
Riding here is a pleasure. The roads climb and fall through low mountains covered in birch, pine and spruce, with tight bends, long views over ridges and a series of small passes. The surface is variable, with good asphalt in places and broken sections after frost, and traffic is light except for timber trucks. The mountain road toward Magnitogorsk goes through Abzakovo, a ski resort that is popular in winter and quiet in summer, and the road to Ufa passes through Inzer, a river valley with limestone outcrops. The best season is from June to September, with warm days and cool nights. Autumn is brilliant with birch yellow and aspen red, and winter is cold and deep with snow.
Services in town are good, with fuel stations, shops and cafes, and a few hotels. It is the last large place before the mountains, so top up before heading into the hills. Phone coverage is patchy in the valleys.
Pull over at a river viewpoint and listen. The water over the stones and the wind in the pines are the only sounds.