Ciceu-Poieni is a scattered village in the hills of Bistrița-Năsăud county, with the ruins of Ciceu fortress somewhere in the story. The stronghold stood on a hilltop here, and in the fifteenth century Hungary's King Matthias Corvinus granted it, along with Cetatea de Baltă, to the Moldavian prince Stephen the Great, which tied this remote corner of Transylvania to Moldavia's fortunes for decades. Today little remains but crumbling walls and a good view, but the history gives the hills a certain weight.
Fața Carpenului, as the name suggests, is a slope with hornbeam, the carpen of Romanian. The point on the map sits among such hills near Negrilești, Breaza and Spermezeu, all small villages with under three thousand people each. The nearest town of any size is Căianu Mic, about ten kilometres away, and that is where you should plan to buy fuel and a proper meal. If you ride from the north or east, fill up before you leave the larger roads.
The ride between these settlements is secluded and lovely. Roads wind along ridges and drop into stream valleys, often between hay meadows with wooden haystacks and small clusters of houses in the folds of the land. Surfaces vary, from smooth recent asphalt to patched sections with gravel at the edges. Take your time in the villages, where children, dogs and old women with buckets cross the road without warning, and expect a friendly wave from almost everyone who passes you.
In summer the meadows are thick with flowers, and the hills smell of cut hay. Evenings are cool even in July, and thunderstorms can roll in from the Rodna mountains to the north. In autumn there is smoke from stubble and kitchen stoves, and the beech woods go amber. A visit to this area makes a good half day in itself, but it pairs well with the neighbouring routes toward Tihău and Lozna, because the landscape is so consistent: quiet, rolling, and mostly untouched by anything fast.