The Țibleș massif rises like a dark green wall between Maramureș and the Bistrița country of northern Romania, an old volcanic range topped by the Țibleș peak at around eighteen hundred metres. On its southern flanks, above the village of Groșii Țibleșului, lie the forests of Preluci, part of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe that UNESCO has protected as one sprawling, multi-country site. These are woods left largely to themselves, where old beeches grow huge, fall, rot and feed the next generation without a forester in sight.
You will not ride into the reserve itself, and you should not try; the value lies in its being untouched. What you can do is ride the valleys around it and feel the scale. The villages here belong to the Țara Lăpușului, the Land of Lăpuș, one of the most traditional corners of Romania, with wooden houses, carved gates, haystacks shaped by hand and horse carts still doing real work. Sunday mornings bring people out in embroidered blouses, and the wooden churches with their steep shingled spires are part of the same tradition that made the churches of Maramureș famous.
The roads vary wildly. Some county roads are freshly laid and flow beautifully along the streams; others turn into broken tarmac, potholes and stretches of gravel with little warning. To the east, the Șetref pass links Maramureș with the Bistrița valley in a pleasant, wooded climb, a good way to string the region together. Expect dogs, livestock and children on the road in every village, and slow right down through them. Brown bears live in these mountains, and seeing one cross the road at dusk is not rare.
The best months are late spring, when the beech leaves are a startling fresh green, and early October, when the forest goes bronze and gold and the mornings are crisp. Summer afternoons bring thunderstorms that can wash gravel across the roads.
Fuel is the thing to think about. The hamlets have none, and the nearest reliable towns are Săliștea de Sus, about sixteen kilometres away, or Târgu Lăpuș to the west. Village shops sell bread, cheese and cold drinks, and someone will usually point you to a family offering a meal and a room if you ask politely.