Red Lake is a lake that should not exist, and the dead trees sticking out of the water tell you so. In the summer of 1837, a landslide off the flank of Mount Suhard dammed the Bicaz stream and the valley slowly filled behind it. The drowned spruces stayed standing and their pale trunks still rise from the water like a stand of masts. The name comes from the reddish clay that the stream washes down, though in practice the lake usually looks green, dark brown or blue-grey, depending on the weather and your angle.
It sits at around a thousand metres in the Hășmaș mountains, in a part of Transylvania where most people speak Hungarian and the lake is better known as Gyilkos-tó, the Murder Lake, a name that grew out of legends of shepherds drowned when the slope gave way. Local stories vary, and the legend is better known than any record of it, but it endures. The lake is shallow, cold, and a favourite for rowing boats and picnic stops.
The ride is the gorge. Coming up from the east side, the road threads Bicaz Gorge, a slot in the limestone where the walls rise some three hundred metres and the tarmac, a river and a few hairpin bends share a space that seems barely wide enough for one. Some of the best riding in Romania is in these few kilometres, but the stalls selling souvenirs at the top, the coaches, and the caravans of tourists in summer mean you should aim for an early start or a late afternoon. The surface can be rough and wet, and there are rockfalls after storms.
At the lake, expect stalls selling honey, jam, cheese and carved wooden items, plus cafes serving grilled meat, polenta and the local sweet cake called kürtőskalács, baked on a spit over coals. Fuel is not sold here, so use the larger town of Bălan, about sixteen kilometres away, or fill in the lowlands before the climb. Bring a warm layer, because mountain weather can turn quickly, and an early autumn day, with fog sitting in the hollows and golden beeches on the slopes, is hard to beat.