Dmitrov Canal and Klin Ridge

Rolling country north of Moscow with canal viewpoints and old-town anchors.

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Why this ride

Rolling country north of Moscow with canal viewpoints and old-town anchors. The road: A104, A108 and regional roads. Distance and riding time are estimates from the checkpoints until the road is measured on this page.

Roadbook

1. Moscow start

   Moscow does not do small. It has more than ten million people, a ring road, the MKAD, that encloses a space bigger than many countries' capitals, and a centre that is arranged in concentric circles like the rings of a tree. At the middle is the Kremlin, the red-brick fortress on the Moskva river, with its golden-domed cathedrals and its walls, and beside it Red Square, with the colourful domes of St Basil's. The city was first mentioned in the chronicles in 1147, and grew from a modest wooden stockade into the capital of a vast empire.

   To ride in Moscow is to be reminded of its scale. The Garden Ring and the Third Ring carry huge flows of traffic, drivers are fast and aggressive, and motorcycles filter between lanes at speed. The best time to explore on two wheels is a summer evening, when the light lasts until late, the traffic eases, and the bridges over the river are lit. The skyscrapers known as the Seven Sisters, built under Stalin, rise from the skyline, and from Sparrow Hills, the high ground near the university, you can see the whole city spread out in a haze. The metro stations, designed as underground palaces, are worth leaving the bike for.

   From the city, a favourite day trip leads north-east to Sergiev Posad, about seventy kilometres away, where the Trinity Lavra of St Sergius, the most important Russian Orthodox monastery, stands inside white walls with blue and gold domes. The road passes through forest and farmland, and pilgrims fill the monastery on holidays. It is a good outing for a long day, with plenty of cafes in the town and stalls selling painted wooden toys, a local craft.

   Fuel is found everywhere in the city and along the main roads, and the cafes range from cheap canteens to fancy restaurants. Summers are warm and can be thunderous, while winters are long, dark and very cold, with snow from November to March. Before planning any trip, check the current travel and entry conditions carefully, as they change often and can affect insurance, border crossings and the practicality of riding in Russia.

2. Dmitrov stop

   Dmitrov is an old town north of Moscow, set above the Yakhroma River where the Moscow Canal begins its run to the Volga. It was founded in 1154 by Prince Yuri Dolgoruky, the same prince credited with founding Moscow, and named for his son Dmitry, and its earthen ramparts, the remains of a medieval fortress called the Kremlin, still encircle a hill in the middle of town. Inside stands the white Assumption Cathedral, a sixteenth-century church with a wide dome, a calm landmark above the lower streets.

   The canal is the other half of the story. The Moscow-Volga Canal was dug in the 1930s, largely by prisoners of the Gulag, with Dmitrov as the headquarters of the building administration, and it opened in 1937. The waterway runs north from here past locks, pumping stations and monumental stone portals, and its grim history sits oddly with the calm water and pleasure boats of today. The anarchist thinker Peter Kropotkin lived out his last years in Dmitrov, and his house is now a small museum, a quiet footnote to the town's story.

   For riders, Dmitrov is a gateway to the quiet country north of the capital. The roads east and west of the canal pass through low, rolling farmland, birch woods and small villages with wooden houses, and the Klin-Dmitrov Ridge, the highest ground in the Moscow region, rises to the west. The surface in the district varies, with good main roads and rougher secondary ones, and potholes after the winter thaw can be deep. The countryside is gentle, and the pace is slow, with plenty of stops for a roadside samovar or a cup of tea.

   Dmitrov is a town of sixty thousand, so fuel, food and shops are plentiful, and the road to Moscow is fast. Yakhroma, a few kilometers north, has a large textile factory and a canal viewing point. The best time is late spring, when the birches are in leaf, and September, when the woods turn gold, but July can be hot and the roads busy with city dwellers heading for dachas. Winter brings deep snow and hard frost, and the roads, though plowed, are slick and cold, so it is a season for the brave.

3. Rogachevo stop
4. Klin finish

   Klin is a working town of eighty thousand on the old road between Moscow and St Petersburg, and for a rider on a long day it is where the choice is turning back or pushing on toward Tver. The Leningrad highway runs right past, the railway too, and the town itself sits on rolling country at the edge of the Valdai hills, with the Sestra River slipping through.

   The reason to remember it is Tchaikovsky. He settled in the Klin area in the 1880s, and the house where he lived and worked in his last years is now a museum, kept more or less as he left it, with his piano in the room. His final symphony was written here, and he died in 1893 not long after a visit to St Petersburg. Klin also has a long industrial history, and the glass Christmas ornaments made here are still part of the local identity. In a country that takes New Year seriously, that matters. If you want a souvenir that will survive a motorcycle pannier, a small glass bauble from a local shop is the safest bet you will find.

   Riding around Klin, the pleasure is in the quieter roads. North of the main highway, the lanes toward Vysokovsk and the Dmitrov country cross low ridges, small rivers and big, empty fields. Corners are gentle rather than dramatic, the horizons are wide, and the villages are strung with wooden houses with painted window frames. Surfaces vary a lot. Good asphalt gives way to patched tar and sometimes gravel at the edges, so treat blind crests with respect. On the big highway, trucks are frequent and fast, and the wind sheet from a passing lorry can move you across your lane. Better to leave the trunk road at the first sensible exit.

   Practically, a town this size has plenty of fuel and food, with cafes and shops near the centre and along the highway. Mornings are best, before traffic builds from the capital, and early autumn has a lovely clear light on the birch woods. In winter the whole area is under snow and the roads become a different problem. Allow time for the museum if you are a music person, because the quiet garden alone is worth a short break.

Where this sits

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