Why this ride
It goes by way of Big Mucksalma Island, Cultural and Historic Ensemble of the Solo and back through Big Mucksalma Island. It stays on the island.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Anzer Island and Cultural and Historic Ensemble of the Solo
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 74 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 17
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Anzer Island
Anzer is the second-largest of the Solovetsky Islands, a small archipelago in the White Sea that has played an outsized role in Russian history. A monastery was founded on the main island in the fifteenth century, and it grew into a fortress, wealthy and powerful, with granite walls whose boulders were moved by hand. On Anzer, the monks established a hermitage, or skete, which sits on a hill: a landscape of pine, spruce, small lakes and cold sea that looks very much like Finland's coasts.
Read the complete Anzer Island write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Anzer Island is where the day begins. Next is Big Mucksalma Island.
2. Big Mucksalma Island
Bolshaya Muksalma is a low, quiet island in the White Sea, part of the Solovetsky archipelago, and it is not a place you reach by motorway. The islands lie in the cold, shallow water of Onega Bay, and getting there takes a boat or a small plane in the short summer season, so anyone thinking about this point as a motorcycle stop should first work out the logistics of crossing the water with a vehicle. The island itself is flat, with grassy meadows, small pine woods and a rocky shore, and a long stone causeway built by the monks connects it to the main island, Great Solovetsky.
Read the complete Big Mucksalma Island write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Big Mucksalma Island comes up about 18 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cultural and Historic Ensemble of the Solo.
3. Cultural and Historic Ensemble of the Solo
On a cold northern island in the White Sea, a monk called Savvatiy and later a priest called Zosima and a hermit called German built a monastery in the 1430s that would become one of the richest and most powerful in Russia. The Solovetsky Islands, six in all, lie about a hundred and fifty kilometres south of the Arctic Circle, and the monks turned them into a self-sufficient little kingdom, with fish ponds, mills, salt works and a harbour, and a great fortress, built in the sixteenth century with boulders the size of cars. The Cathedral of the Transfiguration, with its massive whitewashed walls and onion domes, stands at the centre of a walled compound that looks, from the water, like a medieval city. UNESCO listed the ensemble in 1992.
Read the complete Cultural and Historic Ensemble of the Solo write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 37 km into the recorded legs you reach Cultural and Historic Ensemble of the Solo. Next is back through Big Mucksalma Island.
4. back through Big Mucksalma Island
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Big Mucksalma Island write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Big Mucksalma Island, late in the day. Next is Anzer Island.
5. Anzer Island
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Anzer Island write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Anzer Island. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Anzer Island to Big Mucksalma Island
Anzer Island → Big Mucksalma Island is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Big Mucksalma Island to Cultural and Historic Ensemble of the Solo
Big Mucksalma Island → Cultural and Historic Ensemble of the Solo is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cultural and Historic Ensemble of the Solo to back through Big Mucksalma Island
Cultural and Historic Ensemble of the Solo → back through Big Mucksalma Island is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Big Mucksalma Island to Anzer Island
back through Big Mucksalma Island → Anzer Island is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.