CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
From Svidník it runs 802 km to Svidník; allow about 13 h 50 of riding. The stops in between: Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch, Polonina Wetlinska and Smerek, Uzhok-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Archan and Stužica - Bukovské Vrchy. It crosses Slovakia, Poland and Ukraine - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 49 km this is Bieszczady Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Bodružal is a tiny Rusyn village in the far northeast of Slovakia, close to the Polish border, with a few dozen houses scattered along a valley among the forested hills of the Low Beskids. What brings people here is its wooden church of St Nicholas, built in 1658, a three-domed Greek Catholic church with shingled walls and onion-shaped towers stepping up from east to west. It is one of the eight churches in the UNESCO listing of the wooden churches of the Slovak part of the Carpathian mountain area, and it is a perfect example of the Lemko style: compact, harmonious and rooted in its landscape. Inside, the iconostasis glows with painted saints.
Read the complete Bodruzal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bodružal is where the day begins. Next is Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch.
The wooden church of Saint Michael the Archangel in Turzańsk stands on a gentle slope in the foothills of the Bieszczady mountains, in the far southeast of Poland, near the borders with Slovakia and Ukraine, with its onion domes rising above the trees. It was built in the early nineteenth century by the Lemko or Boyko communities, the Ruthenian highlanders who once lived in these mountains, and it is one of the wooden tserkvas of the Polish and Ukrainian Carpathian region listed by UNESCO in 2013. Inside, an iconostasis of painted icons separates the nave from the sanctuary, and the church is still used for Orthodox services.
Read the complete Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch comes up about 97 km into the recorded legs. Next is Polonina Wetlinska and Smerek.
In the far southeastern corner of Poland, where the country meets Slovakia and Ukraine, the Bieszczady mountains rise in long, rounded ridges covered with beech forest. Above the tree line, the summits are open meadows called połoniny, and Połonina Wetlińska is one of the most beautiful, a long grassy ridge with views over endless forested hills. Smerek, a peak at its western end, rises to over twelve hundred metres. On the ridge, the Chatka Puchatka, Winnie the Pooh's hut, a small mountain refuge, has been a beloved stop for hikers for decades. The walk up from Wetlina or the Przełęcz Wyżna pass takes a couple of hours, and the view from the top, especially at sunset, is unforgettable.
Read the complete Polonina Wetlinska and Smerek write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 214 km into the recorded legs you reach Polonina Wetlinska and Smerek. Next is Uzhok-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Archan.
Just below the pass that carries the road and railway from Uzhhorod into Galicia, the village of Uzhok keeps one of the finest wooden churches of the Carpathians. The tserkva of the Synaxis of the Archangel Michael was built in the middle of the eighteenth century in the Boyko style, with three log chambers each topped by a tiered roof, rising in stages like a set of stacked hats, all covered in wooden shingles. It stands on a slope among old trees, with a separate bell tower nearby, and it is one of the sixteen wooden tserkvas of the Carpathian region in Poland and Ukraine listed by UNESCO in 2013.
Read the complete Uzhok-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Archan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Uzhok-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Archan, about halfway. Next is Stužica - Bukovské Vrchy.
At the very eastern tip of Slovakia, where the borders of Slovakia, Poland and Ukraine meet on the summit of Kremenec, lies a forest that has been left to itself for longer than anyone remembers. Stužica, in the Poloniny National Park, is one of the most valuable fragments of primeval beech forest in Europe, with trees several hundred years old, fallen trunks rotting slowly on the ground, and an extraordinary richness of fungi, insects and birds. It is part of the UNESCO site of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe, a transnational listing that started with forests in Slovakia and Ukraine.
Read the complete Stužica - Bukovské Vrchy write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Stužica - Bukovské Vrchy sits at 401 km, about halfway. Next is back through Uzhok-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Archan.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Uzhok-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Archan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Uzhok-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Archan comes up about 486 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Polonina Wetlinska and Smerek.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Polonina Wetlinska and Smerek write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 588 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Polonina Wetlinska and Smerek. Next is back through Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch, late in the day. Next is Bodruzal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bodruzal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 802 km.
Bodružal → Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch → Polonina Wetlinska and Smerek is 116 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Polonina Wetlinska and Smerek → Uzhok-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Archan is 102 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Uzhok-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Archan → Stužica - Bukovské Vrchy is 85 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Stužica - Bukovské Vrchy → back through Uzhok-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Archan is 85 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Uzhok-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Archan → back through Polonina Wetlinska and Smerek is 102 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Polonina Wetlinska and Smerek → back through Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch is 116 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch → Bodruzal is 97 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.