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: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Gâlgău it runs 302 km to Gâlgău; allow about 5 h 30 of riding. It goes by way of Porolissum, Gilău - La Castel and back through Porolissum. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 950 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Somewhere above the Someș valley, on a hill the villagers call Dealul Hanului, the inn hill, the Romans kept watch over the northern edge of their province of Dacia. After Trajan's conquest in 106, the new province had to be defended on all sides, and its northern frontier, in what the Romans called Dacia Porolissensis, ran through these hills between the Meseș mountains and the upper Someș. Forts, watchtowers and earthworks controlled the valleys, and Căpâlna, near the village of Gâlgău, is one of the many small sites that formed that network, part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire in Dacia that Romania has put forward for UNESCO listing.
Read the complete Căpâlna - Dealul Hanului write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Căpâlna - Dealul Hanului is where the day begins. Next is Porolissum.
On a hill above the village of Moigrad, the Roman town of Porolissum guarded a key pass through the Meseș mountains, the gateway to Roman Dacia from the north-west. Founded as a military camp after the conquest in 106, it grew into a town of thousands, with a large fort, an amphitheatre, temples, baths and a customs post, and it became a municipium, a self-governing city, under the emperor Septimius Severus. The ruins are among the most impressive Roman remains in Romania, with a reconstructed fort gate, walls and parts of the town, and they are part of the frontier sites of Roman Dacia.
Read the complete Porolissum write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Porolissum comes up about 75 km into the recorded legs. Next is Gilău - La Castel.
Gilău is a market village on the Someșul Mic, the first real settlement west of Cluj-Napoca on the road toward the Apuseni mountains, and the place name La Castel says it plainly: there was a fortification here, and there still is one, layered through the centuries. Under the later castle grounds, archaeologists found a Roman auxiliary fort guarding the valley route into Dacia from the west, and the medieval and early modern castle that followed sits on the same strategic ground. Rome, Hungarian nobles and later owners all made the same calculation about this spot.
Read the complete Gilău - La Castel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 151 km into the recorded legs you reach Gilău - La Castel. Next is back through Porolissum.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Porolissum write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Porolissum, late in the day. Next is Căpâlna - Dealul Hanului.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Căpâlna - Dealul Hanului write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Căpâlna - Dealul Hanului. That is the ride.
Căpâlna - Dealul Hanului → Porolissum is 75 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Porolissum → Gilău - La Castel is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Gilău - La Castel → back through Porolissum is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Porolissum → Căpâlna - Dealul Hanului is 75 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.