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 Săsciori it runs 511 km to Săsciori; allow about 8 h 50 of riding. The stops in between: Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea, Comărnicel I, Banita and Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,450 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
The Dacians liked their fortresses high, hidden and hard to reach, which is why the Roman legions of Trajan took two bloody wars at the start of the second century to conquer them. Căpâlna stands on a steep wooded hill above the Sebeș valley, a Dacian citadel with stone walls built in the distinctive murus dacicus technique, blocks of cut stone tied together with timber beams, and a tower that served as the last refuge. It is one of the six Dacian fortresses of the Orăștie Mountains listed by UNESCO in 1999, along with the capital Sarmizegetusa Regia, and it is one of the easier ones to reach, with a path climbing through the forest from the valley road.
Read the complete Capâlna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Capâlna is where the day begins. Next is Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea.
High above the Sebeș and Cugir valleys, where the Șureanu foothills fold into long grassy shoulders, the Romans kept watch over the southern approaches to their province of Dacia. The name on the map, Muncelu-Lăutaorea, belongs to the ridge country above Pianu de Jos, and it is one of the many small frontier points that archaeologists have tied to the Roman defensive system here. Do not expect walls to lean on. What survives on these hilltops is usually a faint platform, a ditch you notice only when the light is low, and a view that explains everything about why a sentry was posted there.
Read the complete Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea comes up about 56 km into the recorded legs. Next is Comărnicel I.
Comărnicel is the name on the map, and the Dacian fortresses of the Orăștie mountains, listed by UNESCO in 1999, are the reason this country matters. Here, in the first century BC and the first century AD, the Dacian kings built stone citadels on mountain tops, with terraces, walls and sacred precincts, the grandest of them Sarmizegetusa Regia, not far to the north-west.
Read the complete Comărnicel I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 116 km into the recorded legs you reach Comărnicel I. Next is Banita.
The Dacians, before the Romans conquered them, built a ring of fortresses in the mountains around their capital Sarmizegetusa Regia, and Banița is one of them, perched on a limestone peak, Piatra Cetii, above the village of the same name. It guarded the southern approach to the Dacian heartland, controlling the route from the Jiu valley, and it was taken by the Romans during Trajan's wars at the beginning of the second century. The Dacian Fortresses of the Orăștie Mountains, including Banița, were inscribed on the UNESCO list in 1999.
Read the complete Banita write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Banita, about halfway. Next is Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2.
On a hill above the Strei valley near the village of Pui, in south-western Transylvania, faint earthworks mark one of the many small Roman military posts that guarded the province of Dacia after Trajan conquered it in AD 106. The Romans held Dacia for about a hundred and seventy years, and they ringed it with forts, watchtowers and roads; in 2024 a long series of these sites was added to the World Heritage list as the Frontiers of the Roman Empire in Dacia. At Dealul Robului there is nothing grand to see, just the shape of the ground under grass and trees, but the position tells you everything: a clear view down the valley, which was one of the routes into the heart of the province.
Read the complete Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2 sits at 257 km, about halfway. Next is back through Banita.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Banita write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Banita comes up about 301 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Comărnicel I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Comărnicel I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 386 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Comărnicel I. Next is back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea, late in the day. Next is Capâlna.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Capâlna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 511 km.
Capâlna → Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea → Comărnicel I is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Comărnicel I → Banita is 85 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Banița → Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2 is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2 → back through Banita is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Banita → back through Comărnicel I is 85 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Comărnicel I → back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea → Capâlna is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.