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.
A 581 km round trip from Jabłonica Polska - roughly 11 h 32 in the saddle. The stops in between: Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch, Udava, Havešová Primeval Forest and Vihorlat. It crosses from Poland into Slovakia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 56 km this is Bieszczady Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Haczów, a village in the foothills of the Carpathians in southeastern Poland, has a church that is considered the largest Gothic wooden church in Europe, and one of the oldest. Built in the fifteenth century, probably on the site of an earlier church, the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Michael the Archangel is a massive structure of larch logs, with a steep shingled roof and a bell tower, standing among old trees. Inside, the walls are covered with polychrome paintings, the oldest from the late fifteenth century, showing saints, biblical scenes and decorative patterns, and the atmosphere is dim, warm and fragrant with old wood. In 2003 the church was listed by UNESCO among the Wooden Churches of Southern Małopolska, along with five others in the region. It is still used for worship, so check visiting times and dress respectfully.
Read the complete Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Vi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Vi 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 56 km into the recorded legs. Next is Udava.
Out where Slovakia, Poland and Ukraine meet, the eastern Carpathians fold into long, rounded ridges covered in beech forest so continuous that from a high point it looks like a green sea. Udava is one of the Slovak pieces of the UNESCO Primeval Beech Forests listing, protected within Poloniny National Park, the most easterly and least populated corner of the country. Here the forest has been left to its own rhythms for a very long time: giant trees, fallen trunks covered in fungi and moss, a dense understory of young growth wherever light breaks through. Wolves, lynx, brown bears and even European bison roam the area, and the dawn chorus in May is unforgettable.
Read the complete Udava write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 93 km into the recorded legs you reach Udava. Next is Havešová Primeval Forest.
In the far north-east of Slovakia, in the hills where Slovakia, Poland and Ukraine meet, the beech forests have never been cut. Havešová is one of these primeval forests, a steep slope of giant beech trees, some over forty metres tall and hundreds of years old, with fallen trunks decaying slowly on the forest floor and new trees rising in the gaps. It is part of the UNESCO-listed Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe, inscribed in 2007 and extended since, and it lies within Poloniny National Park, one of the least visited and most remote national parks in Central Europe.
Read the complete Havešová Primeval Forest write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Havešová Primeval Forest, about halfway. Next is Vihorlat.
Vihorlat is a range of old volcanoes in the far east of Slovakia, close to the Ukrainian border, and its higher slopes are covered with some of the last primeval beech forests in Europe. The trees here have grown, died and rotted without human interference for a very long time, and the forest is part of the transnational UNESCO site of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe, first listed in 2007 with sites in Slovakia and Ukraine and later extended across much of the continent.
Read the complete Vihorlat write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Vihorlat sits at 133 km, about halfway. Next is back through Havešová Primeval Forest.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Havešová Primeval Forest write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Havešová Primeval Forest comes up about 372 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Udava.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Udava write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 488 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Udava. 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 Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Vi.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Vi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 581 km.
Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Vi → Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch → Udava is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Udava → Havešová Primeval Forest is 114 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Havešová Primeval Forest → Vihorlat is 84 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vihorlat → back through Havešová Primeval Forest is 81 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Havešová Primeval Forest → back through Udava is 116 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Udava → back through Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch → Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Vi is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.