CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 448 km round trip from Șurdești - roughly 10 h 49 in the saddle. On the way it passes Church of the Holy Parasceve, Kuziy - Trybushany, Svydovets and Gorgany. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,050 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Romania into Ukraine - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 39 km this is Romania Maramures Wooden Churches Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Șurdești is a small village in the hills of Maramureș, in the north of Romania, and its wooden church of the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel is famous for its spire. Built in the eighteenth century from oak logs, the church has a steep double roof covered in shingles and a slender tower that rises far above the trees, among the tallest wooden church towers in the region. It is one of eight wooden churches of Maramureș listed by UNESCO in 1999, each a masterpiece of local carpentry, built by village craftsmen using traditional techniques.
Read the complete Church of the Holy Archangels write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of the Holy Archangels is where the day begins. Next is Church of the Holy Parasceve.
Maramureș is one of the few corners of Europe where wood is still the language of the sacred, and the church of Saint Parascheva at Poienile Izei is a good place to learn it. It stands on a small rise above the Izei valley, a dark timber church with a steep, double-tiered shingled roof and a slender spire, built in the early seventeenth century and moved to its present spot later. Inside, the walls and ceiling carry painted scenes from the eighteenth century, and the one that always gets quoted is a vivid Last Judgment in which sinners get remarkably specific punishments.
Read the complete Church of the Holy Parasceve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of the Holy Parasceve comes up 39 km in. Next is Kuziy - Trybushany.
The river Tisza runs fast and green out of the Ukrainian Carpathians, and for many kilometres it forms the border between Romania and Ukraine. On the Ukrainian bank, the forests of Kuziy and Trybushany are among the primeval beech woods protected in the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve and listed by UNESCO as part of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe. From the Romanian side, around Valea Vișeului, you look across the river at steep, wooded slopes where the trees have grown and died without interference for centuries.
Read the complete Kuziy - Trybushany write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
79 km in you reach Kuziy - Trybushany. Next is Svydovets.
The Svydovets is a long, high ridge in the Ukrainian Carpathians, rising above the upper Tisza valley near the town of Rakhiv in Zakarpattia. Its southern and northern slopes hold some of the wildest primeval beech forest left in Europe, protected as part of the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve and included in the UNESCO site of Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe. Above the trees lie broad alpine meadows, the polonyna, where Hutsul shepherds traditionally drove their flocks each summer, with glacial lakes tucked below the ridge.
Read the complete Svydovets write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Svydovets, about halfway. Next is Gorgany.
The Gorgany are the wildest part of the Ukrainian Carpathians, a range of sandstone peaks rising above dense forests in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. What makes them unusual are the gorgany themselves, the fields of loose stone blocks that cover the upper slopes and summits, formed by frost shattering the rock. Walking across them is slow and tiring, and the forests below, of spruce, beech and Swiss stone pine, are among the most pristine in Ukraine, with brown bears, wolves, lynx and red deer. The Gorgany nature reserve protects a part of this landscape.
Read the complete Gorgany write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Gorgany sits at 157 km, about halfway. Next is back through Svydovets.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Svydovets write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Svydovets comes up 196 km in. Next is back through Kuziy - Trybushany.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kuziy - Trybushany write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
236 km in you reach back through Kuziy - Trybushany. Next is back through Church of the Holy Parasceve.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of the Holy Parasceve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Church of the Holy Parasceve, late in the day. Next is Church of the Holy Archangels.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of the Holy Archangels write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 448 km.
Church of the Holy Archangels → Church of the Holy Parasceve is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of the Holy Parasceve → Kuziy - Trybushany is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kuziy - Trybushany → Svydovets is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Svydovets → Gorgany is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gorgany → back through Svydovets is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Svydovets → back through Kuziy - Trybushany is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kuziy - Trybushany → back through Church of the Holy Parasceve is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Church of the Holy Parasceve → Church of the Holy Archangels is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.