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 Petrila it runs 378 km to Petrila; allow about 6 h 33 of riding. It goes by way of Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea, Capâlna and back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,450 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
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.
Comărnicel I 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 99 km into the recorded legs. Next is Capâlna.
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.
about 189 km into the recorded legs you reach Capâlna. 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 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.
Back at Comărnicel I. That is the ride.
Comărnicel I → Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea is 99 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea → Capâlna is 90 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Capâlna → back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea is 90 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea → Comărnicel I is 99 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.