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.
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.
The stops in between: Gol Mod II, Bronze Age Complex Site with Deer Stones a, Gol Mod I and back through Bronze Age Complex Site with Deer Stones a. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,950 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
On the open grassland of north-central Mongolia, tall grey slabs of granite stand in lines, tilted slightly towards the sky, with strange carvings on their sides. These are deer stones, and the name comes from the flying deer with long antlers that are carved on them, stylised as streams of curving lines. They were raised by Bronze Age herders about three thousand years ago, probably as memorials to important men, and some stand three or four metres tall. Mongolia has well over a thousand, more than anywhere else in the world, and the best-known groups lie around the Khangai and the northern mountains, within the broader region of the Gol Mod sites that make up this part of the map.
Read the complete Deer Stone Monuments and Related Bronze Ag write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Deer Stone Monuments and Related Bronze Ag is where the day begins. Next is Gol Mod II.
Gol Mod II lies in the open valleys of central Mongolia, and the first thing to know is that there is no road to it in the sense most riders mean. You reach it on tracks across the steppe, past herders' gers and grazing horses, and then the tombs appear: a field of low mounds and earthworks, and at its heart a huge square structure with a long ramp, the grave of a member of the Xiongnu elite.
Read the complete Gol Mod II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Gol Mod II comes up 51 km in. Next is Bronze Age Complex Site with Deer Stones a.
The grassland north of the Khangai range does not look like a museum, and that is its quality. Rolling green hills run off to the horizon under a vast sky, herds of horses and yaks drift across the slopes, and here and there a lone grey stone rises from the grass. A Bronze Age complex of this kind, with deer stones and burial mounds, belonged to the nomadic herders who lived on the steppe in the second and first millennia BC. Their world was horses, bows and open sky, and their monuments are simple, bold and without any written record.
Read the complete Bronze Age Complex Site with Deer Stones a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
102 km in you reach Bronze Age Complex Site with Deer Stones a. Next is Gol Mod I.
Gol Mod sits in the open grass country of central Mongolia, where the land rolls away in long folds beneath an enormous sky and the only landmarks are herders' white felt tents, gers, and the occasional lonely mountain. The place is known to archaeologists for its cemeteries of the Xiongnu, the nomadic confederation that dominated the steppe two thousand years ago and rivalled Han China, and the graves of their elite are found in valleys like this.
Read the complete Gol Mod I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Gol Mod I, about halfway. Next is back through Bronze Age Complex Site with Deer Stones a.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bronze Age Complex Site with Deer Stones a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Bronze Age Complex Site with Deer Stones a sits at 203 km, about halfway. Next is back through Gol Mod II.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gol Mod II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Gol Mod II comes up 254 km in. Next is Deer Stone Monuments and Related Bronze Ag.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Deer Stone Monuments and Related Bronze Ag write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Deer Stone Monuments and Related Bronze Ag closes the day.
Deer Stone Monuments and Related Bronze Ag → Gol Mod II is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gol Mod II → Bronze Age Complex Site with Deer Stones a is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bronze Age Complex Site with Deer Stones a → Gol Mod I is 85 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Gol Mod I → back through Bronze Age Complex Site with Deer Stones a is 85 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Bronze Age Complex Site with Deer Stones a → back through Gol Mod II is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Gol Mod II → Deer Stone Monuments and Related Bronze Ag is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.