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.
676 km from Drohobych to Drohobych, about 11 h 38 of riding. It goes by way of Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless, Uzhok-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Archan, Wolosatka stream valley and Border Ridge and Gorna Solinka valley. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Ukraine into Poland - carry ID and check the toll rules. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 17 km this is Bieszczady Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Bruno Schulz was born in Drohobych in 1892, spent most of his life here and was shot in its streets by a German officer in 1942. The writer and painter, whose strange, dreamlike stories turned this small Galician town into a place of myth, drew on the old market square, the narrow lanes and the attic rooms of a Jewish merchant family, and the town today is part of his legacy. Drohobych, with a population of nearly eighty thousand, grew rich on salt and oil, and the oil wells of nearby Boryslav gave the region the nickname of Galicia's Texas in the late nineteenth century. Ivan Franko, the great Ukrainian writer, went to school here.
Read the complete Drohobych-Tserkva of Saint George\t write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Drohobych-Tserkva of Saint George\t is where the day begins. Next is Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless.
Matkiv is a small village in the upper valley of the Stryi river, in the Turka district of the Lviv region, high in the Ukrainian Carpathians. Its wooden church, the tserkva of the Synaxis of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was built in the first half of the nineteenth century, and it is a fine example of the Boyko tradition, named after the highland people who have lived in these mountains for centuries. The church has three log frames topped by tiered pyramidal roofs, each level slightly smaller than the one below, and the whole building is covered in wooden shingles that have weathered to a silver grey. It is part of the UNESCO listing of wooden tserkvas of the Carpathian region in Poland and Ukraine.
Read the complete Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless comes up about 185 km into the recorded legs. Next is Uzhok-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Archan.
Just below the pass that carries the road and railway from Uzhhorod into Galicia, the village of Uzhok keeps one of the finest wooden churches of the Carpathians. The tserkva of the Synaxis of the Archangel Michael was built in the middle of the eighteenth century in the Boyko style, with three log chambers each topped by a tiered roof, rising in stages like a set of stacked hats, all covered in wooden shingles. It stands on a slope among old trees, with a separate bell tower nearby, and it is one of the sixteen wooden tserkvas of the Carpathian region in Poland and Ukraine listed by UNESCO in 2013.
Read the complete Uzhok-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Archan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
At least about 252 km into the recorded legs you reach Uzhok-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Archan. Next is Wolosatka stream valley.
The Wołosatka is a mountain stream in the far south-eastern corner of Poland, draining the slopes below Tarnica, at 1,346 metres the highest summit of the Polish Bieszczady. Its valley is part of Bieszczady National Park and of the World Heritage listing of primeval Carpathian beech forests: dark, mossy woods of beech and fir where dead trunks are left to fall and rot, and where bears, wolves, lynx and wildcats still move freely. Above the treeline the ridges open into the połoniny, high grass meadows that turn tawny in autumn and give the range its rolling, almost Scottish silhouette.
Read the complete Wolosatka stream valley write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Wolosatka stream valley, about halfway. Next is Border Ridge and Gorna Solinka valley.
The Bieszczady are the wildest mountains in Poland, a corner where the country meets Ukraine and Slovakia and the forest has had decades to reclaim the land. The border ridge, running along the frontier, and the valley of the upper Solinka, below it, are part of the Polish section of the Carpathian primeval beech forests, protected within Bieszczady National Park. There are no roads up here: the ridge is reached on foot, and the forest, with its old beeches, fir and sycamore, is home to wolves, lynx, brown bears, and the European bison that were reintroduced to the area.
Read the complete Border Ridge and Gorna Solinka valley write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Border Ridge and Gorna Solinka valley sits at 338 km, about halfway. Next is back through Wolosatka stream valley.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Wolosatka stream valley write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Wolosatka stream valley comes up about 377 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Uzhok-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Archan.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Uzhok-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Archan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 419 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Uzhok-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Archan. Next is back through Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless, late in the day. Next is Drohobych-Tserkva of Saint George\t.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Drohobych-Tserkva of Saint George\t write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 676 km.
Drohobych-Tserkva of Saint George\t → Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless is 185 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless → Uzhok-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Archan is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Uzhok-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Archan → Wolosatka stream valley is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Wolosatka stream valley → Border Ridge and Gorna Solinka valley is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Border Ridge and Gorna Solinka valley → back through Wolosatka stream valley is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Wolosatka stream valley → back through Uzhok-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Archan is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Uzhok-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Archan → back through Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless → Drohobych-Tserkva of Saint George\t is 185 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.