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.
A 691 km round trip from Drohobych - roughly 5 h in the saddle. The stops in between: Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless, Wolosatka stream valley, Polonina Wetlinska and Smerek and back through Wolosatka stream 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 was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 26 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 181 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 286 km into the recorded legs you reach Wolosatka stream valley. Next is Polonina Wetlinska and Smerek.
In the far southeastern corner of Poland, where the country meets Slovakia and Ukraine, the Bieszczady mountains rise in long, rounded ridges covered with beech forest. Above the tree line, the summits are open meadows called połoniny, and Połonina Wetlińska is one of the most beautiful, a long grassy ridge with views over endless forested hills. Smerek, a peak at its western end, rises to over twelve hundred metres. On the ridge, the Chatka Puchatka, Winnie the Pooh's hut, a small mountain refuge, has been a beloved stop for hikers for decades. The walk up from Wetlina or the Przełęcz Wyżna pass takes a couple of hours, and the view from the top, especially at sunset, is unforgettable.
Read the complete Polonina Wetlinska and Smerek write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Polonina Wetlinska and Smerek, 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 sits at 460 km, about halfway. 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 comes up about 515 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Drohobych-Tserkva of Saint George\t closes the day.
Drohobych-Tserkva of Saint George\t → Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless is 181 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless → Wolosatka stream valley is 105 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Wolosatka stream valley → Polonina Wetlinska and Smerek is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Polonina Wetlinska and Smerek → back through Wolosatka stream valley is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Wolosatka stream valley → back through Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless is 105 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 181 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.