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: 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.
825 km from Drohobych to Drohobych, about 16 h 21 of riding. It goes by way of Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless, Wolosatka stream valley, Havešová Primeval Forest and Terebowiec stream valley. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses Ukraine, Poland and Slovakia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 83 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 96 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 155 km into the recorded legs you reach Wolosatka stream valley. Next is Havešová Primeval Forest.
In the far north-east of Slovakia, in the hills where Slovakia, Poland and Ukraine meet, the beech forests have never been cut. Havešová is one of these primeval forests, a steep slope of giant beech trees, some over forty metres tall and hundreds of years old, with fallen trunks decaying slowly on the forest floor and new trees rising in the gaps. It is part of the UNESCO-listed Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe, inscribed in 2007 and extended since, and it lies within Poloniny National Park, one of the least visited and most remote national parks in Central Europe.
Read the complete Havešová Primeval Forest write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Havešová Primeval Forest, about halfway. Next is Terebowiec stream valley.
The far south-east corner of Poland is a place where the map runs out of road. The Terebowiec flows through the Bieszczady, the lowest and loneliest range of the Polish Carpathians, a land of wide grassy ridges called poloniny, deep beech forests and a few scattered villages, and the border with Ukraine is never far. The nearest settlements are Lutowiska, a village of a few hundred people, and across the frontier the town of Turka, so this is not a place with services. The nearest town where you can count on fuel and shops is Ustrzyki Dolne, a good half hour back along the valley road.
Read the complete Terebowiec stream valley write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Terebowiec stream valley sits at 199 km, about halfway. Next is back through Havešová Primeval Forest.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Havešová Primeval Forest write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Havešová Primeval Forest comes up about 583 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 669 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Wolosatka stream valley. 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 825 km.
Drohobych-Tserkva of Saint George\t → Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless is 96 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 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Wolosatka stream valley → Havešová Primeval Forest is 83 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Havešová Primeval Forest → Terebowiec stream valley is 174 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terebowiec stream valley → back through Havešová Primeval Forest is 171 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Havešová Primeval Forest → back through Wolosatka stream valley is 86 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 60 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 96 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.