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.
256 km from Lebyazh’ye to Lebyazh’ye, about 4 h 33 of riding. It goes by way of The Maritime Channel, Gostilitskoe Highway, Petrovsky and back through Gostilitskoe Highway. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 25 km this is Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Along the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, west of Saint Petersburg, a low strip of pine forest and sand runs for kilometres between the road and the sea. Fort Seraya Loshad, the Grey Horse, stands in this coastal country, eleven kilometres from the village of Lebyazhye, among a group of forts built for the defence of the capital and the naval base at Kronstadt.
Read the complete Fort «Seraya Loshad» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort «Seraya Loshad» is where the day begins. Next is The Maritime Channel.
Stand on the shore anywhere near Kronstadt and you are looking at a dredged highway hidden under the water. The Maritime Channel, the Sea Canal of St Petersburg, was cut through the shallow Neva Bay in the late nineteenth century, opening in 1885, so that large ships could reach the city's port directly instead of unloading at Kronstadt. Before it existed, the bay was too shallow for anything but small vessels, and cargo had to be transferred to lighters, a slow and expensive business. The channel runs for around thirty kilometres from the open gulf to the mouth of the Neva, marked by buoys and lights, and it remains the main artery for ships entering the city.
Read the complete The Maritime Channel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Maritime Channel comes up 27 km in. Next is Gostilitskoe Highway.
Peterhof is famous for its fountains, and the road called Gostilitskoe runs along the high ground behind the palace, where the water begins. When Peter the Great decided in the early eighteenth century to build a rival to Versailles on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, the engineers had a problem, because the ground at the shore is flat, and a fountain needs a head of water. They found springs and ponds on the Ropsha heights, a few kilometres inland, and built a system of canals, reservoirs and pipes that carried water downhill to the palace by gravity alone, without a single pump. That system, the Water-bringing system of Peterhof, still works, and it is a marvel of its time.
Read the complete Gostilitskoe Highway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
54 km in you reach Gostilitskoe Highway. Next is Petrovsky.
The label is a puzzle: Petrovsky could refer to any of a dozen places in a city named after Peter the Great, and it is safest to treat it as a viewpoint on his great project, the opening of Russia to the sea. Whatever the exact spot, the landscape is unmistakable: flat shore, reeds, wide grey water, and on the horizon the dome of the Kronstadt cathedral and the line of the flood barrier.
Read the complete Petrovsky write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Petrovsky, about halfway. Next is back through Gostilitskoe Highway.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gostilitskoe Highway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Gostilitskoe Highway sits at 109 km, about halfway. Next is back through The Maritime Channel.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Maritime Channel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Maritime Channel comes up 136 km in. Next is Fort «Seraya Loshad».
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort «Seraya Loshad» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort «Seraya Loshad» closes the day.
Fort «Seraya Loshad» → The Maritime Channel is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Maritime Channel → Gostilitskoe Highway is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gostilitskoe Highway → Petrovsky is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Petrovsky → back through Gostilitskoe Highway is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Gostilitskoe Highway → back through The Maritime Channel is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Maritime Channel → Fort «Seraya Loshad» is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.