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.
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467 km from Poiana Blenchii to Poiana Blenchii, about 10 h 20 of riding. It goes by way of Ciceu-Poieni - Fața Carpenului 3, Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci, Church of Saint Nicholas and Kuziy - Trybushany. It crosses from Romania into Ukraine - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 37 km this is Romania Maramures Wooden Churches Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The Someș river winds through northern Transylvania in a broad valley between rolling hills, and near Gâlgău and Poiana Blenchii, it forms a natural corridor between the Transylvanian plateau and the northwest. In Roman times, this valley marked the northern edge of the province of Dacia, and the frontier ran along the hills above it, with watchtowers and small forts. Casa Popii, the priest's house, near Gâlgău, is one of the sites of that frontier listed by UNESCO in 2024: probably a watchtower position on a ridge overlooking the valley. As with many of these sites, there is little to see above ground, but the views over the valley and the hills explain its purpose.
Read the complete Gâlgău - Casa Popii write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Gâlgău - Casa Popii is where the day begins. Next is Ciceu-Poieni - Fața Carpenului 3.
Ciceu-Poieni is a scattered village in the hills of Bistrița-Năsăud county, with the ruins of Ciceu fortress somewhere in the story. The stronghold stood on a hilltop here, and in the fifteenth century Hungary's King Matthias Corvinus granted it, along with Cetatea de Baltă, to the Moldavian prince Stephen the Great, which tied this remote corner of Transylvania to Moldavia's fortunes for decades. Today little remains but crumbling walls and a good view, but the history gives the hills a certain weight.
Read the complete Ciceu-Poieni - Fața Carpenului 3 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ciceu-Poieni - Fața Carpenului 3 comes up 37 km in. Next is Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci.
The Țibleș massif rises like a dark green wall between Maramureș and the Bistrița country of northern Romania, an old volcanic range topped by the Țibleș peak at around eighteen hundred metres. On its southern flanks, above the village of Groșii Țibleșului, lie the forests of Preluci, part of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe that UNESCO has protected as one sprawling, multi-country site. These are woods left largely to themselves, where old beeches grow huge, fall, rot and feed the next generation without a forester in sight.
Read the complete Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
74 km in you reach Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci. Next is Church of Saint Nicholas.
Budești is one of the old villages of the Cosău valley in Maramureș, the far northern corner of Romania, where traditional life has survived longer than almost anywhere else in Europe. Its wooden church of St Nicholas, built in the seventeenth century, is a masterpiece of the local carpentry tradition: a dark timber body with a tall, steep shingled roof and a slender spire that seems to pierce the sky. Inside, the walls are covered with painted scenes from the Bible, and among the church's treasures is a coat of chain mail said to have belonged to Pintea the Brave, a legendary outlaw hero of the region. The church is one of eight in the UNESCO listing of the Wooden Churches of Maramureș.
Read the complete Church of Saint Nicholas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of Saint Nicholas, about halfway. Next is Kuziy - Trybushany.
The river Tisza runs fast and green out of the Ukrainian Carpathians, and for many kilometres it forms the border between Romania and Ukraine. On the Ukrainian bank, the forests of Kuziy and Trybushany are among the primeval beech woods protected in the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve and listed by UNESCO as part of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe. From the Romanian side, around Valea Vișeului, you look across the river at steep, wooded slopes where the trees have grown and died without interference for centuries.
Read the complete Kuziy - Trybushany write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kuziy - Trybushany sits at 147 km, about halfway. Next is back through Church of Saint Nicholas.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of Saint Nicholas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Church of Saint Nicholas comes up 184 km in. Next is back through Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
221 km in you reach back through Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci. Next is back through Ciceu-Poieni - Fața Carpenului 3.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ciceu-Poieni - Fața Carpenului 3 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ciceu-Poieni - Fața Carpenului 3, late in the day. Next is Gâlgău - Casa Popii.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gâlgău - Casa Popii write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 467 km.
Gâlgău - Casa Popii → Ciceu-Poieni - Fața Carpenului 3 is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ciceu-Poieni - Fața Carpenului 3 → Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci → Church of Saint Nicholas is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of Saint Nicholas → Kuziy - Trybushany is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kuziy - Trybushany → back through Church of Saint Nicholas is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Church of Saint Nicholas → back through Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci → back through Ciceu-Poieni - Fața Carpenului 3 is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ciceu-Poieni - Fața Carpenului 3 → Gâlgău - Casa Popii is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.