Glod - Toaca Glodului 1 and Zagra - Dealul Lupului

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Glod - Toaca Glodului 1

   Between Dej and Jibou the Someș river squeezes through a narrow, winding valley, with the railway, the road and the river taking turns to cross each other. On the hills above, near the village of Glod and the larger villages of Rus and Ileanda, the Romans kept a watch on the north-western edge of Dacia, and Toaca Glodului is one of their watchtower positions, among the components of UNESCO's Dacian frontier listing. Toaca is the name of the wooden board struck in Romanian monasteries to call the monks to prayer, and the hill may owe its name to its shape or to some long-forgotten story.

   Read the complete Glod - Toaca Glodului 1 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Glod - Toaca Glodului 1 is where the day begins. Next is Cășeiu - Cetățele / Samvm Cășeiu -Samum -.

2. 2. Cășeiu - Cetățele / Samvm Cășeiu -Samum -

   On a terrace above the river Someș, near the village of Cășeiu, a few kilometres from Dej in northern Transylvania, the Romans built a fort they called Samum. It guarded the northern edge of their province of Dacia, which they conquered in the early second century after two hard wars against the Dacian king Decebalus. The fort controlled the valley and the routes into the province, and today its outline can still be traced in the fields, with low walls and earthworks where archaeologists have uncovered gates, towers and barracks. In 2024 the Dacian frontier was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list as part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire.

   Read the complete Cășeiu - Cetățele / Samvm Cășeiu -Samum - write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Cășeiu - Cetățele / Samvm Cășeiu -Samum - comes up about 23 km into the recorded legs. Next is Negrilești - Dealul Muncelului.

3. 3. Negrilești - Dealul Muncelului

   Bram Stoker never came to Transylvania, but he sent Jonathan Harker through Bistrița, and the town still enjoys the connection. Dealul Muncelului, a hill above the village of Negrilești, sits west of Bistrița in the Someș valley, and from here the road east leads through the Saxon town to the Tihuța pass, the Borgo Pass of the novel, where Count Dracula's carriage is supposed to have met his English visitor. It is a fine excuse for a ride, even if the vampire is fiction and the real history more interesting.

   Read the complete Negrilești - Dealul Muncelului write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 55 km into the recorded legs you reach Negrilești - Dealul Muncelului. Next is Zagra - Dealul Lupului.

4. 4. Zagra - Dealul Lupului

   Zagra is the last farming village before the land begins to climb in earnest toward the Rodna mountains, the highest range in the Eastern Carpathians north of the Prislop pass. Pietrosul Rodnei, at about 2,300 metres, is the summit, and the whole massif is protected as a national park and biosphere reserve, with glacial lakes, rocky ridges and alpine meadows that stay snowy into June. From the Dealul Lupului, the Wolf Hill, you look across a patchwork of hayfields toward those peaks, which look closer than they are.

   Read the complete Zagra - Dealul Lupului write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Zagra - Dealul Lupului, about halfway. Next is back through Negrilești - Dealul Muncelului.

5. 5. back through Negrilești - Dealul Muncelului

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Negrilești - Dealul Muncelului write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Negrilești - Dealul Muncelului sits at 104 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cășeiu - Cetățele / Samvm Cășeiu -Samum -.

6. 6. back through Cășeiu - Cetățele / Samvm Cășeiu -Samum -

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Cășeiu - Cetățele / Samvm Cășeiu -Samum - write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Cășeiu - Cetățele / Samvm Cășeiu -Samum - comes up about 182 km into the recorded legs. Next is Glod - Toaca Glodului 1.

7. 7. Glod - Toaca Glodului 1

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Glod - Toaca Glodului 1 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Glod - Toaca Glodului 1 closes the day.