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.
A 226 km round trip from Bystrytsya - roughly 6 h 17 in the saddle. It goes by way of Yasynia-Tserkva of Our Lord’s Ascension, Maramarosh, Chornohora and back through Maramarosh. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Gorgany
The Gorgany are the wildest part of the Ukrainian Carpathians, a range of sandstone peaks rising above dense forests in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. What makes them unusual are the gorgany themselves, the fields of loose stone blocks that cover the upper slopes and summits, formed by frost shattering the rock. Walking across them is slow and tiring, and the forests below, of spruce, beech and Swiss stone pine, are among the most pristine in Ukraine, with brown bears, wolves, lynx and red deer. The Gorgany nature reserve protects a part of this landscape.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Gorgany is where the day begins. Next is Yasynia-Tserkva of Our Lord’s Ascension.
2. Yasynia-Tserkva of Our Lord’s Ascension
High in the Ukrainian Carpathians, in the valley of the Black Tisa, the village of Yasinia stretches along the river beneath steep spruce-clad slopes. On a rise near its centre stands a small wooden church, the Church of the Ascension, sometimes called the Strukivska church, built in the early nineteenth century by Hutsul craftsmen without nails. Its stepped roofs, covered in wooden shingles, and its small domes give it a cosy, fairytale shape, and it is part of the UNESCO listing of wooden tserkvas of the Carpathian region in Poland and Ukraine.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Yasynia-Tserkva of Our Lord’s Ascension comes up about 33 km into the recorded legs. Next is Maramarosh.
3. Maramarosh
On the map, the line between Romania and Ukraine runs along the Tisza river here, and on either side of it the Carpathians rise in forested ridges. Maramarosh is the old name for the whole region, Maramureș to Romanians, and it is also the name of a protected forest within the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve on the Ukrainian side, one component of the World Heritage inscription for ancient and primeval beech forests of the Carpathians and other regions of Europe. These are forests where beech trees have grown undisturbed since the last ice age, with giants several hundred years old and a richness of life that has vanished from most of Europe.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 81 km into the recorded legs you reach Maramarosh. Next is Chornohora.
4. Chornohora
Chornohora, the Black Mountain, is the highest range of the Ukrainian Carpathians, a long ridge of rounded summits above the forests on the border between the Zakarpattia and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. Its highest peak, Hoverla, rises to 2,061 metres, the highest point in Ukraine, and on summer weekends it can be busy with hikers. Along the ridge to the southeast stands Pip Ivan, crowned by the ruins of an astronomical and meteorological observatory built by Poland in the 1930s, when this was the border with Czechoslovakia. Locals call it the White Elephant, and seeing it loom out of the mist is unforgettable.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Gorgany closes the day.
Leg by leg
Gorgany to Yasynia-Tserkva of Our Lord’s Ascension
Gorgany → Yasynia-Tserkva of Our Lord’s Ascension is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yasynia-Tserkva of Our Lord’s Ascension to Maramarosh
Yasynia-Tserkva of Our Lord’s Ascension → Maramarosh is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Maramarosh to Chornohora
Maramarosh → Chornohora is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chornohora to back through Maramarosh
Chornohora → back through Maramarosh is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Maramarosh to back through Yasynia-Tserkva of Our Lord’s Ascension
back through Maramarosh → back through Yasynia-Tserkva of Our Lord’s Ascension is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Yasynia-Tserkva of Our Lord’s Ascension to Gorgany
back through Yasynia-Tserkva of Our Lord’s Ascension → Gorgany is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.