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.
From Snina it runs 599 km to Snina; allow about 13 h 05 of riding. It goes by way of Wolosatka stream valley, Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless, Zacharovanyi Krai - Irshavka and Synevyr - Vilshany. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses Slovakia, Poland and Ukraine - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. Long stretches are under trees.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 82 km this is Bieszczady Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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 is where the day begins. 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.
Wolosatka stream valley comes up about 82 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 142 km into the recorded legs you reach Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless. Next is Zacharovanyi Krai - Irshavka.
Transcarpathia is the tucked-away corner of Ukraine, on the far side of the mountains from the rest of the country, and it feels like it. The region, known in Ukrainian as Zakarpattia, was part of Hungary for a thousand years, and later of Czechoslovakia, before the Soviet Union took it in 1945, so the villages mix Ukrainian, Hungarian, Romanian and Rusyn traditions. The Zacharovanyi Krai, the Enchanted Land, is a nature park in the hills near the town of Irshava, a country of beech and oak forest, orchards, and folds of low mountains on the edge of the Carpathian foothills.
Read the complete Zacharovanyi Krai - Irshavka write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Zacharovanyi Krai - Irshavka, about halfway. Next is Synevyr - Vilshany.
Lake Synevyr is the largest mountain lake in the Ukrainian Carpathians, a dark, deep pool surrounded by spruce forest at about a thousand metres, formed thousands of years ago when a landslide blocked a valley. It is called the sea eye, and on a calm day, it reflects the trees and the sky like a mirror. A sad legend tells of a count's daughter, Syn, who fell in love with a shepherd, Vyr; the count had the young man killed, and the girl wept so much that her tears formed the lake. The lake is the centrepiece of the Synevyr National Park, which protects a large area of old forests in Zakarpattia, and nearby there is a rehabilitation centre for brown bears rescued from captivity, where you can see them in large forest enclosures.
Read the complete Synevyr - Vilshany write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Synevyr - Vilshany sits at 210 km, about halfway. Next is back through Zacharovanyi Krai - Irshavka.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Zacharovanyi Krai - Irshavka write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Zacharovanyi Krai - Irshavka comes up about 388 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 458 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless. 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.
back through Wolosatka stream valley, late in the day. Next is 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.
The route ends here after 599 km.
Havešová Primeval Forest → Wolosatka stream valley is 82 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Wolosatka stream valley → Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless → Zacharovanyi Krai - Irshavka is 70 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Zacharovanyi Krai - Irshavka → Synevyr - Vilshany is 84 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Synevyr - Vilshany → back through Zacharovanyi Krai - Irshavka is 92 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Zacharovanyi Krai - Irshavka → back through Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless is 70 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless → back through Wolosatka stream valley is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Wolosatka stream valley → Havešová Primeval Forest is 83 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.