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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Stârciu it runs 413 km to Stârciu; allow about 8 h 25 of riding. On the way it passes Popeni - Dumbravă, Cormeniș - Râpa Malului 1, Chiuiești - Dealul Crucii and Church of the Holy Archangels. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The ridge of the Meseş mountains runs like a low, wooded wall across northern Transylvania, and the Romans, after they conquered Dacia in AD 106, made it the northern frontier of their new province. They built forts in the valleys, watchtowers on the high points and a road to link them, and this area near Hurez and Cornet lies within that line. The name on our list, Sub Cornet, means below the Cornet, which suggests a hill or ridge overhead, and the pattern of sites around here is of small watchtowers positioned to see along the valleys.
Read the complete Hurez - Sub Cornet 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hurez - Sub Cornet 1 is where the day begins. Next is Popeni - Dumbravă.
Think of the frontier of Roman Dacia not as a wall but as a net. In the hills of Sălaj, north of the town of Zalău, the Romans stretched a fine mesh of watchtowers, small forts and earthen barriers across the ridges, all centred on the great fortress of Porolissum, which controlled the most important pass from the province into the lands of the free Dacians. Popeni, a village near Jibou, sits near one of the outer strands of that net: at Dumbravă, a spot on the edge of a wood, the remains of a tower are part of the Dacian frontier on the World Heritage list. You will see a bump in the ground and a lot of grass, and that is all the more reason to use your imagination.
Read the complete Popeni - Dumbravă write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Popeni - Dumbravă comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cormeniș - Râpa Malului 1.
The Someș river cuts through the low hills of north-western Transylvania in a series of wide loops, and at Cormeniș, a small village in Sălaj county, it passes below a bank where the Romans placed one of their watchtowers. This was the northern edge of the province of Dacia Porolissensis, the frontier facing the free Dacian tribes beyond, and a line of towers and small forts ran along the hills, linked by signals and patrols. The site at Râpa Malului, the riverbank cliff, is one of the many components of the Dacian frontier listed by UNESCO in 2024. As so often on the Dacian limes, there is little to see apart from a slight rise in a field, but standing up there with the river below, you can easily imagine a small garrison watching the valley.
Read the complete Cormeniș - Râpa Malului 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 78 km into the recorded legs you reach Cormeniș - Râpa Malului 1. Next is Chiuiești - Dealul Crucii.
North of Dej, the Someș river winds through a land of soft hills, orchards and scattered villages, and on the ridges above it the Romans once kept watch over the northern frontier of their province of Dacia. Chiuiești, a commune of small villages spread across the hills, is one of the places where archaeologists have identified the remains of watchtowers on high points along the frontier, including one on the hill known as Dealul Crucii, the Hill of the Cross. Little survives above ground beyond low mounds and traces in the grass, but the sites are included in the World Heritage inscription of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire in Dacia, added in 2024.
Read the complete Chiuiești - Dealul Crucii write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chiuiești - Dealul Crucii, about halfway. Next is Church of the Holy Archangels.
Șurdești is a small village in the hills of Maramureș, in the north of Romania, and its wooden church of the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel is famous for its spire. Built in the eighteenth century from oak logs, the church has a steep double roof covered in shingles and a slender tower that rises far above the trees, among the tallest wooden church towers in the region. It is one of eight wooden churches of Maramureș listed by UNESCO in 1999, each a masterpiece of local carpentry, built by village craftsmen using traditional techniques.
Read the complete Church of the Holy Archangels write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of the Holy Archangels sits at 154 km, about halfway. Next is back through Chiuiești - Dealul Crucii.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chiuiești - Dealul Crucii write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Chiuiești - Dealul Crucii comes up about 274 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Cormeniș - Râpa Malului 1.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cormeniș - Râpa Malului 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 334 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Cormeniș - Râpa Malului 1. Next is back through Popeni - Dumbravă.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Popeni - Dumbravă write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Popeni - Dumbravă, late in the day. Next is Hurez - Sub Cornet 1.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hurez - Sub Cornet 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 413 km.
Hurez - Sub Cornet 1 → Popeni - Dumbravă is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Popeni - Dumbravă → Cormeniș - Râpa Malului 1 is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cormeniș - Râpa Malului 1 → Chiuiești - Dealul Crucii is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chiuiești - Dealul Crucii → Church of the Holy Archangels is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of the Holy Archangels → back through Chiuiești - Dealul Crucii is 68 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Chiuiești - Dealul Crucii → back through Cormeniș - Râpa Malului 1 is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cormeniș - Râpa Malului 1 → back through Popeni - Dumbravă is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Popeni - Dumbravă → Hurez - Sub Cornet 1 is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.