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.
A 319 km round trip from Stârciu - roughly 5 h in the saddle. On the way it passes Preluci - Piatra Prelucilor 1, Church of the Holy Paraskeva and back through Preluci - Piatra Prelucilor 1. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 100 km this is Romania Maramures Wooden Churches Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The hills of Sălaj between Buciumi, Stârciu and Cizer are a landscape of small villages, orchards, pastures and woods, and like much of this county, they were part of the northwestern frontier of Roman Dacia. Hurez, Sub Cornet, is one of the sites of that frontier listed by UNESCO in 2024, probably a watchtower or a stretch of defensive earthwork on a ridge, part of the chain of military posts that linked the forts. Little is visible on the ground today, and the site is better appreciated as part of a wider landscape of Roman frontier archaeology.
Read the complete Hurez - Sub Cornet write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hurez - Sub Cornet is where the day begins. Next is Preluci - Piatra Prelucilor 1.
Preluci is the sort of place that does not appear in guidebooks and does not seem to mind. The name on the stop points to a stone, a crag or outcrop above the village, and the ride starts and ends here, which gives you a good excuse to look at it properly before you go. The country around is the Sălaj hill belt where it nudges toward the Someș valley, a mix of oak and beech forest, pasture, and villages strung along small streams.
Read the complete Preluci - Piatra Prelucilor 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Preluci - Piatra Prelucilor 1 comes up about 59 km into the recorded legs. Next is Church of the Holy Paraskeva.
In 1780 a painter named Radu Munteanu covered the inside of the wooden church at Desești with scenes that still shock and delight: a Last Judgment in which sinners are marched off to a hell full of grinning devils, alongside saints, prophets and lively village figures. The church, dedicated to the Holy Paraskeva and built in 1770 from oak logs, rises above the village with a tall, slender tower and a steep double roof of shingles. It is one of the eight wooden churches of Maramureș inscribed by UNESCO in 1999, and its paintings are among the best preserved of them all.
Read the complete Church of the Holy Paraskeva write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 159 km into the recorded legs you reach Church of the Holy Paraskeva. Next is back through Preluci - Piatra Prelucilor 1.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Preluci - Piatra Prelucilor 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Preluci - Piatra Prelucilor 1, late in the day. Next is Hurez - Sub Cornet.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hurez - Sub Cornet write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Hurez - Sub Cornet. That is the ride.
Hurez - Sub Cornet → Preluci - Piatra Prelucilor 1 is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Preluci - Piatra Prelucilor 1 → Church of the Holy Paraskeva is 100 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Church of the Holy Paraskeva → back through Preluci - Piatra Prelucilor 1 is 101 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Preluci - Piatra Prelucilor 1 → Hurez - Sub Cornet is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.