Ileanda - La Căsoi and Dumbrăveni - Măgura

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Ileanda - La Căsoi

   Ileanda is a village on the Someș, the big river of north-western Transylvania, at a point where the valley narrows between wooded hills on its way from Dej towards Jibou. The railway runs alongside the water, the road keeps company with both, and the hills on either side rise in long slopes of beech, hornbeam and pasture. La Căsoi is a local name for a spot among those hills; you will not find a monument here, just the landscape and whatever the season is doing to it.

   Read the complete Ileanda - La Căsoi write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Ileanda - La Căsoi is where the day begins. Next is Muncel - Cărămidă.

2. 2. Muncel - Cărămidă

   In northern Transylvania, where the Someș river winds through low hills between Dej and Beclean, the Roman Empire once ran out of land and patience. The province of Dacia, conquered by Trajan in the early second century, had a long and complicated frontier, and in 2024 parts of it were added to the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire. Muncel–Cărămidă is one of those components, a small military site above the valley near Poiana Blenchii, part of a network of watchtowers and forts that guarded the northern edge of the province. The big fort of Porolissum, near Zalău to the west, with its reconstructed gate, gives you a sense of what the bigger garrisons looked like.

   Read the complete Muncel - Cărămidă write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Muncel - Cărămidă comes up about 28 km into the recorded legs. Next is Dumbrăveni - Măgura.

3. 3. Dumbrăveni - Măgura

   In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, a fortress on a hill above the Someș valley near Ciceu belonged not to the rulers of Transylvania but to the princes of Moldavia, on the far side of the Carpathians. Stephen the Great received the castle of Ciceu and its estates as compensation from the Hungarian king, and the Moldavian princes held it for decades, a curious enclave in the middle of Transylvania. The castle was later destroyed, and only ruins remain on the hill above Ciceu-Corabia, but the story gives a sense of how fluid borders and loyalties were in this part of Europe.

   Read the complete Dumbrăveni - Măgura write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 63 km into the recorded legs you reach Dumbrăveni - Măgura. Next is back through Muncel - Cărămidă.

4. 4. back through Muncel - Cărămidă

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Muncel - Cărămidă write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Muncel - Cărămidă, late in the day. Next is Ileanda - La Căsoi.

5. 5. Ileanda - La Căsoi

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Ileanda - La Căsoi write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Ileanda - La Căsoi. That is the ride.