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.
245 km from Russko-Vysotskoye to Russko-Vysotskoye, about 4 h 05 of riding. It goes by way of S.K.Grieg's Estate «Sans Ennui», Sestroretsky Razliv, Lindulovskaya Roshcha and back through Sestroretsky Razliv. 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 38 km this is Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
South of St Petersburg, the flat marshy plain of the Neva lowland suddenly steps up onto a limestone plateau. Geologists call the edge a glint or bench, and here, near Russko-Vysotskoye and Kipen, it forms a low but noticeable escarpment, the northern edge of the Izhora plateau. It is one of the natural features included in the wide UNESCO listing of St Petersburg and its surroundings, which recognises not only palaces and canals but the landscape the city was built against.
Read the complete Izhorsky Bench write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Izhorsky Bench is where the day begins. Next is S.K.Grieg's Estate «Sans Ennui», 36 km on.
Samuel Greig was a Scottish naval officer from Inverkeithing who rose to become an admiral in Catherine the Great's navy, and in 1788 he fought the Battle of Hogland against the Swedes in the Gulf of Finland, a few weeks before dying of fever at Reval. He is the S.K. Greig of the label, Samuil Karlovich in Russian style, and an estate on this coast called Sans Ennui is associated with the family, French for without boredom, a charming name for a country house. The site lies near Bolshaya Izhora, west of Lomonosov, where the land is flat, wooded and close to the water, and the Izhora river flows toward the gulf.
Read the complete S.K.Grieg's Estate «Sans Ennui» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
S.K.Grieg's Estate «Sans Ennui» comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sestroretsky Razliv.
Sestroretsk is a small town on the north shore of the Gulf of Finland, in a landscape of pine-covered dunes, shallow bays and lakes, and it has an industrial origin that surprises visitors. In 1721 Peter the Great founded an arms factory on the Sestra river here, and a dam created a broad reservoir to power it. That reservoir, Razliv, which means flood or spill, is the lake that gives the place its name. The water, ringed by reeds and birches, is a favourite spot for locals to swim, fish and walk.
Read the complete Sestroretsky Razliv write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 72 km into the recorded legs you reach Sestroretsky Razliv. Next is Lindulovskaya Roshcha.
Out on the Karelian Isthmus, in a landscape of pine, birch and sandy soil, stands a grove of larches that looks entirely out of place. The Lindulovskaya Grove was planted in 1738 by an admiral, Fyodor Soimonov, who wanted to grow shipbuilding timber for the Russian navy, and he chose Siberian larch, a durable and rot-resistant wood. Some of the trees are nearly three centuries old and very tall, and the grove is protected as a natural monument, the oldest planted larch forest in Russia. Walking among the trunks, with their orange-grey bark, and the soft light filtering through the needles, is surprisingly moving.
Read the complete Lindulovskaya Roshcha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lindulovskaya Roshcha, about halfway. Next is back through Sestroretsky Razliv.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sestroretsky Razliv write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sestroretsky Razliv sits at 145 km, about halfway. Next is back through S.K.Grieg's Estate «Sans Ennui», 37 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete S.K.Grieg's Estate «Sans Ennui» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through S.K.Grieg's Estate «Sans Ennui» comes up about 206 km into the recorded legs. Next is Izhorsky Bench.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Izhorsky Bench write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Izhorsky Bench closes the day.
Izhorsky Bench → S.K.Grieg's Estate «Sans Ennui» is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
S.K.Grieg's Estate «Sans Ennui» → Sestroretsky Razliv is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sestroretsky Razliv → Lindulovskaya Roshcha is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lindulovskaya Roshcha → back through Sestroretsky Razliv is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sestroretsky Razliv → back through S.K.Grieg's Estate «Sans Ennui» is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through S.K.Grieg's Estate «Sans Ennui» → Izhorsky Bench is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.