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 266 km round trip from Lakhtinskiy - roughly 4 h 34 in the saddle. On the way it passes The Barrier of Pile, Fort «Krasnaya Gorka», Park «The Menagerie» and back through Fort «Krasnaya Gorka». 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 24 km this is Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
This stretch is the north shore of the Gulf of Finland, the coast that runs west from the Neva delta toward Sestroretsk and the Karelian Isthmus. The label points to the Kronstadtsky district name rather than a single monument, so think of it as a tract of seaside land, with the port town of Lisiy Nos about five kilometres away and the larger suburb of Lakhtinsky eight kilometres off. Lisiy Nos means Fox's Nose, a cape that pokes out into the gulf, and from here on a clear day you can look south across the water to the low silhouette of Kotlin Island.
Read the complete Kronstadtsky write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kronstadtsky is where the day begins. Next is The Barrier of Pile.
Izhora is an old name for this part of the coast. Long before Saint Petersburg, the land between the Neva and the Luga belonged to the Izhorians, a small Finnic people who fished, farmed and served as pilots on the river, and whose language survives only in a few villages. Bolshaya Izhora, the Great Izhora, is a modest settlement on the shore, with a church, some dachas and a sea wall, and the nearest town of any size is Kronstadt across the water. The point on the map sits at the edge of the gulf, in reed and low scrub, where the shallows run out for hundreds of metres and the horizon is a thin line of cranes and chimneys.
Read the complete The Barrier of Pile write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Barrier of Pile comes up about 24 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fort «Krasnaya Gorka».
On the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, near the village of Lebyazhye, the remains of Fort Krasnaya Gorka sit among pine woods and sand dunes. The fort was built in the years before the First World War as part of a chain of coastal defences protecting the approaches to St Petersburg, with heavy guns facing the sea and their counterparts on the opposite shore at Ino, in what was then the Grand Duchy of Finland. Together, the forts were designed to close the gulf to an enemy fleet.
Read the complete Fort «Krasnaya Gorka» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 55 km into the recorded legs you reach Fort «Krasnaya Gorka». Next is Park «The Menagerie».
Gatchina is one of the great imperial estates ringing St Petersburg, and the Menagerie, the Zverinets, is its wild back garden: a large walled tract of forest north of the palace that was laid out in the eighteenth century as a hunting reserve, with deer and other game kept for the court. Today it is mostly woods, ponds and paths, and on a hot day it is the coolest place within reach.
Read the complete Park «The Menagerie» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Park «The Menagerie», about halfway. Next is back through Fort «Krasnaya Gorka».
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort «Krasnaya Gorka» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort «Krasnaya Gorka» sits at 178 km, about halfway. Next is back through The Barrier of Pile.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Barrier of Pile write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Barrier of Pile comes up about 242 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kronstadtsky.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kronstadtsky write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kronstadtsky closes the day.
Kronstadtsky → The Barrier of Pile is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Barrier of Pile → Fort «Krasnaya Gorka» is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort «Krasnaya Gorka» → Park «The Menagerie» is 78 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Park «The Menagerie» → back through Fort «Krasnaya Gorka» is 79 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Fort «Krasnaya Gorka» → back through The Barrier of Pile is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Barrier of Pile → Kronstadtsky is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.