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.
351 km from Lakhtinskiy to Lakhtinskiy, about 5 h 35 of riding. It goes by way of Volkhonskoe Highway, Prioratsky Park, Schlisselburg. Old Ladoga and New Ladoga c and back through Prioratsky Park. 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 54 km this is A-121 Ladoga and Sortavala, 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 Volkhonskoe Highway.
The Volkhonskoe Highway is not a scenic mountain road but a historic route on the southern edge of Saint Petersburg, running out from the city towards Gorelovo and the old road to Krasnoye Selo. It belongs to the network of eighteenth and nineteenth century highways that linked the capital with the imperial residences and military camps to the south and west, and it is included in the wider protected area of the historic centre of Saint Petersburg and its related monuments. What you see today is a mix of suburban growth, open fields and stretches of tree-lined road, with the ghosts of history underneath.
Read the complete Volkhonskoe Highway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Volkhonskoe Highway comes up about 54 km into the recorded legs. Next is Prioratsky Park.
Gatchina has a palace that most visitors head for first, but the building that makes riders and architects alike stop and stare is the little Priory Palace standing on the shore of Black Lake in Prioratsky Park. It looks like a small Gothic castle with a tower and a chapel, pale and slightly unreal against the water, and it is built of rammed earth. Nikolai Lvov, the architect and polymath, put it up around 1799 for Emperor Paul I, who had made himself Grand Master of the Knights of Malta and wanted a residence to offer the Order. The earth walls, compacted in layers and then plastered, have now survived more than two centuries of Russian winters, which is a better record than plenty of brick.
Read the complete Prioratsky Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 86 km into the recorded legs you reach Prioratsky Park. Next is Schlisselburg. Old Ladoga and New Ladoga c, 53 km on.
The fortress at Shlisselburg is built on an island in the river, at the very spot where the Neva leaves Lake Ladoga, and whoever held it held the water road between the Baltic and the heart of Russia. The Novgorodians built the first wooden walls in 1323, and called the place Oreshek, which means little nut, after the island's shape. Over the next four centuries it passed between Russians and Swedes, until in 1702 Peter the Great stormed it on his way to the sea, and renamed it Schlusselburg, the key fortress, a key that would unlock the Baltic. Within a year he had founded Saint Petersburg downstream.
Read the complete Schlisselburg. Old Ladoga and New Ladoga c write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Schlisselburg. Old Ladoga and New Ladoga c, about halfway. Next is back through Prioratsky Park.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Prioratsky Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Prioratsky Park sits at 213 km, about halfway. Next is back through Volkhonskoe Highway.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Volkhonskoe Highway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Volkhonskoe Highway comes up about 296 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 → Volkhonskoe Highway is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Volkhonskoe Highway → Prioratsky Park is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Prioratsky Park → Schlisselburg. Old Ladoga and New Ladoga c is 87 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Schlisselburg. Old Ladoga and New Ladoga c → back through Prioratsky Park is 87 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Prioratsky Park → back through Volkhonskoe Highway is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Volkhonskoe Highway → Kronstadtsky is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.