CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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A 421 km round trip from Valea Vișeului - roughly 9 h 30 in the saddle. The stops in between: Church of Saint Nicholas, Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci, Spermezeu - Lazuri and Church of the Holy Archangels. It crosses from Ukraine into Romania - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 37 km this is Romania Maramures Wooden Churches Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The river Tisza runs fast and green out of the Ukrainian Carpathians, and for many kilometres it forms the border between Romania and Ukraine. On the Ukrainian bank, the forests of Kuziy and Trybushany are among the primeval beech woods protected in the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve and listed by UNESCO as part of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe. From the Romanian side, around Valea Vișeului, you look across the river at steep, wooded slopes where the trees have grown and died without interference for centuries.
Read the complete Kuziy - Trybushany write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kuziy - Trybushany is where the day begins. Next is Church of Saint Nicholas.
Budești is one of the old villages of the Cosău valley in Maramureș, the far northern corner of Romania, where traditional life has survived longer than almost anywhere else in Europe. Its wooden church of St Nicholas, built in the seventeenth century, is a masterpiece of the local carpentry tradition: a dark timber body with a tall, steep shingled roof and a slender spire that seems to pierce the sky. Inside, the walls are covered with painted scenes from the Bible, and among the church's treasures is a coat of chain mail said to have belonged to Pintea the Brave, a legendary outlaw hero of the region. The church is one of eight in the UNESCO listing of the Wooden Churches of Maramureș.
Read the complete Church of Saint Nicholas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of Saint Nicholas comes up 36 km in. Next is Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci.
The Țibleș massif rises like a dark green wall between Maramureș and the Bistrița country of northern Romania, an old volcanic range topped by the Țibleș peak at around eighteen hundred metres. On its southern flanks, above the village of Groșii Țibleșului, lie the forests of Preluci, part of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe that UNESCO has protected as one sprawling, multi-country site. These are woods left largely to themselves, where old beeches grow huge, fall, rot and feed the next generation without a forester in sight.
Read the complete Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
72 km in you reach Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci. Next is Spermezeu - Lazuri.
Spermezeu is a village in the hilly country of western Bistriţa-Năsăud county, in northern Transylvania, where low ridges covered with orchards, hayfields and beech woods roll between the Someş valley and the Ţibleş mountains. The site called Spermezeu - Lazuri belongs to the series of places along the northern edge of the Roman province of Dacia, part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire listed in Romania in 2024. Here the Romans watched the border with watchtowers and small fortifications on hilltops, and though little remains above ground, the commanding views explain why these spots were chosen.
Read the complete Spermezeu - Lazuri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Spermezeu - Lazuri, about halfway. Next is Church of the Holy Archangels.
The wooden church at Rogoz stands in the Lăpuș country, a quieter, lesser-known corner of Maramureș, south of the mountains and away from the main tourist circuits. Built in the seventeenth century and dedicated to the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel, it is unusual in shape: the roof is asymmetric and overhangs deeply on one side, and the eaves are supported by carved wooden brackets shaped like horse heads, a detail that seems to come straight out of folk tradition. Inside, the walls are painted with scenes from the Bible, including a vivid Last Judgement. It is one of the eight churches in the UNESCO listing of the Wooden Churches of Maramureș.
Read the complete Church of the Holy Archangels write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of the Holy Archangels sits at 145 km, about halfway. Next is back through Spermezeu - Lazuri.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Spermezeu - Lazuri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Spermezeu - Lazuri comes up 181 km in. Next is back through Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
217 km in you reach back through Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci. Next is back through Church of Saint Nicholas.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of Saint Nicholas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Church of Saint Nicholas, late in the day. Next is Kuziy - Trybushany.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kuziy - Trybushany write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 421 km.
Kuziy - Trybushany → Church of Saint Nicholas is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of Saint Nicholas → Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci → Spermezeu - Lazuri is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Spermezeu - Lazuri → Church of the Holy Archangels is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of the Holy Archangels → back through Spermezeu - Lazuri is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Spermezeu - Lazuri → back through Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci → back through Church of Saint Nicholas is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Church of Saint Nicholas → Kuziy - Trybushany is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.