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.
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.
239 km from Rakhiv to Rakhiv, about 5 h 52 of riding. On the way it passes Chornohora, Kuziy - Trybushany, Church of Saint Nicholas and back through Kuziy - Trybushany. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Ukraine into Romania - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules.
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.
On the map, the line between Romania and Ukraine runs along the Tisza river here, and on either side of it the Carpathians rise in forested ridges. Maramarosh is the old name for the whole region, Maramureș to Romanians, and it is also the name of a protected forest within the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve on the Ukrainian side, one component of the World Heritage inscription for ancient and primeval beech forests of the Carpathians and other regions of Europe. These are forests where beech trees have grown undisturbed since the last ice age, with giants several hundred years old and a richness of life that has vanished from most of Europe.
Read the complete Maramarosh write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Maramarosh is where the day begins. Next is Chornohora.
Chornohora, the Black Mountain, is the highest range of the Ukrainian Carpathians, a long ridge of rounded summits above the forests on the border between the Zakarpattia and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. Its highest peak, Hoverla, rises to 2,061 metres, the highest point in Ukraine, and on summer weekends it can be busy with hikers. Along the ridge to the southeast stands Pip Ivan, crowned by the ruins of an astronomical and meteorological observatory built by Poland in the 1930s, when this was the border with Czechoslovakia. Locals call it the White Elephant, and seeing it loom out of the mist is unforgettable.
Read the complete Chornohora write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chornohora comes up 35 km in. Next is Kuziy - Trybushany.
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.
70 km in you reach Kuziy - Trybushany. 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, about halfway. Next is back through 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.
back through Kuziy - Trybushany sits at 139 km, about halfway. Next is back through Chornohora.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chornohora write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Chornohora comes up 174 km in. Next is Maramarosh.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Maramarosh write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Maramarosh closes the day.
Maramarosh → Chornohora is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chornohora → Kuziy - Trybushany is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
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 → back through Kuziy - Trybushany is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kuziy - Trybushany → back through Chornohora is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Chornohora → Maramarosh is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.