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.
A 610 km round trip from Rakhiv - roughly 15 h 37 in the saddle. The stops in between: Chornohora, Gorgany, Synevyr - Strymba and back through Gorgany. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
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 44 km in. Next is Gorgany.
The Gorgany are the wildest part of the Ukrainian Carpathians, a range of sandstone peaks rising above dense forests in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. What makes them unusual are the gorgany themselves, the fields of loose stone blocks that cover the upper slopes and summits, formed by frost shattering the rock. Walking across them is slow and tiring, and the forests below, of spruce, beech and Swiss stone pine, are among the most pristine in Ukraine, with brown bears, wolves, lynx and red deer. The Gorgany nature reserve protects a part of this landscape.
Read the complete Gorgany write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
89 km in you reach Gorgany. Next is Synevyr - Strymba.
In the Carpathian mountains of Transcarpathia, in western Ukraine, the forests around Synevyr include some of the last remaining primeval beech forests in Europe, part of the transnational World Heritage Site of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe. Strymba is one of the protected forest areas, in the hills near the village of Kolochava, where beech trees grow old and die without human interference, creating a rich habitat for fungi, insects, birds and animals.
Read the complete Synevyr - Strymba write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Synevyr - Strymba, about halfway. Next is back through Gorgany.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gorgany write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Gorgany sits at 177 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 222 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 → Gorgany is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gorgany → Synevyr - Strymba is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Synevyr - Strymba → back through Gorgany is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Gorgany → back through Chornohora is 52 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.