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.
It goes by way of Wolosatka stream valley, Havešová Primeval Forest, Terebowiec stream valley and Udava. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses Ukraine, Poland and Slovakia - 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 about 83 km this is Bieszczady Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Matkiv is a small village in the upper valley of the Stryi river, in the Turka district of the Lviv region, high in the Ukrainian Carpathians. Its wooden church, the tserkva of the Synaxis of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was built in the first half of the nineteenth century, and it is a fine example of the Boyko tradition, named after the highland people who have lived in these mountains for centuries. The church has three log frames topped by tiered pyramidal roofs, each level slightly smaller than the one below, and the whole building is covered in wooden shingles that have weathered to a silver grey. It is part of the UNESCO listing of wooden tserkvas of the Carpathian region in Poland and Ukraine.
Read the complete Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless is where the day begins. Next is Wolosatka stream valley.
The Wołosatka is a mountain stream in the far south-eastern corner of Poland, draining the slopes below Tarnica, at 1,346 metres the highest summit of the Polish Bieszczady. Its valley is part of Bieszczady National Park and of the World Heritage listing of primeval Carpathian beech forests: dark, mossy woods of beech and fir where dead trunks are left to fall and rot, and where bears, wolves, lynx and wildcats still move freely. Above the treeline the ridges open into the połoniny, high grass meadows that turn tawny in autumn and give the range its rolling, almost Scottish silhouette.
Read the complete Wolosatka stream valley write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Wolosatka stream valley comes up about 59 km into the recorded legs. Next is Havešová Primeval Forest.
In the far north-east of Slovakia, in the hills where Slovakia, Poland and Ukraine meet, the beech forests have never been cut. Havešová is one of these primeval forests, a steep slope of giant beech trees, some over forty metres tall and hundreds of years old, with fallen trunks decaying slowly on the forest floor and new trees rising in the gaps. It is part of the UNESCO-listed Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe, inscribed in 2007 and extended since, and it lies within Poloniny National Park, one of the least visited and most remote national parks in Central Europe.
Read the complete Havešová Primeval Forest write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 142 km into the recorded legs you reach Havešová Primeval Forest. Next is Terebowiec stream valley.
The far south-east corner of Poland is a place where the map runs out of road. The Terebowiec flows through the Bieszczady, the lowest and loneliest range of the Polish Carpathians, a land of wide grassy ridges called poloniny, deep beech forests and a few scattered villages, and the border with Ukraine is never far. The nearest settlements are Lutowiska, a village of a few hundred people, and across the frontier the town of Turka, so this is not a place with services. The nearest town where you can count on fuel and shops is Ustrzyki Dolne, a good half hour back along the valley road.
Read the complete Terebowiec stream valley write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Terebowiec stream valley, about halfway. Next is Udava.
Out where Slovakia, Poland and Ukraine meet, the eastern Carpathians fold into long, rounded ridges covered in beech forest so continuous that from a high point it looks like a green sea. Udava is one of the Slovak pieces of the UNESCO Primeval Beech Forests listing, protected within Poloniny National Park, the most easterly and least populated corner of the country. Here the forest has been left to its own rhythms for a very long time: giant trees, fallen trunks covered in fungi and moss, a dense understory of young growth wherever light breaks through. Wolves, lynx, brown bears and even European bison roam the area, and the dawn chorus in May is unforgettable.
Read the complete Udava write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Udava sits at 174 km, about halfway. Next is back through Terebowiec stream valley.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Terebowiec stream valley write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Terebowiec stream valley comes up about 451 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Havešová Primeval Forest.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Havešová Primeval Forest write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 622 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Havešová Primeval Forest. Next is back through Wolosatka stream valley.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Wolosatka stream valley write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Wolosatka stream valley, late in the day. Next is Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 767 km.
Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless → Wolosatka stream valley is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Wolosatka stream valley → Havešová Primeval Forest is 83 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Havešová Primeval Forest → Terebowiec stream valley is 174 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terebowiec stream valley → Udava is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Udava → back through Terebowiec stream valley is 68 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Terebowiec stream valley → back through Havešová Primeval Forest is 171 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Havešová Primeval Forest → back through Wolosatka stream valley is 86 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Wolosatka stream valley → Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.