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.
499 km from Lutowiska to Lutowiska, about 9 h 20 of riding. It goes by way of Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless, Zacharovanyi Krai - Irshavka and back through Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Poland into Ukraine - carry ID and check the toll rules. 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 179 km this is Bieszczady Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
In the far southeastern corner of Poland, where the country meets Slovakia and Ukraine, the Bieszczady mountains rise in long, rounded ridges covered with beech forest. Above the tree line, the summits are open meadows called połoniny, and Połonina Wetlińska is one of the most beautiful, a long grassy ridge with views over endless forested hills. Smerek, a peak at its western end, rises to over twelve hundred metres. On the ridge, the Chatka Puchatka, Winnie the Pooh's hut, a small mountain refuge, has been a beloved stop for hikers for decades. The walk up from Wetlina or the Przełęcz Wyżna pass takes a couple of hours, and the view from the top, especially at sunset, is unforgettable.
Read the complete Polonina Wetlinska and Smerek write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Polonina Wetlinska and Smerek is where the day begins. Next is Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless.
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 comes up about 179 km into the recorded legs. Next is Zacharovanyi Krai - Irshavka.
Transcarpathia is the tucked-away corner of Ukraine, on the far side of the mountains from the rest of the country, and it feels like it. The region, known in Ukrainian as Zakarpattia, was part of Hungary for a thousand years, and later of Czechoslovakia, before the Soviet Union took it in 1945, so the villages mix Ukrainian, Hungarian, Romanian and Rusyn traditions. The Zacharovanyi Krai, the Enchanted Land, is a nature park in the hills near the town of Irshava, a country of beech and oak forest, orchards, and folds of low mountains on the edge of the Carpathian foothills.
Read the complete Zacharovanyi Krai - Irshavka write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 249 km into the recorded legs you reach Zacharovanyi Krai - Irshavka. Next is back through 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.
back through Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless, late in the day. Next is Polonina Wetlinska and Smerek.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Polonina Wetlinska and Smerek write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Polonina Wetlinska and Smerek. That is the ride.
Polonina Wetlinska and Smerek → Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless is 179 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless → Zacharovanyi Krai - Irshavka is 70 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Zacharovanyi Krai - Irshavka → back through Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless is 70 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless → Polonina Wetlinska and Smerek is 179 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.