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.
235 km from Ileanda to Ileanda, about 4 h 40 of riding. It goes by way of Muncel - Muchia Poienii Lupului, Negrilești - Dealul Muncelului, Zagra - Dealul Lupului and back through Negrilești - Dealul Muncelului. The line favours views over speed.
Rogna is a scatter of farms in the hills of northern Sălaj, close to the Someș valley and the border with Maramureș, and La Bontauă is the name the locals give to a piece of high ground where a Roman frontier site has been recorded. The northern edge of Roman Dacia ran through these hills, and the Romans placed watchtowers and small forts on high points to keep an eye on the river valleys and the free Dacians to the north. Today there is little to see apart from the shape of the land, but the view over the rolling hills makes it easy to imagine a sentry looking out across the valley.
Read the complete Rogna - La Bontauă write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rogna - La Bontauă is where the day begins. Next is Muncel - Muchia Poienii Lupului.
The name is a mouthful, and a good one: the Ridge of the Wolf's Clearing, on the hill of Muncel, above the Someș valley north-east of Dej. Somewhere along this wooded crest the Romans kept a lookout on the northern border of Dacia, watching the valleys for movement from the free tribes beyond. Watchtowers like this one were the eyes of the frontier, signalling to the forts below, and the site is part of the Dacian frontier inscribed by UNESCO in 2024. On the ground, expect very little: perhaps a low mound, a ditch or scattered stones under the trees. It is a place for imagination and a walk rather than a monument.
Read the complete Muncel - Muchia Poienii Lupului write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Muncel - Muchia Poienii Lupului comes up about 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is Negrilești - Dealul Muncelului.
Bram Stoker never came to Transylvania, but he sent Jonathan Harker through Bistrița, and the town still enjoys the connection. Dealul Muncelului, a hill above the village of Negrilești, sits west of Bistrița in the Someș valley, and from here the road east leads through the Saxon town to the Tihuța pass, the Borgo Pass of the novel, where Count Dracula's carriage is supposed to have met his English visitor. It is a fine excuse for a ride, even if the vampire is fiction and the real history more interesting.
Read the complete Negrilești - Dealul Muncelului write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 70 km into the recorded legs you reach Negrilești - Dealul Muncelului. Next is Zagra - Dealul Lupului.
Zagra is the last farming village before the land begins to climb in earnest toward the Rodna mountains, the highest range in the Eastern Carpathians north of the Prislop pass. Pietrosul Rodnei, at about 2,300 metres, is the summit, and the whole massif is protected as a national park and biosphere reserve, with glacial lakes, rocky ridges and alpine meadows that stay snowy into June. From the Dealul Lupului, the Wolf Hill, you look across a patchwork of hayfields toward those peaks, which look closer than they are.
Read the complete Zagra - Dealul Lupului write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Zagra - Dealul Lupului, about halfway. Next is back through Negrilești - Dealul Muncelului.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Negrilești - Dealul Muncelului write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Negrilești - Dealul Muncelului sits at 103 km, about halfway. Next is back through Muncel - Muchia Poienii Lupului.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Muncel - Muchia Poienii Lupului write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Muncel - Muchia Poienii Lupului comes up about 205 km into the recorded legs. Next is Rogna - La Bontauă.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rogna - La Bontauă write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rogna - La Bontauă closes the day.
Rogna - La Bontauă → Muncel - Muchia Poienii Lupului is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Muncel - Muchia Poienii Lupului → Negrilești - Dealul Muncelului is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Negrilești - Dealul Muncelului → Zagra - Dealul Lupului is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Zagra - Dealul Lupului → back through Negrilești - Dealul Muncelului is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Negrilești - Dealul Muncelului → back through Muncel - Muchia Poienii Lupului is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Muncel - Muchia Poienii Lupului → Rogna - La Bontauă is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.