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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 707 km round trip from Lutowiska - roughly 12 h 11 in the saddle. It goes by way of Rožok, Ruská Bystrá, Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch and back through Ruská Bystrá. It crosses Poland, Ukraine and Slovakia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It follows river valleys.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 31 km this is Bieszczady Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Rožok.
Rožok is a small patch of very old forest on the eastern edge of Slovakia, close to the borders with Poland and Ukraine, and it is one of the components of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe, a World Heritage Site that stretches across many countries. Here, on a steep slope above the Starina reservoir, beech trees have grown undisturbed for centuries, some of them huge, with smooth grey trunks and wide canopies, and fallen trees lie rotting on the forest floor, feeding fungi, insects and birds.
Read the complete Rožok write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rožok comes up about 82 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ruská Bystrá.
Hidden in a fold of the Vihorlat hills near the Ukrainian border, the little village of Ruská Bystrá has a wooden church built in the early eighteenth century, dedicated to Saint Nicholas, with a tower and a roof of wooden shingles and an iconostasis of painted icons inside. It is one of the Greek Catholic churches included in the World Heritage listing of the Wooden Churches of the Slovak Part of the Carpathian Mountain Area, inscribed in 2008, along with Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox churches across the country.
Read the complete Ruská Bystrá write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 148 km into the recorded legs you reach Ruská Bystrá. Next is Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch.
The wooden church of Saint Michael the Archangel in Turzańsk stands on a gentle slope in the foothills of the Bieszczady mountains, in the far southeast of Poland, near the borders with Slovakia and Ukraine, with its onion domes rising above the trees. It was built in the early nineteenth century by the Lemko or Boyko communities, the Ruthenian highlanders who once lived in these mountains, and it is one of the wooden tserkvas of the Polish and Ukrainian Carpathian region listed by UNESCO in 2013. Inside, an iconostasis of painted icons separates the nave from the sanctuary, and the church is still used for Orthodox services.
Read the complete Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch, about halfway. Next is back through Ruská Bystrá.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ruská Bystrá write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ruská Bystrá sits at 472 km, about halfway. Next is back through Rožok.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rožok write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Rožok comes up about 630 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
Terebowiec stream valley closes the day.
Terebowiec stream valley → Rožok is 82 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rožok → Ruská Bystrá is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ruská Bystrá → Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch is 208 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch → back through Ruská Bystrá is 208 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Ruská Bystrá → back through Rožok is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Rožok → Terebowiec stream valley is 82 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.