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.
319 km from Snina to Snina, about 7 h 03 of riding. It goes by way of Rožok, Wolosatka stream valley, Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless and back through Wolosatka stream valley. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses Slovakia, Ukraine and Poland - carry ID and check vignette or 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 34 km this is Bieszczady Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Vihorlat is a range of old volcanoes in the far east of Slovakia, close to the Ukrainian border, and its higher slopes are covered with some of the last primeval beech forests in Europe. The trees here have grown, died and rotted without human interference for a very long time, and the forest is part of the transnational UNESCO site of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe, first listed in 2007 with sites in Slovakia and Ukraine and later extended across much of the continent.
Read the complete Vihorlat write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Vihorlat 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 66 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 100 km into the recorded legs you reach Wolosatka stream valley. 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, about halfway. 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 sits at 136 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 254 km into the recorded legs. Next is Vihorlat.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vihorlat write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Vihorlat closes the day.
Vihorlat → Rožok is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rožok → Wolosatka stream valley is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
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.
Matkiv-Tserkva of the Synaxis of the Bless → back through Wolosatka stream valley is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Wolosatka stream valley → back through Rožok is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Rožok → Vihorlat is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.