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 546 km round trip from Snina - roughly 9 h 23 in the saddle. The stops in between: Havešová Primeval Forest, Stužica - Bukovské Vrchy, Rožok and Stuzhytsia - Uzhok. It crosses Slovakia, Poland and Ukraine - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 17 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 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.
Havešová Primeval Forest comes up about 72 km into the recorded legs. Next is Stužica - Bukovské Vrchy.
At the very eastern tip of Slovakia, where the borders of Slovakia, Poland and Ukraine meet on the summit of Kremenec, lies a forest that has been left to itself for longer than anyone remembers. Stužica, in the Poloniny National Park, is one of the most valuable fragments of primeval beech forest in Europe, with trees several hundred years old, fallen trunks rotting slowly on the ground, and an extraordinary richness of fungi, insects and birds. It is part of the UNESCO site of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe, a transnational listing that started with forests in Slovakia and Ukraine.
Read the complete Stužica - Bukovské Vrchy write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 148 km into the recorded legs you reach Stužica - Bukovské Vrchy. 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, about halfway. Next is Stuzhytsia - Uzhok.
Where the Bieszczady mountains of Poland meet Slovakia and Ukraine, there is a stretch of forest that has hardly been touched. The Stuzhytsia-Uzhok area, on the Ukrainian side of the watershed near the Uzhok pass, is one component of the Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians, a World Heritage group that spans several countries and continues into the Polish Bieszczady and the Slovak Poloniny. The trees here are mostly beech, with fir and sycamore, and in the oldest stands, some of the trunks are huge, with fallen logs lying where they dropped and rotting into the soil, a kind of forest that has almost vanished from Europe. The wildlife is what you might expect from such a place: brown bears, wolves, lynx, and the European bison, which was reintroduced to the Bieszczady in the 1960s.
Read the complete Stuzhytsia - Uzhok write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Stuzhytsia - Uzhok sits at 275 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 343 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Stužica - Bukovské Vrchy.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Stužica - Bukovské Vrchy write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 402 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Stužica - Bukovské Vrchy. 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.
back through Havešová Primeval Forest, late in the day. 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.
The route ends here after 546 km.
Vihorlat → Havešová Primeval Forest is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Havešová Primeval Forest → Stužica - Bukovské Vrchy is 76 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Stužica - Bukovské Vrchy → Rožok is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rožok → Stuzhytsia - Uzhok is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Stuzhytsia - Uzhok → back through Rožok is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Rožok → back through Stužica - Bukovské Vrchy is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Stužica - Bukovské Vrchy → back through Havešová Primeval Forest is 76 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Havešová Primeval Forest → Vihorlat is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.