bucegi trails

A bunch of us were in Romania Summer 2006 for a relaxed mix of biking and holiday. This was one of the major tours we did, located in the Bucegi Mountains South of Brasov (Königstadt), close to the “Elbow” in the Carpathan Mountains. It’s worthwhile taking a look at this area in GE – there are some pretty spectacular ranges just to the North-East and we did another tour around a “banana-shaped” ridge immediately to the ENE.

Pretty good maps are available for the mountainous regions, but don’t expect high accuracy – finding trails here is a mix of luck, local knowledge and sniffing them out. Whilst very touristy in the lower lift-assisted ranges of the Bugeci mountains (it’s a ski area in Winter), higher up on the pleateau there was almost no one, just the odd herd of horses and farmer with his cows or sheep.

Highlights were the swooping fire roads, the gorge (pretty but unrideable) and just the general feeling of remoteness. The ride down from the plateau was a wide fast (40-50km/h) fire road, but sufficiently rough, gullied and swooping that you had to focus – otherwise a painful wipeout was more or less guaranteed. We shredded down this road and had a whale of a time.

It was a good trip – one gets a real feel for Romania out here.