Mountain Biking the Polish Way by  Tomek ESTOM Skrzypiec   Back to: Mountain Biking the Polish Way      Home

Having been asked by Gareth the editor of MTB Britain to share my experiences of mountain biking in Poland I decided to take up the challenge.

I live in the south of Poland, in a region called the Upper Silesia. It's a highly industrialized area and that's probably why I take every chance to escape from the smog-covered streets and ride my bike off-road I usually go to the Beskidy mountains that are only around 50 miles away from my home. I always ride with a group of friends. We have different jobs, family status, social backgrounds, and we're not even the same age. What we have in common is our love of bikes. Last year we rode about three thousand miles together, mainly in the areas of Szczyrk, Bielsko, Zywiec, Zwardon and Jordanow. This part of Poland isn't densely populated and has a widespread network of unpaved roads. All the forests have fire roads allowing you to get to their wildest parts without much effort. More demanding mountain bikers can take advantage of a well organized and clearly marked system of hiking tracks. Since mountain biking is rather new here we don't have any legal regulations forbidding riding on these trails. 
One of my favorite trips starts in Korbielow (750 m above the sea level) from where we ride up along a mountain spring called Buczynka. After a few hundred meters the fire road changes to a technical singletrack, but the picturesque views make up for the difficulty of the climb. Then the road turns to a deeper forest, here you have to cross about a dozen ditches that cut across the path. At this stage you have to be very careful cause in wet weather wooden logs securing their edges may be pretty slippery. When you're done with those obstacles you have a short but nasty climb to a shelter on Hala Miziowa where you can have a hot meal and even stay the night. The last and steepest stage leads from Hala Miziowa to Pilsko (1557m). From the top you can see a beautiful panorama of Polish and Slovakian Beskidy, and believe me, when you stand there you feel like a champion... Now, we continue our trip riding down to the Slovakian side (no border, but you are required to carry a passport). This is my favorite part, a ten mile long downhill on a singletrack running through dwarf mountain pine, on into pine forest and finally maple woods. The beginning is smooth but then you have to cope with a lot of loose stones (some bigger than 14" TVs) and steeper sections. With a few stops it takes about forty-five minutes to get to the first inhabited areas. Next we continue on a fire road and then a paved road to Oravska Polhora where you can have a Slovakian speciality - "Smashyny syr s tatarskom omatchkom a hranoulkami" (fried cheese with French fries and Tatar sauce) and a delicious beer (25p a pint!). A double meal with four beers costs around two pounds :o)
The last part of the trip is a climb on local roads. We usually ride to the nearest road border crossing and then continue on asphalt to Korbiel'w (around 50 mph!) overtaking slower cars.

Well, that's just one of the rides in the Polish mountains. This one is only 40 miles long but some spread for over 200 miles! This year I'll try to send you reports on of all my trips.

Cheers from Polish bikers!

Tomek ESTOM Skrzypiec