Briete Plateau: Mountain biking in Transylvania, RomaniaPics & Text by Candy Joubert © 2003 Romania is an Eastern Europe country about the size of the state of Oregon. The country is roughly 33% Carpathian Alps, 32% green hilly farmland, and 33% flat industrial agriculture lands. It is bordered by the Black Sea on the far South East border, with its more notorious neighbors, Hungary and Serbia to the West. After a violent revolution in 1989, when the communist dictator, Cicesceau was assassinated on live TV, the country has slowly, but surely, began to pull itself out of the decades-long communistic oppression. The people are fascinatingly curious and receptive to foreigners, eager to communicate and share themselves, their food, and the country, which they all seem to love passionately. 
I had opportunity to spend 6 days in Romania, 4 of which were in the “Pearl of Transylvania”, Sighisoara. A 4-hour train ride from Bucharest, through the Carpathian Alps, Sighisoara is a medieval town whose city center is surrounded by an ancient wall, with 17 towers. The town is one of only two completely walled cities in Europe remaining (Rotenberg, Germany being the other, I believe) and the only one where inhabitants still live “in” the wall itself. 
I made arrangements with a local, Alexandru Gota, for a guided mountain bike trip. Mr. Gota is a Sighisoara native, a local dentist, Buddhist, environmentalist, and avid researcher of plant species, having studied and catalogued mushroom species since the age of 5. He is responsible for leading a 3-man effort to protect the Briete Plateau from being developed into a Disney styled ‘Dracula’ theme park. The theme park would have removed all of the 300 acre Briete oak forest, where the trees are aged from 300-900 years old. The number of oaks currently standing in Briete appears to be between 50-100, each of which Mr. Gota has mapped into his GPS system. Familiar with all the mountain passes, he has also used the GSP to map out a 25-30K area surrounding Sighisoara. I couldn’t have hoped for a better guide, and he insisted, repeatedly, there was no fee for his time. 
The Briete Plateau sits just outside of Sighisoara. After a 3-mile climb up the paved road leading from town, I found Alexandru at the entrance to a campsite with his bike and backpack. We walked up grass-covered stairs to the campground, where we started up a steep gravel road. Too steep to climb the entire 2 miles, we pushed our bikes along the road and talked about the area. There were no ‘mountain biking or hiking trails’ on the plateau, only the main road and trails descending the plateau edges into the valley’s below. 
The forest on either side of the road shadowed everything and covered both the plateau slopes and edge on top. I would not see the oak forest until we finished the climb and stepped up onto the grassy clearing on the plateau ‘table’. As we neared the top, I began to see evidence of the former scope of the oak forest, with huge pieces of rotting oaks hulls lying here and there in the shadow of the smaller trees. Finally, we reached the top and like stepping from a curtain-lined stage, the sun appeared as our spot light and the plateau opened up into a large, grassy field with mystic oak trees scattered over it. 
The trees loomed, their ragged limbs poking up at the blue sky. We parked our bikes so I could dig in my pack to find more film. Alexandru poured and shared coffee (Romanians share everything!) and we stood taking in the nearest tree, a 600 year old oak in seemingly perfect health. We continued on the gravel road about 4 ks, right through the middle of the plateau, under the bright sun. Finally we reached the end of the scattered oak forest and re-entered the thick shadowy forest on the other side. For 3k’s we rode in the forest upon the thickly overgrown gravel road. At times there were steep banks dropping off the plateau edge on one side, with deep tree filled gorges off in the distance on the other. The depth and uniformity of this forest completely removed any scale in my photographs, where the distant drop offs in the gorges can barely be recognized. 
The road was an almost an imperceptible, although continuous, climb. It was only when I looked to the side, and could see the angle of the trees leaning to higher ground, that I realized the steady steepness of our climb. I’d been climbing nearly all day! Finally the angle broke and I found myself flying down the old road through the forest with leaves and rocks flying up under our passing tires. After a few hundred feet, Alexandru turned off to the right, between subtle leaf-covered slopes, to descend the plateau edge. This was really the first technical riding of the day. It was not over challenging, as the path was wide and despite being quite steep, had plenty of braking room at the bottom. We rode down the slope and broke out of the tree line onto a grassy ledge overlooking a huge valley. At the bottom of the valley were tiny rooftops of a village below. 
Alexandru pointed to where the trail disappeared down the slope and said he thought we could ride the first section. He started, having confessed earlier to not being much of a ‘performer’ on a mountain bike, and then quickly bailed before descending past the one tree on the right. He apologized and said he just wasn’t sure about his brakes, having had some problems with them. I was excited to have something technical to ride, and so willingly started my descent. As I came off the ridge onto the downhill, I realized exactly how steep and STRAIGHT DOWN this trail was. By the time I passed the one tree, I was preparing to take a superman leap off my bike and let it go on with out me. This trail was made for mountain goats not humans and certainly not bikes! Finally, heart in throat, I managed to slow my bike to a side-skidding stop and said a few prayers that my own brakes had worked and that I was smart enough to bail when I did. 
The trail continued, about a mile down the valley edge and across the bottom to the village. We walked/climbed our bikes down the plateau edge until reaching a cattle gate and seemingly flat ground. When riding though, the slope became again obvious, as we managed roughly 20 mph (without pedaling!) through grassy fields and wildflowers for another 10 minutes until we reached the village edge. 
The village was quiet and seemingly deserted except for a few children, dogs, and various livestock milling around. It was much larger than I thought and was several streets wide and many blocks long. It was quiet and still, old, rustic, yet clean and inviting. We continued on the road out of the village until finally reaching Alexandru’s cottage, where his wife was gardening and his daughter happily greeted us. She had wanted to come on our ride, but Alexandru had feared she was not yet skilled enough. Her English, like many of the Romanian young people, was remarkably good. I insisted Alexandru take $20 for his time and I left him with some patch kits and a few nutrition bars, both items you can’t get in Romania. 
I returned to Briete the next day and rode the same path to take pictures, as I had not found any film in my backpack on my ride with Alexandru. I met a shepherd on the plateau with his sheep and gave him two die cast model cars I’d stuffed in my jersey pocket, last minute. I’d given one away already to a child I passed on my ride out of town, but running out of time, I figured the shepherd would know of children who might enjoy them. He must have thought me rather odd, a lone woman in spandex on a funny bicycle handing out small metal cars. I regret I was not able to descend into the village to take pictures, as the climb around the plateau and back to Sighisoara would require more energy than I had remaining. I’d ridden, mostly climbing, for an hour and half, only making it as far as the plateau edge overlooking the valley. I took a few pictures and dragged myself back up to the road to leave. Fortunately the ride out was mostly downhill, taking only 30 minutes to get back to the paved road to town. 
Having been home for a month, I still talk closely to the friends I made in Romania. I am now working to establish a mountain bike club in Sighisoara and hope Alexandru’s contacts in local government will pave the way for trail building on the Briete Plateau, to further preserve its status as a recreation area and nature preserve. This area is prime, untouched, cycling heaven! 
I also hope to deliver 20 bicycles, built with donated frames and parts, delivered via donation from a freight company, to Sighisoara to sell for a price an average Romanian could afford (we are talking $10 each maximum). Most people walk everywhere they go, as they can’t afford transportation. Sighisoara is a perfect community for bicycling. Proceeds will go back into doing the project again. Hopefully someday Sighisoara will be known as a cycling town, with excellent mountain bike trails, a viable IMBA affiliated mountain bike club, road tours and races or festivals…all of which will only bring good things to the people of this area, improving the quality of life and the economy. Not to mention give you another awesome place to take a road trip! 
If you are interested in donating bike parts (nothing will be refused!) please call me. 
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