Bike tours
It is true that cycling up the hill requires more physical effort than lowland cycling, but marvellous landscapes are a great reward for the cyclists exploring the Beskid 5! And those expecting a less demanding tours will find something for themselves too - the picturesque routes leading along the river valley of Vistula.
The Beskid 5 is one of the areas the Cracow-Moravia-Vienna Greenways route leads through. In Ustroń the route branches into two optional routes: blue route leading through Wisła, Istebna, Jasnowice (border crossing with the Czech Republic), and green route leading through Skoczów, Goleszów, Dzięgielow, Cieszyn (border crossing with the Czech Republic). The route includes local hiking and cycling loops, such as the Beskid Planetary Path or Jerzy Kukuczka Route in Istebna.
Also, the routes of the Euroregion Cieszyn Silesia lead through municipalities of the Beskid 5 – for example the red cycling route 24C. It runs through Ustroń, Wisła and Istebna to a Czech village of Bukovec, and then to Bohumin. The route is uniformly sign-posted, with resting spots along the way. At times the route runs parallel to the blue Greenway trail. The main route can be accessed via a number of shorter sections. In the area of the Beskid 5 these are as follows: section 125Z (Istebna Rogowiec – Jasnowice – Jaworzynka – Zapasieki – Koniaków – Istebna Zaolzie), section 12N (Ustroń – Zalesie – Górki Wielkie – Jaworze) and section 123S (Górki Wielkie – Brenna).
In the municipality of Szczyrk several shorter cycling routes have been marked up (the longest of which is 13,5 km long), still, a number of them are of a definitely mountainous character. The easier and shorter routes are marked as blue: the route around Skalite and the route leading from the centre of Szczyrk through Górka, Więzikówka and Bieniatka. The yellow route is of average difficulty and very picturesque: it runs from the centre of Szczyrk towards Salmopol, along the foot of Grapa, through Marki and Migdały to the Karkoszczonka Pass. A diversified route which at times offers a high level of difficulty is the red route leading from the centre of Szczyrk through Szczyrk Biła to the Magura mountain hostel, then over the Magura ridge, Podmagura and Górka to Orle Gniazdo, and back to the centre. To those keen on real mountain adventures we can recommend the red route to Skrzyczne through Młaki and Hala Skrzyczeńska; a truly difficult descent leads back to Szczyrk through Jaworzyna.
It is Istebna, though, which has in recent years been growing into the actual centre of mountain cycling. It is Istebna that hosts the key competitions: Beskidy MTB Trophy, The “Pętla Beskidzka” (Beskid Loop) Road Marathon, Bike Marathon Istebna, Intel Powerade Bikemaraton. Most competition routes run along forest vistas and rarely frequented tracks; these are the real challenge…
