NETRA News April 2020 | Page 13

(also known as Dracula Land) and is best known for its gentler topography and traditional enduro terrain. Our GPS’d routes include vast tracts of Transylvania single-track, rounded mountains, and interconnected meadows. We have recently added several “hard enduro” sections, so there is literally something for everyone.

What follows are some of the highlights from the remaining four days of the tour.

Day 2: Sighisoara to Hotel Târnava, Odorheiu Secuiesc, Romania.

By the time 10 o’clock rolls around most of the fog has burned off and it’s another beautiful autumn day in Transylvania. After yesterday’s shakedown ride, we’ve split in to advanced, beginner and learning-to-ride groups. Ron, Scott and I rode with the advanced group for the most part so, so the perspective from here is that of the advanced group.

The Dragon’s Back

A short distance outside of Sighisoara the terrain transitions from rolling plains to gentle foothills. The Dragons Back Trail is a series of narrow, interconnected ridgelines that rise no more than a few hundred feet above the plains below. Largely covered in prairie grass, this section has very few trees to slow an unplanned descent to the bottom.

A mile or so into this section I am next in line at the base of a steep hill. The hill is a single serpentine rut about six inches deep and a foot wide that drops sharply once over the apex. Fortunately, the ridge I am waiting on is wide so I can relax and take in the spectacle in front of me, which comes at the expense of some chap that’s bobbled off the trail and is now pushing and spinning his way to the top. The route to the top just a got a little more difficult I think to myself, as he disappears over the top. When it’s my