Cycling Routes in Jeleśnia

Through Jeleśnia and the neighbouring villages of the Żywiec region run twelve marked cycling routes with a total length of 140 km, signed with square plates showing a bicycle. The network includes asphalt roads, farm roads and forest paths, and the difficulty ranges from easy family loops to demanding climbs to the hamlets.

From the market square to Janikowa Grapa

The easiest way to start is route one: a 7.2 km moderately difficult loop from the car park by the police station on Jana Kazimierza Street, across the bridge over the Koszarawa and through Rówienki. Route five (24 km, easy) starts at the market square in Jeleśnia and leads along the valley to Sopotnia Wielka. For the persistent there is route two — 10.2 km marked as very difficult, climbing the slope of Janikowa Grapa — and the sixteen-kilometre loop of route three through Kiczory and Gronie to Sopotnia.

The landscape of the Żywiec region

Jeleśnia lies on the Koszarawa river and the Sopotnia stream, 14 kilometres south-east of Żywiec, at the foot of Pilsko (1557 m), Rysianka and Romanka. The Koszarawa river separates the Żywiec Beskids from the Maków Beskids here, so the routes run on both sides of the boundary between these regions.

In practice

The routes can be combined and shortened; it is best to follow the bicycle plates. The start of most loops is marked in the centre of the village, by the market square and the car parks along the national road, so a trip does not require a long ride to the first kilometre.