OFF23 Valea Doftanei Săcele

For several years there has been talking about building a road that will be an alternative to Prahova Valley road. Most of the proposals were to redo the road between Valea Doftanei and Săcele. So if you are passionate about offroad, you should hurry to ride it because, who knows, maybe in the end it will be paved. This segment is also part of TET Romania https://transeurotrail.org/romania/#5.45/46.036/23.947. We have a few more segments from this route, you can see them all if you choose the TET Romania category in the segments section https://2ride.eu/segmente/categorie/tet-romania/#page-top

If you come from Bucharest, there are 2 options to access this road. One is to exit DN1 at Câmpina and then take the county road 102L. The second option would be to go on DN1 to Comarnic and in the city center to turn right towards Secăria on the county road 101S. This road takes you right to the tail of Paltinu Lake, in Teșila.

The segment proposed by us starts from here, from the intersection of road 102L with 101S. The first kilometers the road is paved. Then right at the sign with the exit from Valea Doftanei, the asphalt ends and the macadam road begins.

The first 7km of road is quite wide, well maintained and relatively busy. That’s because there are all kinds of villas and guesthouses scattered along the valley. After passing the last houses, the road slowly narrows and gets a little worse.

The climb to the Predeluș pass starts at about 14km since we left the asphalt. You will reach a place where the logs from the forest are gathered and after crossing a trickle of water, the road will start to climb more accentuated. The most difficult part of the route follows. That’s because there is usually quite a lot of mud from the machines that pulls logs from the forest on this road. A few days must pass after a rain until this road will be dry enough..

This section with mud lasts about 1.5 km, up to the maximum point of the Predeluș pass, at 1283m altitude. The descent to Săcele follows. There will be a 3.5 km of more difficult descent, with a few hairpins and more rugged parts. Then the road calms down and we enter the valley.

The last 10km we will descend slowly to the intersection with the national road 1A. This last section is quite good and you can ride without problems with 50-60km / h.