In 1873, Austrian businessman Baron Leopold Popper von Podhary moved the headquarters of his company from Hungary to Galicia. The company harvested and sold timber. The baron set up the first sawmill (tartak) in the
village of Vyhoda in the Gorgany Mountains. From the broad railroad, "konki" (narrow-gauge railroad) were first laid in the mountains, where horses pulled timber. In 1890, this 3-kilometer-long track connected the sawmill in Vyhoda with the tartak in the
village of Staryi Mizun. This narrow-gauge railroad connected the Boikivshchyna with the timber-processing metropolis of Austria-Hungary. The network of narrow-gauge railroads became indispensable in the harvesting, processing, and marketing of wood. It spread through the picturesque Horhany, witnessing the greatness of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the vicissitudes of war and partisan adventures, absorbing the flavor of local folk life and the sweat of hard work of the logger. Having reached its greatest length and prosperity in Soviet times, by the end of the last century it began to gradually decline, suffering from both nature and man. The only fully restored Mizun branch, which was once only an industrial narrow-gauge railroad, has now created an interesting excursion route called
the Carpathian Tram. In 2016, its route was organically supplemented by the interactive museum of the Vyhoda Narrow Gauge Railway Heritage Center.
The tram will slowly take you along the banks of the ecologically clean Mizunka River through fabulous places that sometimes turn into real exotic, especially when the mountains hang over the train, and the track follows the serpentine river and runs so close to the edge of the shore that it seems as if the train is about to dive into the water.
During the trip, you can visit the hydrological natural monument of national importance, the Shyrkovets Nature Reserve, taste healing mineral water from the Naftusia spring and the purest water in the Carpathians from the Dyuzrkach mountain spring. And in the warm season, you can swim in the magnificent Mizunka mountain waterfalls.
Throughout the walk, colorful local guides Lubomyr Ksenofontovych Yatskiv and Oleh Vasylovych Hutak will not let anyone get bored, telling incredible details about the history of the region and interspersing them with apt and bright jokes.
In the Solotvyno forestry, you will see a symbolic chapel on the site of the first salt deposits of the early eleventh century, and at the Mundunok stop you will learn about the peculiarities of ancient logging and see old production facilities and forestry houses. And many, many more interesting things!
The Carpathian Tram trip also offers other route options.
Traveling by rail can be combined with several days of hiking to the peaks of
Menchul (1450 m),
Yayko-Ilemske (1679 m), along the paths of the liberation struggle to the
Vyshkivsky Pass (930 m), to Mount Lysa where there were once places of idolatry, Mount Magura, Shchavna, and the Sobol forestry. Tourists can also book a general excursion program around Dolyna district - bus trips to the
Dovbush Rocks reserve in Bubnyshche, to
Lake Synevyr, to the
Hoshiv Monastery on Yasna Hora, to the
Boykivshchyna Museum in Dolyna.
Some people can use the tram not only for sightseeing purposes. After all, there is an opportunity to order and hold various celebrations and even weddings, turning them into a continuous adventure! You can also plan a visit to the Hoshiv Monastery, known for its miraculous icon of the Mother of God on Yasna Hora.
Before the train departure, if tourists wish, they can go to the cafe and order lunch; the same can be done in advance by phone.
11:00 and 15:00 - Excursion on the narrow-gauge railway "Carpathian Tram", Vyhoda - Dubovyi Kut, accompanied by a guide, who tells about the history of the railway, the history and traditions of the Carpathian region, etc.
Stops along the way, visits to sites:
Moving and getting acquainted with the reserve of the hanging
bog "Shyrkovets" (7 km), moving to the
Novyi Mizun stop and visiting
the mineral water source "Goryanka" (2 km), moving and stopping at the
tract "Dubovyi Kut " and conducting maneuvers (5 km), returning by Carpathian tram to the
Mizun Waterfalls stop (2 km), transfer to the
Dziurkach spring stop (1 km), transfer to
the Sanatorium stop in Novyi Mizun (2 km), return by Carpathian tram to the
village of Vyboda
. Vyhoda (9 km).
...The bus travels from Ivano-Frankivsk to Vyhoda in two hours. Departure from the bus station is at 8:30. We enter a typical Prykarpattia village. Twenty years ago, Vyhoda was considered a promising industrial center thanks to its powerful timber processing plants. Now it's a tourist destination.
The first stop is at the monument to Ivan Franko. A short lecture on where exactly in the Carpathians we should look for traces of the Great Stonemason. We take a photo and go to the center of the village. It is probably no coincidence that three musicians come out to meet us. The incendiary "Hutsulochka" gets the foreign guests excited almost from the first bars. We dance in the middle of the road. Cars stop, but do not signal.
Here comes the characteristic sigh of the locomotive - the "Carpathian Tram" is on. Foreigners choose a closed car. Almost all Ukrainians prefer an open platform, no matter how much rain is falling. The diesel engine makes a very automobile-like "fah-fah" sound. Mr. Yatskiv explains a little awkwardly that the real locomotive horn is being repaired. We set off. The mountains are slowly approaching us.
The track winds along the bank of the Mizunka River, jumping from bank to bank. Before the next stop in the Shyrkovets tract, the train crosses four bridges (there are more than thirty of them on the way). On the right, the mountain slopes come so close that you can see the moss patterns on the Georgian stones in detail. Trees stick their wet branches into the open windows. On the left side, houses line the railroad. Fences, orchards, woodsheds, haystacks, clotheslines, chickens, dogs, cows, stroller frames, old trucks-all of which the guests take pictures of.
After crossing the last bridge, the train enters an open area. Our guide urges the group to find a cross on the highest hill. "This is Mount Monastyr. In the 16th century, there was a real fortress here," says Mr. Liubomyr. - "Back then, the Tatars were marching through the Carpathians, burning villages, and taking highlanders as prisoners. The enemies besieged the monastery on the mountain, but the monks did not surrender to the Busurmans. The monks prayed fervently for three days and three nights. And a miracle happened: at dawn on the fourth day, the mountain shook, opened up, and hid the people. The Tatars were frightened and fled. And the local people put a cross here in memory of this." The translator retells the story in English, and the tourists take notes.
"On the right side is the
Shyrkovets swamp," the guide announces. We quickly look around the hydrological natural monument of national importance. For the first time we see a sundew, a flower that eats small insects. Together we smell the bugloss - on warm summer days, all pets near the swamp faint from its smell. It's good that it's not summer yet!
For the next fifteen minutes, Liubomyr Yatskiv describes the marches of various armies in this area during the Second World War. Outside the windows we can see the still deserted sanatoriums of Mizunia. Probably, in summer the resort comes to life...
The next station is the Horyanka well. It's a two hundred meter walk to the Naftusia mineral water source in Novyi Mizun. A powerful jet of water comes out of a pipe built into a rock on the riverbank. Mr. Yatskiv hands out plastic glasses "for tasting." The water has a distinct taste of oil. "Isn't there something stronger?" the blacksmiths persistently ask the leader of our expedition. In response, he smiles slyly and leads the group to the first house in a side street. A table instantly appears in the yard, with a bottle of vodka and a glass on it. The owner invites us in, and the tourists try it.
No one comes out to the
Mizun waterfalls anymore. The blacksmiths' festival continues, with brave guys dancing hopak on the platform. We arrive at the Dubovyi Kut bus stop. The program includes a climb to the meadow and an excursion to the air bridges. A half-hour stop is announced. The train is maneuvering - we have to switch to another line and head back. We have covered only thirteen of the thirty kilometers of the route. "Then the real exotic begins," says Mr. Yatskiv. - "The mountains hang over the train, the track follows the serpentine of the river and runs so close to the edge of the shore that it seems as if the train is about to dive into the water..." We want to go further. But it's time to get back to make it to Vyhoda before dusk.
A picnic on the roadside, another "fa-fa" of the locomotive, and the countdown to the return trip begins. The trip was obviously a success.
Travel options
There are several options for traveling. Usually, travel by Carpathian tram follows the classic four-hour route. The route starts at 11:00 to 15:00, or from 15:00 to 19:00 (see the description in the section "Route description" below "Travel options").
The mountain route with the Carpathian Tram stops usually takes eight hours - from 10:00 to 18:00. From Vyhoda, through Shyrkovets, Staryi and Novyi Mizun, Dubovyi Kut, Solotvyno, Mindunok and Sobol, to the Magura tract.
In the Solotvyno forestry, tourists will visit a chapel built on the site of the first salt deposits of the eleventh century. At the Mindunok stop, they talk about the peculiarities of ancient logging, and arrange a tour of old production facilities and a forestry office. A picnic is laid out at the final stop. On the way back, you can visit the ornithological reserve in the Dziurkach tract. And from Novyi Mizun they climb to the meadow near Mount Lysa (1134 meters).
Traveling by the Carpathian Tram offers other route options. Traveling by rail can be combined with several days of hiking to the peaks of Menchul (1450 meters), Yayko-Ilemske (1679 meters), and the paths of the liberation struggle to Vyshkivsky Pass (930 meters). Tourists can also book a general excursion program in Dolyna district - bus trips to the Dovbush Rocks reserve, to Lake Synevyr, to the Hoshiv Monastery on Yasna Hora, to the Boykivshchyna Museum in Dolyna.
Starting from 01.05.2019, the ticket price for adults is UAH 200, and for children under 14 years old - UAH 75.
The distance from Lviv to Vyhoda is 125 km. Buses to Khust depart from the main railway station. Travel time - 3 hours, or by bus from Stryi which departs at 9:20.
The distance from Ivano-Frankivsk to Vyhoda is 75 km. There is a minibus from the regional center to Dolyna village (departure time: 09:25).
Department of Tourism of Uniplyt LLC and Carpathian Tram LLC, Ivano-Frankivsk region, Dolyna district, Vyhoda village
Call from 10:00 to 12:00 and from 15:00 to 18:00.
