Overnighter in Marttila

Toni Lund suggested Marttila for our next overnighter, which took place this weekend. During the winter this is includes mainly road biking, in addition to a hike-a-bike section. The actual trails are covered by almost 50 cm of snow, or in some places by ski tracks. In any case the trails are not rideable by bike. I took the Fargo, since I didn't think there would any fatbike terrain there and the Pugsley rolls slower on hard surfaces.

I packed the bike and started to ride to Paimio to meet Toni. It took me 1,5 h to ride the 33 km in a fairly good speed. The studded tires on a combination of ice and snow isn't exactly speeding things up.



When Toni was ready we continued towards Marttila on small roads.




The start of the hike-a-bike section was actually rideable, since some sort of forest tractor had made hard tracks.


Soon the bike pushing started.


There is probably a boardwalk somewhere under the snow.




We arrived at the Onnenperänrahka shelter around 10 o'clock in the evening after 55 km of riding and some bike pushing. There seemed to be some dry firewood there, so we started a fire.


The firewood wasn't that dry, but Toni chopped some more and we had a nice fire for grilling our sandwhiches.


Going to sleep around midnight. It was just few degrees below freezing, so it was almost to warm in a winter sleeping bag.


We got up at seven in the morning and started to make coffee and porridge.


Getting lighter. We've already gained 2.5 h of daylight since the winter solstice.


The Onnenperänrahka shelter.


Bike packed and ready.




We got started a little later than planned. First the bike pushing.




Snow over my knees.






Riding again, progressing from smaller tracks to larger roads.






Yours truly. Photo by Toni Lund.


Toni has finally adopted riding without a backpack.


Toni got off in Paimio and I continued towards Turku. I arrived after around 3.5 h since leaving the shelter, again after fairly hard riding. The distance was around 57 km.

Thanks Toni for the company. Once again a nice little outing.

A slideshow with a few more pictures is found here.

Toni's report is here.