Kuhankuono Ski Route

I originally planned to do an overnighter on skis this weekend, but the weather forecast changed to less inspiring weather. I made other plans for Friday night, but the weather forecast once again changed and promised clear and cold weather. I decided to try out the Kuhankuono ski route on Saturday morning. The weather was nice and crisp, -20°C (-4°F), when I got out of the car after driving for 35 minutes. It was still very dark in the forest when I started at 8.00 in the morning.

Getting lighter. It was likely a few degrees colder on the bog, and it took some time for the body to wake up and start to generate some heat.








Some sections are made on forest roads. Not too inspiring, but the other sections make it worthwhile.


The sun is starting to light up the tree tops.


Lakjärvi.




Sunrise was at 9:35, but it took another 30 minutes before the sun got up over the trees.


Forest trail used for hiking and mtb riding in the summer.


Open space again.




More forest skiing.


Coffee break. Weather this nice should be enjoyed without hurry. I felt so warm that I left the down jacket in the bag, which of course meant that the first 10 minutes after the break were very cold.




The sun climbs this high at this time of the year. We've already gained 53 minutes of daylight since the winter solstice.




The rays of the sun can be felt clearly, but it still probably only warms the mind.


When I got back to the car, the temperature was -17°C (1°F). I skied about 20 km.

A slideshow with more pictures.

Hopefully we get the same weather next weekend. If so, I think I will go on an overnighter in this same area to enjoy the full moon.

Overnighter video

I finished the video of the overnighter. It was fairly painless, but still somewhat time consuming, to put together using Windows Live Movie Maker. Using the EOS 60D H.264 MOV file directly was very slow, so I first converted them to an AVI format using MPEG Streamclip.

The video can be found here or in the previous post.

First S24O of the year

Toni Lund got some new gear for Christmas that needed testing, a good excuse for going out on an overnighter. We decided to meet halfway between our homes, meaning Piikkiö.

Packed and ready to go.


Starting out with singletrack.






After this I continued towards Piikkiö on smaller roads. My cheap Biltema pogies are almost to warm. In -8°C (17°F) I was barehanded and still almost too warm.


Meeting Toni in Piikkiö 21:20.


The final section towards the lean-to was a snowmobile trail, too loose for Toni's ordninary mountain bike, but just firm enough for the Pugsley.








And finally some pushing of the bikes...


... until we arrive at the lean-to.




Time to eat.


Starting with some instant capuccino and a sandwich...


... before the main course: Pancakes, the noblest of outdoor food.




We went to sleep at 23:30.


Next morning. I woke at 7:30 and Toni half an hour later.




A familiar pattern: Eating porridge and drinking coffee...


... while the morning proceeds...




... and it gets lighter.


A nice winter morning.






Packing the bikes again.




A snow tire from a long time ago.


On the move again.




Some road riding...


... before the final singletrack section.




Home in time for lunch. This was a nice little overnighter, thanks Toni for the company. Check out Toni's write-up here.

A slideshow with more picture can be found here.

Here is a small video showing the benefit of fat tires.


The full video is here.

Eclipse

I didn't even care about the partial eclipse of the sun today, since the weather forecast promised a cloudy enough weather that it would not be visible. The clouds did however partly disappear during the morning, so I figured I should give it a try. I left work and grabbed my bike half an hour before the eclipse was to be at its maximum and went to find a suitable spot. Had I known it would be this visible, I would have taken some longer optics and sought out a better place to observe it. I did actually have my new camera (more about that later) with me and got some pictures with the normal range zoom. With my 400 mm lens I could have gotten some great shots, though.

2011 goals

And without further ado, my bicycling and outdoor related goals for 2011:

• One overnighter a month or more
• One week-long bikepacking trip. I have two alternatives in mind: Either a fat bike trip from Kilpisjärvi to Halti and back along the snowmobile and ski route in April or a mountain bike trip somewhere in Lapland in the beginning of August.
• The ice road to Åland (and back) if it is open. This could be a rather demanding two day trip.
  
• 180 km of TahkoMTB.
• A good solo effort at Kangasala 24H if it is arranged this year.
• Maybe one or two XC marathons.
• A little more serious photography.
  

More snow

Another two inches of snow came during the night, which made the trail conditions challenging again, even with the Pugsley.


Unrideable.




What are these called in English? In Finnish and Swedish they are named the equivalent of "willow cat". They are supposed to be a sign of spring, but this seems a little early. The sun has been visible very little lately and it has mainly been fairly cold outside.