The last summer overnighter

It was time for a last overnighter for the summer. The following weeks will see some work related traveling and after that it is certainly fall.

I started from Turku at 17.25 on Thursday. The weather was sunny and warm enough for a short sleeved jersey. I rode the usual route from Turku via Paimio to Salo, using mainly small roads.

Bike packed and ready.


Nice small roads.


Lost again... One aim was to check out the trails from Salo to Teijo. The trail description leaved something to be desired.


Back on the correct trail.


Getting dark in the dense forest.


At one point I simply could not find the correct trail anymore. It was now getting dark rapidly, so I decided to set camp here a little after 22:00 (sunset was at 21:15), maybe 10 km south of Salo. One thing that struck me was how silent it was in the forest. No more birds singing. They have done their thing by now and will soon move south.


Riding statistics: 80 km and 4.5 hours of riding.

Friday. I slept quite well and did not to get up until around 07:00, even though a robin just a few meters from me did its best to get me up early. It takes only one and the silence disappears.

Morning porridge in the making.


My intentions was also to check a part of the Hanko peninsula north of Skogby, so I decided to ride directly there by the asphalt road, about 40 km.


In Västerby. From an mtb rider's point of view it is a shame when the old nice doubletracks get improved.


Västerby trails




Långträsket


Now some nice trails, as well as some bushwacking followed. No pictures, since I was tormented by deer flies. I've never experienced such an amount of the nasty small bugs. They were flying around me in the hundreds, rather than tens, which is usually considered quite bad.

Lunch at Vitsjön III. No deer flies here, but during the lunch I picked out 20 of them from my hair and body. For lunch I had some sort of freeze dried Pasta Bolognese, which actually tasted great, probably since it lacked the dreaded sodium glutamate (E621) usually found in these. I think everybody should boycott sodium glutamate: It is probably unhealthy (proof still lacking), has a specific taste and enables using much poorer food ingredients, since it does make up for some lack in taste.


More tank blockings.


It is always a little sad to see the abandoned places a bit from the main cities and villages. These places have been made in the forest with great effort and have supported families, in another time. Back then the landscape would have been much more open with cows grazing. Now these places just slowly whither away, or in the best case are used as summer houses.




More forest roads.


Kvarnträsket.


Vitsjön II.


Vitsjön I.


Now a two hour ride mostly on poor forest roads, as well as some asphalt, followed. Around 19:30 I came to the Teijo area.




Dinner time. I tried a meal from the Norwegian Real Turmat series. It was better than the typical Reiter meal.


Another sign of the coming fall was that I saw three flocks of geese, around 100 birds in each, flying above me. The northern geese are slowly flying southwards.

This was also the first test of my new tent, a Tarptent Double Rainbow.


Summer bug bivy mode.




Vestibules partly in use.


Good night.




This day was rather hard and I did not eat nearly enough, so I was a little weak in the evening. 147 km and 11.5 hours, including 2 hours of breaks.

Saturday. I deliberately pick a camp spot where I could see the sun rising. I woke when it was getting lighter and started making porridge and coffee.


The sun rose around 5:50. It was a beautiful morning.








On the move again at 7:15 (I enjoyed my coffee very slowly). First some singletrack and then forest roads. Yesterday's lack of food was felt in the legs today.


Back on (single)track.


Nikkallio


Hamarijärvi.




Shortest way home, 65 km on mainly asphalt. I would have neede two more hours to map out the route from the Teijo area to the point I arrived at on Thursday, but since I promised to be home for lunch I went directly home at this point.


Home again after 88 km and 4,5 hours of rather hard riding.

Here is a slideshow with more pictures.

Kuhankuono morning ride

I did a morning ride in the Kuhankuono area, following the Paarma-Bonanza route. It was warm, 17°C, already at 5:00 in the morning. A slight rain made the roots and boardwalks very slippery in some places. The entire ride was 41 km and I rode it in 3h 45 min. A fairly efficient speed without any breaks, but still not very fast. In dry conditions with full speed it should be possible to ride the route in 3 hours.

Summer ride video

I also made a short video from last week's bikepacking trip:



This is my first attempt at making a video. It is also, at least for the moment, last one, since the quality is not very satisfying (full HD would be needed) and it takes a lot of work to put anything together. The quality could probably be slightly improved by using codecs that work better with youtube, but this will have to do.

Hot riding

I had two days of vacation planned while the children were still in kindergarten. The plan was to do a long and fairly hard ride from Turku to Pyhäjärvi, sleep somewhere there, and ride back a slightly different route. It would have meant something around 10 h of riding each day, excluding breaks. However, due to the abundance of mosquitoes and the heat (up to 27°C), I figured it would be quite horrible to ride in the dense forest and along the bogs. Sleeping in a bivy bag is not that much fun either, because of the mosquitoes. I just sold my Hilleberg Akto tent and ordered a Tarptent Double Rainbow, so I currently have no suitable tent either. I came up with a different more relaxed plan, and the resulting trip is described below.

I took the 6:38 train from Turku to Karis/Karjaa. Nowadays the trains only take three bikes per train, a lot less than 15 years ago.


At 7:45 I started from Karis/Karjaa and after just about 20 minutes I was forced to do some bushwacking to arrive at a trail marked on the map. One thousand mosquitoes kept me company.


After some serious bushwacking I arrived at the trail, which was a slight disappointment. More bushwacking ahead.


Finally some rideable trail, which led to Lomsjö.






After some nice riding on nice trails, I took a gravel road and then took a shortcut through the forest and found myself without a rideable trail again. From time to time there was something rideable, like below. The mosquitoes, gadflys, and some angry bees did make it interesting, though.


Some local flora.


Some local fauna.


After a short ride on gravel roads like the one below, the real trails started here.




Since this was to be a more relaxed tour I rode into the town centre of Ekenäs/Tammisaari (which is actually can be done on the trails of the sand ridge leading into the town) for some food. This was not the best Chinese restaurant I have been in. After the food I drank a cup of coffee with my brother who just arrived.


This way the two hottest hours of the day passed. After this I continued westwards, with a quick detour on some of the Västerby trails.

Lillträsket


Västerby Storträsk




Ryssbacken, "The Russian hill", probably called so because of this grave. A Russian Major Dergatjov was killed in the battle of Vitsand a few kilometers from this place during the Crimean war. Now this is a long way from the Crimean peninsula, but since Finland was part of Russia at that time, the war was felt here as well.


Ice cold and fresh spring water in Källviken.


Enjoying a cup of good French roast coffee, made with a French style coffee press, the only luxury item I brought with me.


More war memories, this time from the war 70 gears ago.


This was supposed to stop the Sovjet tanks.


Easy riding on Nicklundsberget.


Sandöträsket.


Trying to find a route to Högholmen in Tvärminne. The trails were going through a military exercise zone, going though which would be highly illegal and possibly dangerous as well, since they are currently shooting with sharp rounds there.


I could not find a good route and ended up doing some really hardcore bushwacking for 45 minutes. It was so depressing that I forgot to take any pictures.

Almost at my destination.


Finally, Högholmen after 12 hours (8 hours of actual riding) and 81 km. Högholmen is a small nature reserve. Using a tent is not allowed there, but I figured sleeping in a bivy bag without leaving any trace of my visit would be ok.




Dinner. A real lightpacker eats with his tire lever.


Some chocolate as dessert.






I went to sleep maybe around 22:40. My plan was that this somewhat exposed place would be open to the wind and the place very dry anyway, so there should be no problem with mosquitoes. I only noticed a few ones, so the cunning plan worked.

Once again, I overslept and woke around 6:44. It was a beautiful morning.


Morning porridge.


On the move again at 7:30. Because of my late start I had to revise my plans and rode straight to Källviken to refill my water supply.


Is this sign really necessary? The road is hardly visible anymore.


Arrived at the Västerby trails. Långträsket.


Grabbskog Storträsk




Vitsjön


Easy riding.


I arrived in Ekenäs/Tammisaari around 11:00 and went to my brothers place to take a shower. After that I enjoyed a pizza and took the train back home. Riding time today was only 3 h and 32 km.


More pictures are found here.

A short video of the trip.