We started the morning wit a short walk around the Ruka “city-area”. The streets were empty and weather was already very warm! There is a small pond just in the front of the hotels and skiing area.
After breakfast we packed tha bike once again and started the ride from Ruka to Kiutaköngäs. Even this is not a long way there is still one very nice road (and rare in northern Finland) with low bending corners. This Juumantie is very nice ride in this area and I recommend to ride it even if you are not going to the rapids.
To see the rapids it is maybe wiser to change your riding gear to hiking gear. There is about 1km walk to the rapids… but after you find them you will probably walk quite a lot more to see everything and you might even climb or at least take the more difficult paths!
It’s vey rare that the water level is so low here! Normally you wouldn’t see any rocks in the middle of the rapids.
It took maybe about 2 hours for us to check the Kiutaköngäs -rapids.
We continued riding north… and went over the Polar Circle! (In Hautajärvi) Here they don’t make so big number about the Polar Circle even it is quite remarkable “line in the map” when you think about the nights and the sun (summer or winter).
In Salla -village we stopped for a little while to check the nice church (built in 1950).
And from further north we found our place to stay… We chose the “lappish style” hut from Loma Joosula. We really enjoyed the place!
We walked to a hotel nearby to enjoy the “real Lappish food” -The reindeer stew.
And in the evening when I was making a flight with my drone the host of this place recommended that he would like to have photos and video from this area and his place and if I would do it I could have my stay for free! And ofcourse I said “Yes!”
Here are few of the photos I took from this area: Google Album
My wife made a video about this day:
The route for the day 6 was like this:
Harrastukset
We woke up in our small cabin 7 meters away from the lake (we measured the distance last evening!) and ate some breakfast that we bought from the grocery yesterday. The morning was very beautiful!
I had at least 2 possible persons/ shops who might have motorcycle tires to sell. After 8am I started to make the phonecalls. The first one answered about 8.30 and they told that they have one 180/55 R17 tire and also they could install it to my bike in the morning! I knew right away that our tour will continue on the same day! But I wanted to check the other number too… Maybe I could have the tire with correct size?? (= 190/55 R17)
And about 1 hour later this other guy answered. First he said that they don’t have any tires… But then he asked “What size?” and after I told him the numbers he said that he has 190/50 (little bit lower than the correct size) because he owns Suzuki Hayabusa and he ordered new tires to his own bike earlier… but didn’t install them because Hayabusa was now little bit broken.
He was also ready to install the tire to my bike about 1 hour later.
So I got new tire very fast and we were able to continue our trip!
I made the reservation for the next night from a hotel not so far from Suomussalmi. We would stay the next night in Ruka (one of the biggest ski resorts in Finland).
On our way to Ruka we stopped only at Juntusranta birdtower…
And at Hossa to enjoy some ice-cream…
Then we were at Ruka! First we took a ride to the southside hilltop. From there you’ll have some very nice views almost all around!
The view to the east is the most interesting because you know that Russia is there somewhere (not very far!)
Later in the evening we walked up to the northern hilltop, this would be 500 meters above sealevel! The views are very nice!
There were few stairs to climb to the top (I think it was 338 steps…)
The room at the Hotel Arctic Zone was very Nice!
And once again my wife made a nice video of this day:
The route for day 5 was like this:
After very nice breakfast we chose the road that goes over Kuurna dam.
There’s not too many places in Finland where you can ride over the dam that’s why it’s quite nice to ride here. Then we continued to the north and we were riding on the westside of Lake Pielinen until we stopped at Pirunkirkko (Devils Church). These caves are 34 meters deep and even 7 meters high (but actually it’s not a cave -it’s just a crack in the rock).
Very close to this cave is one of the most famous views in Finland: Koli!
Koli is a hill just beside the lake and the elevation is more than 200 meters from the lake surface to the top of the hill. Luckily we had perfect clear weather to check these views!
This is called “The National landscape” but I think it’s little bit misleading. I would understand that The National landscape means something very typical Finnish view… But this is quite special and NOT typical at all! But on the other hand I feel quite proud standing up there and I’m thinking “This is my home country!” So maybe it is a good thing that we call it “The National Landscape”!
Then there was quite a lot of riding to Nurmes and to the house of Bomba.
Here we had a short break and we continued riding to Kuhmo and still to Iivantiira.
On the southside of Kuhmo there is many places in the forest (and beside the road) that are kind of museum about “Winter war” in Kuhmo. We stopped at one of them and walked around a little bit.
About 10km’s north from Iivantiira I had a flat rear tire! It was a gravelroad but quite in good condition… It seems that I just had very bad luck that one sharp stone found its way to make hole in my tire!!! This happened about here!
I had the repair kit to fix the tire but I was suspicious -it will not hold! There was one local guy who stopped and said he has the kompressor at his home (with Pressure gauge) and he can pick it up. I had only 3 small bottles of pressure air in this repair kit so I was sure I will need more air to have the correct pressure! These 3 bottles make only about 0,5 bar so I was very lucky that I got this air kompressor and I could fill the tire! After maybe 45 minutes of fixing we were riding again…
But not for a long! Maybe after 20 km’s and the tire was flat again!
I fixed it again and I got “normal hand pump” from another local guy.
This one didn’t have a pressure gauge… But I think I got the pressure quite ok just by checking it with my “sensitive hands”!
After 30 minutes we were riding again… But not for long!
I felt how the tire was getting empty all the time! The bike felt like it was “wobbling” all over the road and I had already made the decision that we will leave the bike there and we will take a taxi to the nearest camping area… So I stopped the bike, took the bags away from the bike and ordered the taxi. We were about 28 kilometers away from Suomussalmi.
While we were waiting for the taxi my wife started to listen to the tire… If there was this quiet sound of air coming out from the tire? But there wasn’t! And there was still some air in the tire! I checked how the bike felt without the bags… and it wasn’t so terrible!
So very fast decision: Cancel the taxi-order, put the bags back to the bike and try to ride as far as we can… And we did all this 28 kilometers!!! I step out from the bike, walked inside to the reception-house (in the camping area) and while I was there paying for the cabin the tire finally gave up! With a loud “farting-sound” all the air came out from the tire and ofcourse the bike fell to the right side…
Luckily I had my new bags (SW Motech Trax) and they are aluminium. So no holes to the bags and no marks of any kind in my bike!
I only needed to hit the small dents away with the hammer. This I did few days later…
I didn’t take any stress about finding a new tire, The camping area was so beautiful so We just enjoyed the sunset in The Campingarea of Kiantajärvi.
And my bike was waiting for the next day:
Wife made a video about this day. This time it was in 2 parts, part 1:
And part 2:
The route for the day 4 was like this:
The day started with a littlebit of rain. The road was wet and there were clouds in the sky. We stopped anyway in the museum bridge of Virransalmi.
From Tuustaipale to north we had first gravelroad about 19 kilometers and because of rain there were parts with soft surface… almost like mud. In the video you can see how it can be…
Kissakoski was the place where we stopped and walked around.
Then we stopped for a short break in Hirvensalmi.
And for a little bit longer break in Mikkeli to check the observation tower of Naisvuori.
It had already stopped raining and the roads were already dry. So the rest of the day it was cloudy and warm. From Mikkeli we took the roads to east. And from the gravelroad near Anttola we found nice quarry.
And soon it was about the time to take the “private” ferry over the Lake Saimaa and I also took my drone up to the sky to make a video when the ferry was about to enter to the pier:
The ride over the lake was so relaxing! The lake was calm without any waves and the beautiful archipelago all around us made us feel that this is a fairytale.
We still had some riding to do after this. First is was this nice paved road in the middle of Lake Saimaa:
We went to Puumala to have a pizza. There was quite interesting tent in the middle of the willage:
There was 1 more quite nice road and a yellow ferry (These yellow ferries are for free in Finland) before we arrived to our destination.
The place we were about to sleep was quite terrible. Luckily it was also cheap.
Here is the video about this day made by my wife:
Here is the route for day 2:
My holiday this year was about making tour around my beautiful home country: Finland.
I haven’t been in in the north part of the country since 2011 so it’s really a time to do this. And I have new tires in my XR so I can try also the gravelroads with my bike. This time I also have my wife with me so it will be very heavy load! (450kg)
This pic is from the first stop that we did in Vanhankylänniemi (this link only in Finnish) and mansion. But it was only a short stop.
Then we stopped at the old ironworks area in Kellokoski. There’s been quite a lot of renovations going on lately and it’s starting to look pretty nice place.
Next stop was at the Tönnö Museum Bridge in Orimattila. This is built/ open in 1911.
Then in the north side of Nastola we stopped at the Cafe of old Mill in Immilä. This is very beautiful place with the rapids just beside the area.
We also checked the old industrial heritage site “Verla”. This was a carbon factory from 1872 until 1952. Now it is a museumarea with very nice buildings are nature.
Verla is also Unesco World Heritage site since 1996.
It started raining a little bit but it was very warm, so still we checked the Elving observation tower which is built in 1907. It is 20m high and the view would be totally amazing if it would be clear weather. Even now it was very nice!
The night we slept in a small cabin at Orilammen majat.
My wife made a video about this first day:
The route for Day 1:
(In Finnish: Puumalan Saaristoreitti)
I’ve started my holiday tour 2 days ago. I hope I will have more time to write about details and routes but in this update I want to share this:
My drone finally arrived from service and I got this video made yesterday!
This is ferry “Norppa II” and it takes bicycles and motorcycles and makes a ride in the lake Saimaa. Even it wasn’t the best possible weather it was still quite amazing. The beautiful archipelago of Saimaa made me forget even about riding for awhile… I was just sitting on the deck and enjoying the views and summer breeze.
We made another weekend tour just resently. It was the weekend from friday 15th to sunday 17th (of June) and the decision for this trip was made very fast!
First I decided to check how is my tent… I took it from the basement and we went to the yard with my wife to check if it’s ok. And it was!
Then I ride to the garage to change the bike, wife stayed at home to make us some food (snacks) because we really wanted to spend the night in a tent!
First stop of the trip was in Trollshovda (Trollshead in English).
Then we rode to Kemiönsaari and to Kasnäs and stopped in Lövö bridge.
This is one of the most beautiful views in the bridge in Finland! And the road from Taalintehdas to Kasnäs is very beautiful (This bridge is in this road).
Then we try to find a good place for camping and we found quite ok place… This was the first night ever in the tent for my wife!
She didn’t sleep very well but I slept quite ok -except my back didn’t like it at all! So I decided to sleep in a normal bed for the next night!
Next morning was about to go to the ferry that would take us to an island. Rosala is the name of the island and this would be the first place where Vikings or Christianity step their foot in Finland.
This ferrytrip is for free! and it takes about 30 minutes…
Rosala is quite small island. There’s only 1 road that goes from Hiittinen village to Rosala village. That is about 8,5 km’s from the villagecenter to another. In Hiittinen there is beautiful old wooden church…
And a very nice cafeteria just beside this church:
Then after you ride this 8,5 kilometers you will enter the Rosala village and there is one place you really need to visit! It’s the Vikingcenter Rosala which is the only one of its kind in Finland. It’s an area with lots of items, clothes, weapons and buildings from Iron age of Finland. The Vikings didn’t take much land here in Finland and here in Rosala there are the best ancient excavations of this Viking age. But in the same time with Vikings the Christianity also made its first steps to the Finnish ground.
This is from the restaurant they have there. There is restingplace in every table, so if you get tired while eating you can step back and sleep awhile!
This is from Chapel they have in the area. Christianity is mixed with old religions of Vikings… at least it was like that in the beginning.
The best building to see is the the dwelling house with huge fireplace on the other end of the room inside. It really gave me authentic feeling and I could see the Vikings shouting, drinking and making their business there…
Next moring we started our ride back home and the first stop was at Taalintehdas. This is one of the oldest industrial villages in Finland. The ironworks company was founded in 1686.
This blast furnace is much newer but it has been rubuilded as a “meeting point” in the beginning of the nature path that you can find from Taalintehdas.
We also visited an old market place called Latokartanonkoski (Rapids of Latokartano). There are ruins of an old mill that was built in 1805 and it stopped working at 1962.
It is a very beautiful place with quite a lot to see. One interesting thing is that this place is full with Beautiful demoiselles flying around.
Their wings are shining bright blue in the sunshine… and they look like they are from a fairytale!
The route for the whole weekend you check here.
