Duckboards Are Evil strikes back

At Hämeen järviylänkö 14-16.9.2012

1. Day

Once again at Loppi and at the Poronpolku trail parking place. With a  different companion as this time it was AK-himself with me. That means our unofficially and unintentionally slightly homoeroticaly named duo Metsäveljet was in it's full line up. After my last trip with Matti I had been bragging about the trails here to AK and he couldn't wait to get going. Luckily we managed to get whole three days off from our families but things surely didn't look promising...
First of all the weather forecast promised bad weather, storm winds and heavy rain for the whole weekend but this didn't worry us too much. A more severe problem was that both of us weren't feeling too good, some flu bug I guess. Neither of us had a fever so we were still going. Also at home front there was trouble. AK's young son had a nastier flu and also my wife was getting sicker.
After work I phoned nervously home and asked how she was feeling, not too good but I still got a permission to go with a promise to return to home if she was getting worse. Watching after two young kids while sick isn't something you'd hope for anyone.

I had packed hastily the previous night and didn't really have time to check over if I had everything but I do have quite a good routine for pulling stuff together. There are two things I usually forgot to pack, kuksa and toilet paper. This time I had toilet paper but no kuksa. Well, a short stop at Riihimäki ABC and I got myself a plastic one.
We quickly unpacked the car and started riding as the weather was promised to deteriorate towards the evening. Already the wind gusts were quite strong. First 6 or so kilometers were once again pure joy. We took a little bit different trails this time and found even more gorgeous sand ridge trails along those pine covered forests and we took our time to enjoy those. 

Pushing and pedaling along Poronpolku.

Once we hit the roads we begun to turn cranks a bit faster. As it really started raining we reached Räyskälä village shop. We took a cup of coffee and a couple necessary first evening celebration beers. I put on my rain shell and on we went again. We were heading towards Kivijärvi lean-to. It was not far, less than 10km from the shop but the pace was fast and I didn't feel too strong and so I was watching AK's back the whole way. This was to be the trend for the most of the trip, I was pacing up when we were ridind trails and AK was furiously leading when riding via roads. 4" tires do make a difference in both ways.

A sharp eye can spot the difference between a regular mtb tire and a fatbike tire. 

We made to the Kivijärvi lean-to just in time when it started raining even more heavily. The lean-to was a bit more open towards the wind and rain than we had hoped for but it was providing a decent shelter for us anyway. The fire we made did push a lot of smoke to us and made the lean-to feel sometimes more like a smokehouse for fish or meat but we were relatively cozy.  A telephone call to home revealed that kids were nearly at bed but my wife was feeling worse and having quite a high temperature. She'd manage so far but we'd check again at the morning.

We the lucky ones watched the storm from our shelter and started cooking, I had a sudden realization that I had left my brand new plastic kuksa at the car. Bummer. But there's nothing that a lot of ingenuity and skilled handicraft couldn't solve.

My nice new kuksa.

While lying in our sleeping bags and sipping beer we also managed to empty a bottle of brandy AK had brought. Of course there is the matter of weight saving for the rest of the trip if you drink all your liquor on the first evening. I fell asleep and at sometime during the night the storm died away.


2. Day

At the morning things were looking brighter. Mrs. Duckboards Are Evil was feeling a bit better and our friend M would come gallantly to the rescue and take our son out to play for the day. I was also surprised to notice that I felt better too, I guess it was nothing that some fresh air and half a bottle of brandy couldn't cure. Well I did feel a bit hangoverish. Weather was also getting better, there were still thick clouds but no rain or wind. And if you really tried you could see some lighter batches or even blue tones at the clouds. We cooked our Blå Band porridge, packed our stuff and started pedaling. It would be a long day if everything was going to go as AK had planned.

Our route would take mostly along forest roads even some highway sections would be along the way. Our first stop would be Korteniemi heritage farm at the Liesjärvi national park. Ok, our second stop, we couldn't resist a stop at a gas station and a bottle of coke. There was a few kilometers section along Helsinki-Pori highway with 100km/h speed limits. Not the most pleasant part of our trip but it was fast going.

Korteniemi farm is an old forest ranger farm from the late 1800s. It is now owned by our forrest government and it is carefully preserved to its original state. At summer months there are guides and people working by traditional methods.
We weren't really sure if the place was going to be still open but wanted to visit anyway. To our pleasant surprise we were given a tour, got plenty of coffee and traditional rye bred from the staff. All for free. We really wanted to stay for longer but we still had a long way to go. Both of us felt that this was a place for a family trip.

AK enjoying his cup of coffee. At this point he'd like you to notice his brand new cool Warmpeace hoody.

We took a direction towards Kyynäräharju, a narrow sand ridge 2km long, separating two lakes. A recommended place to visit too and we had some trail riding for a short change.

Ridge riding

 At the northern part  of the ridge there was a well to get our water bladders full. This well was going to bring us some double trouble. More about that later. A short lunch brake was in order. AK drank all the water he had left and some more cold water from the well. Perhaps too much...

Our route would take us next towards Torronsuo national park. Along the way around the village of Letku AK felt first small stomach cramps then nastier and suddenly we were in hurry. We made it just in time to the local village shop and he got to use their toilet. I bet they regret it now though.
After taking his time we decided to continue, maybe it was going to be ok from now on. No it was not ok. After AK's several quick rushes to the bushes we made it to Torronsuo bird tower. AK was at this point more interested about the outhouse but we decided to climb to the tower anyway.

The tower..

and the view.

Torronsuo is a large open swamp and from the tower you get a good view. We were in good time to see lots of cranes although from afar. We took a bit longer brake and ate some bred even AK managed to eat something. We didn't have too much time to linger though. If we wanted to be at our planned place for the night, Peukalolammi  lean-to before dark we had to get going. AK wasn't sure how he'd manage so we started slowly. After an hour he quite suddenly started feeling better. No sudden rushes to the bushes anymore and our pace quickened.

What happened with his stomach remains a mystery. If it had been a stomach bug I guess he wouldn't have recovered so quickly. The best thing we could figure was that he drank a way too much water at the well. Then stomach full of water added with stirring motion of cycling mixed his
bowels. Go figure.

Our route took us past the well again and our water supply was getting low. AK wanted to stop but I insisted to keep going as it meant a huge 200m detour. Yup, a smart decision by me indeed. In my defence I have to say that by map there was a decent looking small pond next to the lean-to we were heading. And I had my new Sawyer squeeze water filter I wanted to put in use. So we rode past the well and the remaining 5 kilometers. Lean-to was a pleasant surprise. Nobody there and the evening  sun was making places look golden. I took my water filter and rushed to the pond. Shit, it didn't look good, dirty looking boggy pond. It was no way you could go to the middle where pond was still open. I balanced on few rotten planks at place and tried to get some less humus filled water to the water filter bags. I know I should have pre-filter most of the stuff away. I begun pushing water through the filter and managed to get maybe half a liter through before water flow slowly died away. Sawyer filter does come with a cleaning syringe and you use it to push water back the other way. Of course I didn't pack it along.

At this point still flowing. And it works really well too if you remember to pre-filter the solid stuff.

Well, what can you do but go pack the 5 kilometers with all our water containers to the well. And I guess I played some small part on not stopping at the well so I volunteered to go. Luckily we were not  backpacking but bikepacking so it wasn't such a big deal. But hiking back and forth, man that would have sucked. And it was worth it, well water was something totally different to that foul smelling pond water. Filter may have made it drinkable but not good.
After getting back to lean-to we cooked and crawled to our sleeping bags, we were tired.


3.Day

We had both made an oaths to our families to return early. So we woke up early as 8 am is still early for me if there is no work or kids to pull me up. We ate Blå Band porridge once again started going. We had some 30 kilometers back to our car.

After a downhill there's always the uphill.

We rode along nice sceneries, forest, fields, you know. Basic finnish country side at it's best as the sky was totally cloudless. We made to the car and we back home around noon.

A very good trip and it was the longest we both have had for a while. It was good to be out for two nights but on a shorter trips you always end up craving for one more day.
I have mentioned much about the kilometers we rode since I'm not 100% sure. Totally it's anyway closer to 150.
I sure hope there's time for one more before the winter.

All photos by me and AK. Spelling mistakes by me.

A very quick overnighter at Mt. Paloheinä 30.8.2012

As my family was out of town I had a time for a midweek overnighter. Only problem was that I had to be at work 7am the next morning. I have had an idea to sleep on top of Mt. Paloheinä so I went for that.

Mt Paloheinä is situated at the northern part of Helsinki in the heart of our central park which is a neat forest corridor straight from the city central to the northern parts. Mt. Paloheinä is a nice hill with some good views but is actually an old landfill although nicely landscaped. Well it does bring some variation to our flat scenery.

At thursday evening after work I took a nap and started packing, didn't need much just a couple of pieces bred, some cheese and of course two pints of lager. I started pedaling around 8.00 pm and about an hour later I was at Paloheinä just a bit too late to miss the sunset from the top. I looked around for a suitable dry and flat spot to put my sleeping mat where I would be hidden from the passer bys. I didn't really find one so I just spread my gear at the "second peak", the lookout spot. There are some quite popular jogging trails around Paloheinä but only a few people were jogging up the slope and no one came to the lookout spot so I was on my own. I laid in my sleeping bag looking at the airplanes passing by and even some stars through the light pollution from the city. I slowly sipped beer and fell to sleep around midnight.

This trip was not a photofest just this one pic. I'll try to be more active in the future.. promise!

The next morning I had an alarm at 6am and it was really humid. The morning dew was everywhere

but not luckily through my sleeping bag. I had a bivybag with me but didn't bother to use it. But no harm done anyway. I ate my bread and rode to work, maybe a ten minutes ride. Good part about this trip is that I got to sleep half an hour longer if I had ridden from home.  

Hämeen järviylänkö, a trip report 11-12 august 2012

I guess it's kinda ironic that after bashing on maintained trail systems my first trip report is a celebration of one. Story goes like this:

Well, I had been reading about Hämeenjärviylänkö from fillarifoorumi and other sources about the magnificent single tracks there. As a father of two small children my schedule is tight and I usually don't have much saying on how to spend holidays and weekends. However I did manage to negotiate a short 24h leave from saturday morning till sunday. So I needed to go somewhere close by hopefully with some new scenery. To the Hämeen järviylänkö it was.

There is a form of outdoor adventure where using trails is preferable if not mandatory and that is of course mountain biking or bikepacking as in this case. I have been pushing through swaps and thick forest before but without any trails or rideable terrain you could/should leave your bike at home. And even riding those boring trails you already know well with a bike makes a whole new experience. Also with a bike you can start an adventure from your own doorstep and when the night falls you are somewhere quite far away ( except during winter time kaamos). To me bikepacking has opened a lot more opportunities to have great miniscale adventures.

Bytheway, what is bikepacking? There are some chat board debates about the differences of bike touring and bikepacking but to me it's cycling those same trails you'd otherwise be hiking with a backpack.

Back to the trip report.

My trips are done mostly solo, mainly because everyone else is busy too or my plans seem stupid enough so no-one wants to take part but this time I had managed to persuade Matti to come along. I'm fine with solitude but it was a nice to have company for a change. Matti had some issues with lacking some gear but as a gear nerd I have almost double of everything so I borrowed some stuff to him.

I won't go into gear in detail but I ride Surly Pugsley, the ultimate offroad vehicle with revelate and bikepack packs.

My trusty warhorse

                                                     
I tried to get an early start but as always the time flies and I don't so it was closer to 2pm when we were ready to start cycling. We had driven with a car from Helsinki to Loppi to the beginning of Poronpolku trail, part of the longer Ilvesvaellus hiking trail. We left car at the Luutalammi parking area. It is somewhat unclear to me whether it is allowed to ride those trails since it goes through nature reserves and national parks but it is not denied anywhere either. The name "poronpolku" means a reindeer trail but we are still about 1000km south to nearest living reindeer, funny.

As it was discussed at fillarifoorumi the trails are perfect. As I'm not the most technically skilled mountain biker these trails are excatly what I like, fast singletracks through pine covered forests. A finnish word would be "neulasbaana". The biggest accents/descents are right at the beginning through the Salpauselkä ridges.

Too steep to our feeble legs

Views from the top

                                                             

We rode fast, we rode slow and we enjoyed the trails. And we stopped to enjoy scenery and an occasional beer. Whether was magnificent for a change. I felt a bit bad about the comforts of my 4 inch fatbike tires as Matti was riding with his hybrid bike but he did ok.

More nice trails

Some art stuff

After stopping at the Räyskälä village shop for "supplies" and coffee we continued towards Iso-Melkutin lake. It was only a short ride and we found the other lean-to at the lake to be unpopulated and decided to pitch our camp. Iso-Melkutin is a crystal clear lake with sand ridges around. The lean-to we stayed is further away from the road and in tidy condition. However I really like my Halti Pata Fun-laavu/tent so I decided to sleep in that. From the car we had ridden maybe 25km, mostly singletracks but some pavement sections also. My only complain about the trails would be around the lake that all the small trees were cleared so that stumps were very sharp, ala vietcong boobytrap style.

It sure was a clear lake

During the day at the trail we had seen just two hikers and one mountain biker, so these are not crowded trails despite being quite close to bigger cities. Only 1 hour from Helsinki with a car. When the darkness begun to fall we had some company to out fire, two ladies came to the laavu and told us it was going to be a meteor shower that night. After gazing upwards and making my neck stiff I did manage to see some shooting stars, but not really a shower of them. Around 1am it was bedtime for me and I slept great as I usually do outside but Matti spent a chilly night.

It was worth the effort in many ways to get up relieve my bladder.

At the morning the wheather was sunny and perfect once again. Due to time limitations, mainly because it was my better half's birthday we rode in a hurry via roads back to car.

Just a great trip with nicely rolling trails and good company and everything in less that 24 hours.

My mission statement

Duckboards are evil (period, stop).

Ok, I do have a point here..

Traditional way of backpacking in Finland and I guess everywhere else also is to pick up your ultraheavy +25kg backpack with all the necessary items ( 2 rolls of toilet paper, three flanel shirts ,hilleberg tunnel tent, coffee pot, etc.) to make you feel secure. Walking along heavily stomped well marked trail to the next dedicated camping spot with toilets and firewood.

It's all very nice and I have also hiked this way but slowly I found out there's something lacking for me. Surely you are outdoors but walking along marked trails it's like walking in a museum, you are not in the woods or in the wilderness you are just passing by and looking at it. You are missing the essence of what backpacking means to me: Adventure!

So what if you feet gets wet, so what if you get lost for a while and so what if you spend a little chilly night. Bogs should be crossed jumping from dry spot to an another. Firewood should be gathered and not carried from the shed. Trails should be found and followed if they go to your way, then skipped and look for an another one.

To me backpacking is not about getting from a to b. It's about getting an adventure.

So what is wrong with duckbords? To me they kill the that sense of adventure in the wilderness. I want those white spots back to maps, HERE BE MONSTERS!

Ok I know trails and camping spots protect the nature by reducing erosion caused by the masses. And is it even possible to have adventures anymore? Well I think it is. I live in the capital of Finland, Helsinki just a stone throw away from the center and the most densely populated area of our country and I know it's possible to start a wilderness adventure right from my doorstep. In the future I'll try to share with you my views on how to make an outdoor life more interesting.

PLUS: Duckboards can be damn slippery!