Sport through the lens

New places, new people and some more riding of unknown trails. We returned from Kilpisjarvi, Finland, where it was way too cold for my taste, so bike stayed packed in car. With +8c, wind and cloudy and rainy weather, I found better things to do then mountain biking. But now, we are in Yllas again, which during winter offers more then 330 kilometers of cross country skiing trails, and in summer, big part of those trails is converted to nordic walking trails, which can also be used as mountain biking trails.
  

Even though mountain biking, or cycling in general, is not very popular in Finland, more then 200 kilometers of trails around Yllas (part of previously mentioned 330km of xc skiing trails goes through, during winter frozen, swamps, so mountain biking in swamp is not really advisable:)) are welcoming mountain bikers. Attitude of Finnish people who consider sport as part of their life, helps with being fully understandable to some lunatic riding bike there, where they bring their family to some (nordic) walking in unspoiled nature. In quite few hours riding on trails around Yllas, I have never met anyone, who would be looking at me with judging look I’m so used to get in middle Europe. Look which doesn’t say anything at loud, but it does want to scream something like “Get the fuck out of MY walking/hiking/running trail”. First I was worried a bit about this, because mountain bikers are very rare specious in Finland, but after I have met first group of hikers on trails, which greeted me with, for Finns, at least as we consider them, so uncommon, loud and smiley terve (hi in Finnish), my worries went away.

And I’m happy they did, because trails around Yllas are really paradise. They are a bit soft, so speed is different then I have been used to in middle Europe, but everything else is perfect. There’s endless number of trails, and length is unbelievable for someone, who has huge problems getting 70 or 80km ride at home, where majority of ride would be on gravel or forest roads. In Yllas I made only first and last kilometer of every ride on asphalt, and even that, because I was lazy enough to go from hotel on asphalt road. Everything else was forest. But there’s one thin you should be careful with. Santa’s helpers, or reindeers as they call them in real life, are everywhere. And they consider Lapland to be their own country, so they are not going to move. On bike it’s not so problematic, but with car it can be. Nevertheless even on bike, it doesn’t hurt to be a bit more careful, and be ready to meet one or more reindeers eye to eye when coming from behind of corner. 

Then there’s only thing I hate in Lapland… millions and millions of mosquitos. Good thing with mountain biking, at least the way I do it, is they don’t bother when riding. When you stop, things get different. But during rides I normally don’t stop, so I didn’t have problems, but people who ride differently and often stop, would find those little creatures quite annoying. Other then that, I can only recommend this place as mtb paradise. Not to mention, there’s also restaurant called Julis bar and restaurant, where we had best lunch in whole Finland. And since it’s owned by my wife’s cousin, I can make some commercial :)

Some more photos from our Finland trip can be found in Photo SI web:

- Finland photo