Reitti 2000 vs. Kona Jake 10.22.2016 (Day 2)

  Obviously we survived the night, and didn't get murdered by the other dudes that camped there. In the morning we made some hot oatmeal and coffee to fight off the chill. We also got a good fire going. The pot on the fire in the photo has pond water and eggs boiling in it, which belonged to the three other guys. The water was brown and dyed their eggs brown as well. 

    We had decided in the evening that we would only be camping one night for this trip, so we weren't in a huge hurry in the morning. We got out of there around 9:00 to see how much rough trail we had left. Our camp mates told us it was only a few kilometers to a more groomed trail, but they were eating food cooked in pond water, so I wasn't sure if they were trustworthy or not.

    Before the trail smoothed out it began to feel like we were travelling over a small mountain range. As it turned out, the hikers were right and this only lasted a couple kilometers.

    The weather was much colder, so we stopped in Salmi to have a coffee and some snacks. This place offered a nice lunch buffet, but we stuck with a sandwich and some karjalan pies. When we went inside we were talking in english, and I'm sure the girl was annoyed to have to use english with us, but I think we confused her when we both ordered in finnish. The food was a bit over priced, but it was nice to sit in a warm place with a warm drink.

    These blue and white markers are used to mark the trail throughout, and they can be quite hard to find at times. As you can see in the second photo it was a tiny ball of ribbon, and often they would be 1/2 of a mile apart or more. It got quite difficult when were were deep in the forest and the trail would break off in 3 or 4 directions.

    Somewhere between these two photos we got closer to the sea and it got extremely windy. It was all I could do just to keep moving forward. Even though we were quite drained, we still had to take an end of the ride photo. Like I said before I would recommend riding this route to anyone. I ended up putting on just over 76 miles (122 km) for the trip. 

Reitti 2000 vs. Kona Jake 10.21.2016 (Day 1)

    There is a saying, "different horses for different courses", and I can agree with that... but I prefer the mindset that the best bike is the one you already have. You can read all you want about whether or not a cyclocross bike is "capable"of taking the trail, but you never truly know until you try.

    So after learning quite a lot during our trip in Turku we decided to take a route which goes north of Helsinki  and is called  Reitti(Route) 2000. I'd been reading about it after our last trip and I thought it looked like an awesome route.
 
Here is the Reitti 2000 trail map. We made some changes and called our version Reitti 3000.

    The trip started on Thursday afternoon with me catching the train from Vaasa to Helsinki. Now before I even start I need to say, I DID NOT FORGET ANYTHING this time. I know it is a bit of a miracle, but it happened. Anyway I arrived in Helsinki around 7:30 p.m., and we made a trip over to the local XXL sport in order to grab a few things before heading to Olli's place. When we arrived his girlfriend was more than kind enough to have a big meal waiting on us.

    That evening was spent making sure our bikes were all packed properly, and that there was nothing missing. We got up around 7 to eat a big breakfast and prepare ourselves for the trip.

    You can tell it's obviously not very warm in Finland anymore.

      If you ever have the chance to bike Reitti 2000 I recommend it. Much of the trail runs through suburbs of Helsinki, but once you get out into the forest it's really a beautiful place. This was the first time I noticed the needles on many of the trees here turn yellow and fall all over the place. I actually thought it was saw dust at first.

      Laavus are some of the weirdest and best things that a bikepacker or hiker could come across. This one was just meant for having a picnic so it had no floor inside, but the walls provided us with a nice wind break so we could cook some noodles for lunch. This was somewhere between 5 and 6 on the map, and we were discussing that we were looking forward to number 8 on the map, because it was suppose to be a place called Rinnekoti which should have a coffee shop and a store. We were going to stop and get a coffee and bun, as well as, stop in the store to take some stuff extra stuff for the evening. Bread and a couple beers would be nice to have.

     In the mean time with the idea of a store and some coffee ahead of us we kept trekking through the Finnish forest. It was a bit of a grey day, which takes away a lot of the beauty, but there were still some really nice views.

    As well as some really nice trails

      I was pretty excited about all the colors and when I came across this little pond with the red and yellow ground I really wanted to get some sort of photo. What you can't tell is that the red and yellow are moss and I'm basically standing in a swamp..... I was really glad to be wearing goretex shoes at that point.

     So eventually we made it to Rinnekoti. As it turns out it was good that we had pretty much carried enough food with us, because the coffee shop and the store ended up being the same place. Which was a disappointment, but at least we got some hot coffee and some buns to eat, as well as, taking some tea and tuna for later. They didn't have much else to offer except soda and chips. Luckily the lady was quite nice as well, and refilled our water bottles from the sink instead of making us buy bottled water.

    After Rinnekoti the trail follows a road leading out of town, and then all of a sudden it just turns off into the forest and gets a lot more difficult. It was hard to find markers at some points in here and we just had to follow our instincts. It didn't hurt that we were walking most of the time and had the confidence that even if we got off path we wouldn't get far.

    I felt a little bad for Olli, because he had to walk his bike through many parts that he could have ridden easily. He has a 29er and it was only because of my cyclocross bike that we had to walk through these rooted rough areas. There were however a few spots that we could ride in between having to walk them.

    And as always, Finland gave up many really nice views. This whole area was filled with many small lakes and ponds. I'm quite sure hiking our bikes in the forest would have been much more frustrating if we couldn't stop for a view every once and a while.

    Walking the bikes was taking up a lot more time than we thought, and it was getting fairly late. There were two laavus in this area of the trail and we originally planned to stay at the second one, but when we got to the first laavu we weren't sure how long it would take to get to the second one. We didn't know if the trail smoothed out or if we would be walking a bunch more, so we just decided to stay at laavu 1. It happened to be a pretty nice place.

    This laavu was quite large, and we were the only people there. So we got the fire going to make tea and some food. We ended up eating a mix of carrots, tuna, and ramen noodles mixed with coconut milk. A sort of camp padtai. After dinner we were enjoying the peace of the camp fire, when three other dudes joined us.
 

 

    I was disappointed that we would have to share the laavu, but they are for the general public, so you have to share them if others come along. It was a little annoying when they started unpacking their stuff and pulled out many packs of steaks and bell peppers. Our meal had a lack of red meat, because Olli was practicing a meat free October. Which would have normally been no big deal, but watching these guys cook their steaks in butter on a cast iron skillet while discussing which of the three ground pepper choices they wanted to use really sucked. Oddly enough they cooked their bell peppers in brown pond water, to each their own.

    Later in the evening two more people showed up, but thankfully they were just out for an evening hike and only stopped to make some coffee and eat some marshmallows. It would have been a really tight fit if they decided to stay. Although it might have been warmer for us, since we brought our summer sleeping bags that are rated for an extreme of 0* celsius.

    Needless to say we had several layers of clothes to wear plus the sleeping bag. It wasn't exactly the warmest night, but it was enough to make it through. It was 0* during the night, so we were right at the limit.