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Visiting Kansas: flint hills June 23rd-25th (Day 2 and 3)

I slept pretty well, only waking up once in the night to zip up my sleeping bag. Around 5:30 I was laying there sort of half awake when I was fully roused from sleep by a WOOSH, and then I was greeted with a flash of fire, which turned out to be Jesse using his canister stove to light the fire in the pit. I had already been debating getting up, so I guess that was the sign that it was time.

The sun hadn't come up yet, so it was still dark with a bit of a night chill. The fire was a nice place to wake up and start thinking about breakfast. Soon after I got up I saw Dave shivering and making his way to the fire. We learned he had not slept well at all, because he didn't have a sleeping bag(or any blanket/quilt). I felt bad for him, but who goes camping and doesn't bring a sleeping bag? This was the mystery of the morning as we warmed up by the fire.

Breakfast for me was the beef stroganoff meal by mountain house, and to be fair, it was terrible. The small amount of flavor it had was not tasty. It's only saving grace was that I needed the calories, so I ate it anyway.

After breakfast Dave decided he was going to go home, because he didn't want to spend another night with no sleeping bag. Brad ended up convincing him that they could ride back to Emporia together and get an extra sleeping bag and then they could meet us at the next camp spot later in the day.

So we headed in opposite directions and planned to meet up later.

The ride from Olpe lake to our camp destination in the Flinthills was only another 15 or so miles, so again it was a nice straightforward ride. Just like the night before, we were greeted with clear skies and a generous amount of sunshine.

Because we camped on private land owned by Jesse's family, we had to take some farm trails through cattle land to get to our spot. The cows weren't as excited as we were, but we tried not to scare them and gave them time to move away from us. We were also lucky that there was a small river running through the property, so we were able to filter some new drinking water.

Ater we filled our water supple we did some exploring, hung out, and ate lunch while we waited on the other guys to show up. We decided to save the trek to the top of the hill until they arrived, so we could experience it as a group.... plus Jesse planned to only make one trip up there, since its a fairly steep hike through tall grass.

Once Brad and Dave showed up it was obvious that Dave wasn't in a good mood from not sleeping much the night before, so we told him it might be a good idea if he set up his hammock in some trees near the bottom of the hill and took a nap. He happily obliged and we made our way up the hill.

Once we got to the top it was clear that this had to be our camping spot. The original plan had been to camp near the river, but Brad and I were both pretty excited about carrying all our stuff and camping at the top. The photo really doesn't do any justice to how steep the hill actually is.

Some more cows came to greet us on our second trip up the hill. Jesse had offered 100 bucks to whoever could make it to the top of the hill without putting a foot down. We gave it a valiant effort, but neither of us made it.

Our afternoon pretty much looked like this. Just a group of dudes hanging out staying cool in the shade and relaxing. Just before dinner we went down to check on Dave and help him get his stuff up the hill, so he could join us. This time I had the Mountain House chicken and rice meal, which was a vast improvement over the beef stroganoff I had eaten for breakfast. The guys had also brought out stuff to make s'mores, so we had an awesome dessert as well.

So part of the deal with Brad riding back into Emporia with Dave was that they were going to drive out to meet us at the farm. Of course Brad brought his bike in the truck, but they also brought out a lot more gear. Which is the real problem when Dave decided he wanted to go home after dinner, so Brad had no choice but to leave as well since he couldn't carry all his stuff home on his bike. That is the short version of the story, but we felt really bad for Brad since he was super excited about our camping spot.

We ended up going to sleep around 9:30 or so, but I was awoken around midnight from a direct rain hit right between the eyes. The forecast said there wasn't supposed to be any rain, but I guess a quick storm blew in on us. I jumped out and threw on my rain fly and was back in my sleeping bag before Jesse was even done attaching his. The radar at the time was showing we should expect more rain, but after those few drops it didn't rain anymore. It didn't take long to be back asleep.

Day 3 started basically the same as day 2, except when I heard a WOOSH I knew what it was already. Then I noticed something small moving on my bug screen right above my face, which turned out to be a rogue tick on the inside of my tent. I had to unzip my tent and ask Jesse for a cup so I could be sure I got ahold of the tick without it falling on my face...... I ended up looking pretty pathetic trying to scoop the tick off the bug screen, but I got it.

Breakfast was quick, consisting of some breakfast bars and coffee. Then we worked on getting out gear all packed up while making sure there weren't any more ticks.

We made our way back to Emporia following the same route we took getting out there. Some good hills, sunshine, and more cows.

Then some dog started to follow us. We made a lot of efforts to get her to turn back home or at least stop following us, but none of them worked. We even lost here at a few spots when she saw other dogs or chased something into the bushes, but she always kept catching up to us. We ended up stopping at almost every house for about 6 miles trying to find someone that recognized the dog, but no one answered their doors, so we ended up with a companion for almost 10 miles. Eventually when we got into Olpe she left us and went to a house. So we headed into Emporia.

And just like that another trip was over. It was a nice relaxing trip into the flint hills to hang out with friends and ride our bikes.

Visiting Kansas: flint hills June 23rd-25th (Day 1)

Kansas. I was finally able to do some bikepacking on my trip there. I've ridden thousands and thousands of miles of Kansas gravel, but never made the time for bikepacking. We had talked about it years ago, but it never happened and then I moved to Finland. 

So I flew into the U.S. on the 19th, but didn't actually make it to Kansas until the 20th (I don't even want to get started on delayed/cancelled flights) which was a Tuesday, and we were scheduled to meet up on Friday the 23rd. The original plan was to meet Friday, hang out that night, and then leave Saturday morning to a friends family farm in the flinthills for a night of camping.

I have a redline 29er that I leave at my mom's house which I was suppose to use for the trip, but Jesse just got a used GT karakoram that he had done some modifications to, so I ended up volunteering to be the test pilot for its maiden voyage.

I have to give a plug for Eclectic Bikes in Emporia, Kansas. They provided us with many of the new parts on the GT including an awesome deal on a set of WTB tires to replace the mismatched old ones. I have and always will recommend a trip into Eclectic bikes to visit Ron, he is a knowledgeable and super cool guy with the best shop in town. 

When I arrived in Emporia to meet up with my friend Jesse and his neighbor/buddy Brad we decided that it would be more fun to leave out Friday night and make it a two night adventure. We just had to wait for the fourth guy Dave to show up from out of town. Dave arrived around 6:30-7:00 and we double checked our gear and headed from Emporia to Olpe lake, which is an easy 13 mile ride straight south. 

Jesse's wife took our photo and dubbed us the "railer crew", as in derailleur, but it's too easy to bend that into many other meanings..... especially with this squirrelly bunch.

The evening weather was perfect for the ride out to Olpe. Dry fast gravel is something I had been missing for some time, so it was particularly awesome for me. 

At Olpe lake you have to pay a fee to camp, which we expected, but when we arrived there was a little confusion with the camp host as he thought we each wanted a spot for ourselves, and wanted to charge us each individually. But we got a great deal once we explained we all had small tents/ hammocks and wanted to share an area. Once we found our camp area the host came by to make sure everything was ok and to see if we had everything we needed, of course we know he was just making sure we only took one spot, but never the less he was a friendly guy. 

Our camping spot was pretty nice with a picnic table, fire pit, neatly mowed grass, and trees so Brad and Dave could set up their hammocks. It's safe to say on the first night we weren't exactly "roughing it", but we hadn't even planned to be out that night anyway, so it was better than sitting in the living room watching television. Four guys tend to spread out pretty fast, and we quickly covered the picnic table with stuff. We had some snacks, made a fire, and opened up some rootbeers. 

Thanks to the neatly trimmed grass and flat area I was able to set up my tent in record time. I don't know what time we went to sleep, but my tent is incredible, without the rain fly the bug net has no obstructions when looking out. It felt like I had nothing between me and the vast night sky. 

For a short time I laid in the tent looking at the stars and listening to some drunks out on there boat talking and I think doing shots. I'm not sure, but they were having a good time and didn't stay out there too late, so it was all fair. After that I fell asleep listening to some weird sounds of something moving near the shore. 

Eastern Finland, Joensuu-Lapeenranta, May 20-25, 2017 (Day 6)

The last day of the trip. A squirrel or bird moving around woke us early. We knew there was a short day ahead of us and we could relax and slowly ride the rest of the way into Lappeenranta to catch our evening train. First thing was first, cook breakfast. 

Leaving our camp site we had around 15-20 miles into Lappeenranta, and the harbor where we could buy a local treat called a Vety. 

We slowly made our way out of the forest areas and into more occupied city area, which was actually a lot weirder than I thought it would be. We had just spent 5 days only visiting small cities and spending most of our time in the middle of nowhere, so I felt out of place at first. 

So in order to celebrate reaching our destination and to have a deserved rest, we bought a couple beers and headed to the harbor. 

This was the magic spot to buy the Vety. Vety means hydrogen and there is another option called Atomi which means atomic. I guess they named them after bombs, but the Vety is a meat pie with ham, egg, mayo, pickle relish, onion, and ketchup. 

It was so good that we went back and bought some more. I think I could have eaten 10 of these things, but we stopped at 2. 

After eating we checked out the harbor and also hide from the rain. This was 267 miles and 23 hours 51 minutes of riding from the start of the trip. 

It's hard to end a long trip like this. You end up getting so used to living off of the bike that it feels weird to go back to normal life tasks where you have everything you need. I felt funny for a few day after getting back to Vaasa and my normal life.

But that's it for this trip, and it's time for the next adventure. This time I've switch continents though and I'll be riding the flinthills of Kansas. 

Eastern Finland, Joensuu-Lapeenranta, May 20-25, 2017 (Day 5)

I woke up this day another year older. It was my 31st birthday, I wish I could say it was a night of solid sleep, but the people moving around all night looking at birds kept me up half the night. The thing is, we should have known, since we did camp in a public bird viewing area.

So when we got up we ate breakfast and then packed our tents, sleeping bags, and gear. The whole time people were coming and going. While we were packing the tents a little mink came out of the forest to check out what we were doing. I have never seen one in the wild, but I must say, the way they move like a slinky is humorous to watch.

When we broke camp and got on our way, we figured out that we left at exactly the right moment. If we had waited any longer there was a huge group of people coming from the parking lot to use the grilling area. We departed with the idea of stopping in Parikkala to refill our snack supply and get some drinks.

It turns out the local S-market came with a view overlooking Simpelejärvi (Simpele lake).

Then we moved on to the south and made a stop in Simpele, which you would expect to have a view of Simpele lake. Instead we were treated with a view of kivijärvi (rock lake) from the top of the hill near the local church.

Before leaving Simpele, we stopped at the Teboil fuel station/restaurant to have lunch. Mind you, I was a little worried at this point about eating at greasy spoon lunch places. Despite my worries though, we ordered some burgers and fries, and luckily they weren't bad. It was also a good time to take a break, because I was feeling and looking pretty tired at this point.

This day we had to travel 70 miles, and sadly had to use the highway a few times. It was extremely scary, especially when the big trucks loaded with trees would pass. Each time those trucks would pass we would be grabbed by the air pocket behind the truck, and it would pull us forward. Luckily we only had to use them for a few miles at a time, but it was still the scariest place we had ridden.

The rest of the ride made for a really nice day though, and we continued our path winding south down the border.

Not as much gravel as we wanted, but these paved back roads were almost as good, almost. Eventually we made it to a city called Imatra, where we knew there would be a laavu. The first laavu we came to did not permit camping, so we moved to another one right in the middle of the city. The next laavu was on the top of a high hills and came with some awesome views that extended all the way into Russia.

At the top of the hill was a giant ski jump which we climbed up to get an even better view, and take a selfie with the Russian landscape. 

We had a basic plan to camp at the top of this hill after we cooked dinner in the laavu, but that plan was changed after we realized that ALL (small exaggeration) of the teenagers from the town were messing around on the hill. So even though we had already had a long day of riding we decided to ride another 10-15 miles to find a laavu outside of the city.

When we made it to the entrance of the trail we heard some crashing in the forest and then something making snorting noises from behind the trees. We couldn't see what it was, I assume a moose, but we hightailed it up the trail as fast as we could after that. The next laavu was on top of another hill which was quite steep so we had to hike the bikes up the hill. The view from the top felt like we were in the mountains though.

We visited many laavus along the way, and many had funny names including this one. It was called sikalaavu (pig laavu). Maybe they give them funny names to make people laugh, I don't know.

It was a long, long day of riding, so it was really nice to finally relax in our camp spot for the night. It was a little bittersweet knowing this was the last night of the trip and we would have to go back to real life soon. So one more evening camp fire until next trip. 

Eastern Finland, Joensuu-Lapeenranta, May 20-25, 2017 (Day 4)

Well, getting food poisoning right in the middle of the trip wasn't exactly what I had planned for, but luckily this morning I was feeling a lot better.

Before leaving the cabin area we went to wash some of our cookware in the kitchen/cooking area in a separate building that was shared between all the campers. It became clear that the area catered to Russian tourists.

We got all our gear cleaned and packed up for the days journey into Southern Karjala. Again the sun was shining and the temperatures were going up.

A quick visit to the beach and then it was off in a south eastern direction. The exciting part was the amount of gravel riding we would get to do. The majority of our route would be dirt of gravel roads leading us toward the border and then straight down it.

Then in the middle of nowhere we came across a neat view point. On our way up the hill to this tower a moose ran across the road and down the hill in front of us, at least that's what Olli told me, I was too busy looking down and missed it. Once we got to the top, it had a pretty good view of the surrounding lakes and farms. It was also a good time to shed our long sleeve shirts, since it had started to warm up even more.

Then we made it into Southern Karjala, but there was no sign welcoming us there. There was however a sign welcoming people into Northern Karjala, so we took a photo with that one instead.

This was just outside of a place called Uukuniemi just next to a small grocery store. We decided to ask a local guy directions to a coffee shop so we could get a coffee and maybe some sort of cake. It was around 1 p.m. and the guy we decided to ask turned out to be drunk already. He instructed us to go back the way we came, because it was better than continuing forward. Needless to say we didn't listen to him, but we also didn't find a coffee shop.

Although we didn't find a coffee shop, we ended up finding a place to cook lunch and take a break. There was no way we weren't going to stop at a place Virtsalammen Laavu (Urine pond's lean to), and take a view of Virtsalampi (Urine pond). Now I can say I ate lunch at Urine pond.

Even though the lunch spot was called Urine pond, I didn't get any food poisoning on this day. And then after lunch we continued our gravel path toward Parikkala.

Our water supply was getting low, and we had a plan to stop at one of the lakes along the way to filter some water. The trouble was, all paths that led to the water were actually someones driveway, so we decided to stop at one house where we saw a man outside working. He had loud old Finnish music playing from the house while he worked on building a shed in his yard, but he had no fresh water for us to refill our bottles with, I guess his well had become contaminated, so he instructed us to visit the next house.

Next door we found a house and a museum for the old area store, and luckily there was a woman working in the yard of the house. She had bottled water that she gave us, and offered a free tour of the museum even though it was closed.

After our museum tour we reached the infamous frontier zone that I had been waiting for. I guess I expected something a little more than just some signs, but then again, I really had no idea what to expect. Either way I was really excited to finally see this area.

This is my favorite kind of riding. I love getting out on long gravel routes and exploring the back country. This day ended up being my favorite route of the trip, because of that.

Our chosen camp spot for the evening was a place near Parikkala called Siikalahti (whitefish bay). Siikalahti is considered Finlands best bird watching area. We found that there was an area to cook and a designated tent area right along the path to the wetland area. It was the perfect opportunity to finally use the tents we had been carrying.

After setting up camp and eating dinner we went to have a look at what the bird watching path had to offer. We had already seen many people going down the path with HUGE camera lenses, so it must be good. There was bird life all over, as well as, mammals swimming around in the water.

Thanks to the large amount of bird life around us, two things happened. The first is we listened to birds sing all night, and the second is we listened to people walking around all night looking at the birds. It's super creepy, and it's hard to sleep when you keep hearing people moving around and talking loudly about whether or not we were supposed to be camping there.