Our route followed the eastern Finnish border
beginning in Joensuu and ending in Lappeenranta, and was 267 miles consisting
of 23 hours 51 minutes of ride time.
The trip started on the 19th for
me, because I live in Vaasa and it was easier for me to travel to Helsinki
first so we could leave together the next morning. So at 7 a.m. on the 20th
we left by train for the 4 hour ride to Joensuu.
It was a little scary leaving for the first day, because you aren't really sure about all your gear selections, and whether or not everything will work how you expect it to. Do I have enough food? Do I have the right clothes? Do I have enough water capacity? Even with all the pre-planning, these were still questions bouncing around my head.
We had been planning the trip for months in advance, so armed with the knowledge that we should have planned for everything, we set off on the start of this adventure.
When we made it to Joensuu we went straight to the store to grab a few items for the evening meal we had planned. We already had the steaks, peppers, and potatoes, and we grabbed some drinks and chocolate to complete the meal.
So we took a selfie and got on our way to find a trail leaving town. In the research stage Olli found a trail that should take us through some pretty awesome nature, and it was only a few miles outside of Joensuu(oravataivala).
The plan was to find the trail head and eat lunch before we hopped on the trail to find our camp site for the evening.
We had been wondering if there was still a little snow left over in the area, because it had been snowing the week prior to our arrival. It didn't take long for us to find some.
The first day was already planned to be a pretty short day of riding, because we had the long train ride, and we wanted to take some off road routes which would be slower. So we took gravel or trail most of the first day, except when we were walking through a swamp and I started to really wish I had worn my waterproof hiking boots instead of my cycling shoes.
You'll find a re-occurring theme of the laavu(lean-to) throughout this trip. They are such an awesome advantage to have along the way. I have even started to wonder why I carry a tent with me anymore. The biggest advantages are having cut firewood waiting for us with a fire pit and of course a shelter to sleep in. This particular one was our lunch spot for the day.
After lunch we jumped on the trail, but it was a little more wet than I had expected. I had not anticipated the swamp crossings, but other than soggy shoes they were actually pretty neat places.
Our camp spot was at Iso Valkealampi laavu which came with a great view looking over this crystal clear lake. Olli approved.
As I said before the swamp crossings had all but soaked my shoes and socks, so I had to improvise some shoes to keep my clean socks dry while my other socks and shoes dried by the fire. I think I have learned that camp shoes are something I will carry in the future.
And of course it was important for the first dinner of the trip that we ate well, so we cooked up some steak, peppers, potatoes, and then chocolate for dessert. I also took this Sawyer mini water filter with us, so we could always have clean drinking water as long as we found a lake/river. I would highly recommend it.
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