Cycling trip to the national park of Seitseminen

This is a mini report of our overnight cycling trip to the national park of Seitseminen. Before this trip I've only made one overnight cycling trip, which was in the winter of 2013 in Nokia. That time the temperature plummeted down to -23 degrees Celcius in the night so I expected this trip to be slightly more enjoyable. Inna only started cycling a couple of years ago, and this was her first longer cycling trip.

A small bridge just below its big brother

The national park of Seitseminen is located roughly fifty kilometers north of Tampere, but we decided to take our bikes a bit closer to the national park by car before starting to cycle. This was probably a good decision as the roads starting from Tampere are quite boring for cycling. The weather forecast for the weekend looked decent: only a couple of millimeters of rain during the day and clear but a bit cold for the night.

We arrived in a small town of Viljakkala early in the afternoon and started cycling happily in the sunny weather. Our goal was to reach Seitseminen during the first day and cycle back on the next, covering about eighty kilometers in total. After only a couple of kilometers we passed one of the few gold mines in Finland but decided not to visit it this time and carried on cycling. A few minutes later we met a big bridge crossing a narrow part of a lake where we stopped for a while to take pictures. I had wanted to make a cycling trip for a good while already and it was so great to finally be there and realize that it actually was just as fun as I had imagined. It's so much faster to travel long distances than on foot, and it's a lot easier to make quick stops than when travelling by car.

Just as everything was perfect in my opinion we saw a warning sign by the road that told us that there was a dangerous downhill ahead. I didn't think about it much at the time, and we started descending it together. I went first and Inna followed not far behind. The hill was quite big and steep indeed, and my maximum speed was about fifty kilometers an hour even with all the bags I had attached to the bike. After getting down I turned my head to check on Inna and I couldn't see her anywhere. I knew that she wasn't far behind on top of the hill so I immediately realized that something is not right. I started cycling back as fast as I could and after passing the curve on the bottom of the hill I saw that she had fallen. A car had stopped next to her and the elderly couple from it asked her and I if we needed some help. Inna quickly told that she doesn't feel too bad although her thumb and elbow were bleeding a bit.

After a quick damage assessment we realized that everything went better than expected(tm). Inna sure had her share of bruises, but she didn't broke any bones, and the helmet saved her head. Miraculously the bike was alright too, and even the pannier that had flown away still worked and didn't have any holes in it. I told Inna that I'd get the car to drive back home, but she insisted on continuing the trip. She's tough! After the fall Inna explained me how her bike somehow started shaking during the descent and that made her fall. After cycling for a few kilometers more we stopped to check her bike, and I noticed that the mounting bolts of her rack had got loose. Luckily I had all the necessary tools with me, so I tightened up everything before carrying on.

The powerful rapid

We kept on following one of the many national cycling routes in Finland and soon turned away from the asphalt road to a smaller and in a way a lot nicer dirt road. The dirt road seemed to go only up and down all the time, and in a while Inna started to feel tired because of all the climbs. Inna didn't have to suffer for long as we soon found a perfect place for lunch: a lean-to next to a flooding rapid. These lean-tos are quite unique to Finland as they are free to use for anyone and state-funded organizations provide firewood for them. Quite often it's possible to spend a night in one and they aren't even that crowded usually. I can highly recommend trying one out if you ever happen to come to Finland!

Before the dirt road ended I saw a wind turbine in Finland for the first time. I guess we just don't have that many of them here, and I can understand that not many people want to have them near their houses because of the sound they make. After about ten kilometers the dirt road ended, but only for a short while as we soon turned again to the road that would take us to Seitseminen.

The dinner

The weather had been nice for the first half of the trip, but as soon as we hit the road to Seitseminen everything changed. At first it started as a light drizzle, but soon it started to rain more and more and in the end we were cycling in a hailstorm. I would like to stop here for a while and send my greetings to the weather forecasters at Foreca here. Sometimes it feels like I could predict the weather just as well as they do just by guessing wildly.

Being wet and cold we finally made it to Seitseminen, and I agreed without a hesitation when Inna presented her wish to pitch our tent as soon as possible. It was a good decision to make as it started raining and sleeting soon after we had everything ready at the camp! The night was fairly cold, and we didn't sleep all that well, mainly because of our cheap mattresses. In the morning our tent, bikes and especially the panniers were covered in a layer of ice. Our original plan was to cycle around the national park, but Inna felt really cold in the morning and the wounds and bruises from the crash didn't help either so we decided to just take the same route back.

Nothing spectacular happened on the way back, and we arrived at our car well before midday. Without Inna's crash it would have been a really nice experience, and I can't wait to try travelling by bikes again!

The bikes

I knew I forgot something - the crampons!

Having a lunch break

The frozen morning

Inna climbing the hill where she fell less than a day before.