Vaskijärvi morning ride

Just another morning ride on the Vaskijärvi trails. It was surprisingly cold at 5:45, only 5°C, but it got warmer during the ride. It was a beautiful morning.

Midsummer ride

Just a short ride today to test out the new tires, a Racing Ralph Evo at the front and a Racing Ralph SnakeSkin at the back, both sized 29x2.25". Typically, it started to rain just as I went out and after one hour it was wet enough to get really slippy, especially with the rear tire, which was completely new out of the box. The Racing Ralph is generally not that grippy in wet weather and when it is completely new it is even worse. The Racing Ralph does roll very well, however, and has a nice volume. The SnakeSkin version should have sidewalls that should be durable enough, something which the Evo version does not have, at least not as a back tire.

I also got the camera, a Canon S90, back from warranty repair after a week. A few days after i bought it, I noticed that in certain light situations, an unsharp and light spot appeared near the middle of the picture, visible e.g. here. The repair shop switched the optics assembly to another one and recalibrated the camera. The problem seems to be solved now. It seems that Canon has some problems with their quality control, which is not acceptable on a camera in this price class.

Pirkan pyöräily

I went to Tampere with Toni Lund today and rode the Pirkan pyöräily road event. It was an early start. I got up 3:15 in the morning and drove to Paimio to pick up Toni. The actual riding started at 7:00 and I rode with the fastest group. Kaupin Kanuunat led the peloton very efficiently and we rode the 210 km long route in 6 h 6 min.

Day 2: Västerby-Harparskog-Turku

I slept quite well, after some initial problems catching sleep, and slept much longer than I had planned. But, after all this was vacation, so I got up maybe 6:45.

Morning porridge.




Finally moving again at 8:15.


Some trails have grown a lot.


Vitsjön, the first one.


Riding along Grabbskog Storträsk.


It seems that someone has designated the area for outdoor recreation. I found no less than four relatively new lean-tos in the area, all in very nice places. I guess it is a good thing if it gets people out to the outdoors.




Långträsk.


Some trail destruction was also found.


Going from Västerby to the Harparskog area I found myself bushwacking at a certain place. 20 years ago there was a (poor) path just around here, but no longer. At least the mosquitos got some food.


Vitsjön, another one.


Some remnants from the war 70 years ago.




Vitsjön, yet another one.


At this point I was running out of time, so I had to take the fastest way back to Turku, which meant around 120 km and almost 6 hours of riding, including a food break.

I rode for 140 km and approximately 9 hours, of which a little under 8 hours was actual riding time.

This time I did not have time to check out the trails west of Skogby. I guess I will have to come back and do that at some point.

Here is a slideshow with more pictures.

Day 1: Turku-Teijo-Västerby

I had been thinking of doing a trip to the forest where I roamed in my childhood and youth. This is mainly the Västerby area and parts of the Hanko peninsula. The Teijo area also seemed interesting. I had some winter vacation remaining and got away from work for two days.

The Salsa Fargo is packed and the ride has just started at 8:15.


Trying to get to Teijo using the smallest roads possible, which means forest roads and country roads of different size.








Finally at Teijo around 13:30.




The trails of Teijo do not disappoint.


Hamarijärvi.








Refilling the water supply. The risk of getting sick from the water is probably quite small, but it is not that much work to filter it either.


Dinner at Puolakkajärvi.


The Teijo area was everything I expected. It might be worth visiting it with an FS bike. There should be enough trails for at least 3 hours of riding.

Continuing towards Västerby along the smallest roads possible.


Lost. I took a wrong turn and the road ended. There was a nearby lake which I figured would have at least some animal paths, which would lead me to a road at the other end of the lake. The plan worked.


A short break at Hamarjärvi.


Finally in Västerby, around 21:20.


The trails seem to have grown lately.


Lillträsket.


Finally at my destination for the night, Västerby Storträsk, after riding for almost 14 hours and 160 km. Actual riding time was around 10.5 hours.




The lean-to was not here the last time I slept here.


A refreshing bath after a long day on the bike.


Because of the mosquitos I took a tent this time.


Making pancakes. Yumm!


I went to sleep maybe a little after 23:30.

Day 2.

Not much

I haven't been on the bike very much during the last week. Some work-related travelling and other things have prevented riding, but next week looks better. Today I went for a 2.5 h mtb ride in nice and dry summer conditions.



I also bought a new camera. The old one, a Canon Powershot A570IS, has served me well and will continue to be used in high risk situations, but I was becoming a little disappointed in the sharpness of it lately. Hence I bought a Canon Powershot S90, which probably is the best (in terms of image quality) pocket sized camera at the time of writing. It should do especially well in low light, due to a fast f2.0 lens and fairly large sensor with only a modest pixel amount.