Merry Christmas

Surly Ice Monster Truck Mk. III

About a year ago I had put together a nice Surly Ice Cream Truck build with the biggest fatbike tires available.

Waiting

This November follows the typical pattern of the seasonal variations in this part of Finland. Only rarely do we have anything else, like snow or ice. It's mostly just rain and grey weather. And this year the November rains fall upon a ground that already has experienced unusually rainy weather since the beginning of September.

Vigu Survival specialization, part 2/3

At the end of October it was time for the second part, fall survival, of the Vigu specialization in survival and bushcraft techniques. We started on Tuesday morning in Ekenäs with some theory.

Skim Beaufort first impressions

Regular readers might remember me having difficulty finding a sea kayak that fits me. Now I have one.

Over the hills and far away

Sometime during last fall we started to think about going a little further away for a bikepacking trip with a few friends. I had already thought about another version of a route I did a few years ago in Vindelfjällen, and this alternative got support from the others. We planned the trip in a messenger group, which was named "Over the hills and far away".

Vigu Survival Specialization Part 1/3

My last Vigu courses are coming up, a three course specialization in survival and bushcraft techniques. I would have taken my exam earlier if not for this specialization, which hadn't been arranged previously during my Vigu years and since I really wanted it, I applied for and was granted some extra time for my studies.

Surly Ice Monster Truck Mk. II

It came, it cracked and it returned. In less than three weeks the new frame arrived and Foxcomp switched the components directly related to the frame.

Choosing a kayak once again

This is becoming a bad habit, but I once again found myself looking at a new kayak. I wrote a little more about that a year ago, including a list of possible alternatives for me and I'm not going to repeat all that. After that pondering I returned the cracked Zegul Arrow Play to the shop and bought a new kayak, a Seabird Scott MV HDPE, which I still think was a good buy. I wrote a little about it here.

A four day sea kayaking guide course

I spent last week's Thursday to Sunday on a sea kayaking guide course in the archipelago of Ingå/Inkoo. In the Finnish canoeing association, Suomen melonta- ja Soutuliitto ry, the guide level is based on a four day course and an assessment weekend.

Surly Ice Cream Truck cracked frame

Now it has happened. Pigs can fly. While I haven't personally witnessed that particular phenomenon yet, I have to assume that it exists, since an equally unlike event has taken place: My Surly ICT has cracked, which is just about the last frame for which I thought this to be possible.

A kayaking trip for beginners

The local paddling club, Saaristomeren melojat, had a weekend trip for beginning kayakers this weekend. Eleven participants with three instructors, including me. The weather forecast for the weekend was extremely dynamic, which made everything quite interesting.

Olympus TG-4 impressions

There have been some questions about the Olympus TG-4 I bought, so I thought it was time to write something about it.

The Eastern part of the Archipelago Sea

Sanna-Mari asked if someone would join her for a weekend trip. I was the only one who could come, so Sanna-Mari planned a slightly longer route in the Eastern part of the Archipelago Sea. The weather forecast was again quite dynamic, but the weather turned out great again. The newspapers are saying that this is the most miserable summer for years, but I don't agree. I've had a number of trips with fantastic sunsets this summer.

The Rönnskär Archipelago

I'm doing only shorter trips this year, for family reasons. I definitely was away too much last year. This is another one in that set.

Isokari lighthouse island

A month since the latest blog post. Since then I've done some bike riding and kayaking, but there has been very much to do at work as well. Being a little sick didn't help either. This weekend, however, was reserved for paddling, at first for a visit to the Säppi lighthouse with the kayaking club, but due to the lack of participants it was cancelled. The reservation in the calendar still remained, however, and I got Jukka to join me for a weekend trip, with the goal of reaching the Isokari/Enskär lighthouse.

Venture Capella 173 - First impressions overnighter

Long-term readers might remember my frustrations with the Zegul Arrow Play kayak, which I returned to the shop, Melontapiste, last August. A little over a week ago the replacement kayak, a Venture Capella 173, arrived. I first took it out briefly just to check that everything was in order, i.e. that there were no leaks etc, but the first real test was an overnighter this weekend. I got O-P to join me. He wanted to do a slightly longer route, which suited me fine. We met at the paddling club and drove 45 minutes to Granvik, were we packed the kayaks.

Seabird Scott MV HDPE midterm review.

I wrote about my initial impressions of the Seabird Scott MV HDPE kayak last August. Since then I've used only this kayak, on evening paddles, overnighters and a few weekend trips. Now that my new number one kayak has arrived, making this my number two kayak,  it's time to expand upon those initial impressions.

Another perfect May kayaking trip

Last year we had a perfect kayaking trip at the end of May. It made sense to aim for the same date when planning a weekend trip for the local paddling club. I had some getting the order for the weather through, though, with everything between snow, hail, rain and sleet just one and a half week before the trip, but the nice weather came through just in time.

NIL Sea Kayaking Gathering at Brännskär

A bit of a radio silence here in the blog, not because I'm not doing anything, but rather because I've been fairly active. Several weekends have been spent on a cycling guide course, first aid course and so on. In addition, I've also been fairly active on my mountain bikes.

A little scouting trip

The weather forecast for the Easter holiday started out rather depressing, but improved almost by the hour when Easter got closer. In addition to being with my family I also had plans to be out a little to enjoy the spring. It turned out, however, that the spring advances very slowly currently, but that is no reason not to go out.

Vigu Winter Fells 2

I was already waiting for spring, in vain of course, since it arrives in the middle of April, when I headed north for the Vigu Winter Fells 2 course. I took the Winter Fells 1 course three years ago. It focused on moving in the fells with heavier equipment, living in snow caves, avalanche safety as well as using telemark technique for the descents. Winter Fells 2 builds on the same foundation, with more avalanche safety and steeper terrain, but instead uses randonnée equipment and techniques.

The beginning of the kayaking season

The winter has been rather strange. It has not been a cold and snowy winter, but at the same time it differs from the three previous warm winters in that it has been cold enough to get sea ice, sea ice that has prevented kayaking near Turku and instead enabled excellent Nordic skating. The four month long skating season ended a week ago for me. It would still be possible to skate on sea ice today, but my skates broke, and it was anyway time to start the kayaking season after a three month break.

Winter break

In Finland (as well as several other countries in Northern Europe) schools have a week off in the middle of February. The traditional name of this week is ski break or sports break, which implies that the kids should do some physical activities during this week. In Finland this week generally corresponds quite well with real winter conditions, but the weather looked quite bad before it. However, in the beginning of the week the temperature dropped to below freezing again and on Wednesday we got 10 cm of snow. It snowed more during the rest of the week and everything currently looks quite wintry.

Vigu Nordic Skating 2

Since taking the Vigu Nordic Skating 1 course a few years back, when I pretty much was a beginner, I've learned a lot. I feel pretty confident that I can read and assess the ice and skate safely in most situations, but when the ice gets thinner and weaker I've been careful. In practice this is the point when the ice pike goes through the ice, meaning that it is no longer fully safe. From that point on there is still some margin where it is possible to skate and this is what I hoped to get from the Vigu Nordic Skating 2 course, which finally took place last weekend.

Tour de Kurjenrahka - Early January Edition

The year has started with excellent outdoor weather. Good ice and almost no snow provided a paradise for Nordic skating, until it started to snow on Saturday. Snow is also nice and while I would like to have more, this was enough to warrant a fatbike overnighter. I also needed a shakedown ride for the Surly Ice Cream Truck, so this was an excellent opportunity. Jarkko joined me.