# Little loop in finland.



## Tonis_t (Jul 29, 2007)

*Little loop in Finland.*

Hello, 
This is one of my favorite sections and when I went to a ride today I took some pictures. Since most of you guys are from NA then I thought it might be interesting for you to see what Finland looks like. I am Estonian myself but since I'm working in Finland ATM you have to settle to this . The quality is quite bad but that's what you get when you take pictures with mobile phone. I did a shorter version of this loop yesterday (about 52,5 miles) but it was cold and raining almost all the way so I cut it short. It was nicer weather today and there was even a bit of sun from time to time. So i did the bigger loop and took some pictures. It added up to 106,5 km (66,6 miles).

This is the route I drove(google maps): https://tinyurl.com/masfju

I didn't think to actually do the ride report until I was already riding. So I took the first picture as soon as I thought why not?
This picture is inside Orimattila and I'm just few kilometers in my ride.









See just as I told you only 2,67 km ridden (1,6 miles)









Next pictures are just outside Orimattila when I have turned off to Pukkilantie. In Finland there are loads of granite everywhere and they have to force their way through it when building roads.

















Sine spring is quite advanced state here everything is green, green, green, did I say GREEN. 
This is still the Pukkila road on the google.maps link above near the point D









This one is taken bit further on the road but still before Pukkila









I don't know why but for some reason Finnish people have build huge amount of barns everywhere. I didn't take pictures of all of them but just few.
Usually they are just standing there alone no other buildings around.









Then I met up with this other rider so I snapped a quick picture. He was an elderly man whom I overtook with my mighty road bike.









This happened less than a mile before Pukkila









There was this little red wooden church in Pukkila









and a cafeteria with a wooden man standing in front of it just 'hangin' there









Here you can see, that Pukkila is not very big place and has only few houses.









There was this lady reading bulletin board of whom I snapped this photo









Pukkilas border is just behind me and you can see the elderly rider who overtook me because I took my time with the pictures. You can also see the blue blob on the right side of the road.









Better picture of the blob. I'm turning right.









After the turn I cached up with the biker and we pedaled together for few kilometers just chatting and enjoying the nice day. He said that he rides hes loop almost daily (about 50 km from Mäntsälä to Pukkila and back to Mäntsälä again). Since I'm riding this route a lot I might meet him again. He was really cool man and it was nice to talk with him.
Here I stopped to take this picture of him on the little downhill.









Just few hundred yards after the previous picture is my exit point. He went straight ahead but I choose another route with less traffic. I'm going right.









Right after the exit there are some mailboxes and surprise-surprise a barn.

















The next part of my trip pretty much looked like this. Was really fun ride and nice landscape. Road was all twisty spiced up with tiny hills.

















A little sun. Gave huge boost to my spirit

















And then this weird thing. On my left is a wooden pole that you can't see on the first picture. This pole ad a bicycle picture on it. Why... I have no idea there was no houses near by and no bicycle lanes. Everywhere was just forest.

















You have to be careful in Finland you might see some bears.









Huge pile of steel came out of the road. They changed the tunnel that went under the road. Don't know why, there was just a tiny spring there. Why did they have to build a huge tunnel I have no idea. You can see the corner of the new tunnel on the right hand of the lower picture.

















Myllymäen school. It's in Mäntsälä.

















River of Mäntsälä









This is the center of Mäntsälä and the bus station

















Sign says to go straight it's just 43 km to Lahti (27miles)


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## Tonis_t (Jul 29, 2007)

Me doing the thing.









Bridge over the E75 highway. No bikes allowed.









Interesting. Google.maps do not show the railroad right next to E75 but it's there. You can see the E75 on the right top corner of the picture.









This is the exit to Orimattila that I took yesterday but today I went straight. This road is also really nice and with very low traffic. This is the J point on the google.maps. 









This is where the nature called. Just had to snap a picture 









Before I went over the railroad now I go under.

















This is how the road looked like from Mäntsälä to Lahti.









After 77,25 km (48,3 miles) I finally found a good example of typical Finnish roadside. Before it was always covered with trees but here friendly mister logger had cleaned things up. (Yeah 3h and 13 minutes have passed and my heart rate is 77)

















Lahti straight ahead. I'm going to right.









This is Lahti. Lahti is bigger town about 99 000 people live there.









Tired of the city life. Going back to Finnish wilderness  Pennalantie between N and P on google.maps

















Hard left! What's behind the crest? More curbs, what else.

















Little pub on the roadside. There is always people there drinking beer.









Last stretch. (point P on google.maps). From here the sidewalk goes up to the finish. Mopeds/scooters are allowed.

















Time to introduce the band before the last tune. My trek 2300. In case you were wondering what is this weird bracket on the left on my handlebar, here you can see. It's the bracket for my front light. I keep it with me but it makes a humming noise so I unmount it when I'm doing longer rides. I also pimped up the wheels and frame using retro reflector adhesive tape.









Met this lady who had some leg numbness issues. Chatted a bit and snapped a quick picture.









Center of Orimattila









The End









It was a nice day. The ride took about 4h 42 mins from start to end but actual riding time was few minuets under four hours. Was bit longer than I planned but taking the pictures and chatting with people took some time. Besides no harm done I still made it home to watch the Formula 1 race (actually I didn't watch it instead was doing this report).
Hope you enjoy the pictures


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## bigbill (Feb 15, 2005)

Thank you for posting. The Pacific Northwest in the US (Seattle area) where I live looks much like Finland. I live in a small town called Poulsbo which was settled by Norwegian immigrants.


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## il sogno (Jul 15, 2002)

Tonis_t said:


> Anyhow I can not find any way to comment the pictures. Is there a way?


You can use the Edit feature and post your comments in your original post. 

Great pics. A beautiful route.


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## Tonis_t (Jul 29, 2007)

il sogno said:


> You can use the Edit feature and post your comments in your original post.


Well, I wanted to post a comment and then a picture, then another comment and a picture. I don't seem to find a way to insert comments betwen the pictures. There are way too many pictures to put comments on the top of the post so that you could read the comment and then scroll down to the see the last picture.


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## Guest (Jun 7, 2009)

Tonis_t said:


> Well, I wanted to post a comment and then a picture, then another comment and a picture. I don't seem to find a way to insert comments betwen the pictures. There are way too many pictures to put comments on the top of the post so that you could read the comment and then scroll down to the see the last picture.



Those pics are great, thank you.

To do what you want to you need to upload the pics to a site like Picasa, then embed the photos into the post using







tagging, you can put them wherever you like and put comments before each photo.


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## filtersweep (Feb 4, 2004)

Cool photos. Looks rather flat there.


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## brujenn (Nov 26, 2007)

Tonis -

The best ways to add comments:

1 - Upload your photos to a hosting service like photobucket, and use html to direct the RBR server for displaying the photos. The html code will show in your post as you create it, but will not show when you upload. When you can see the html code, you can type your comments above or below.

2 - Open your photos in a photo editing or paint program and add your text directly to the photo. In paint programs you can add blank or colored area along any of the 4 sides of a photo.

Beautiful pictures, and a very nice ride, thank you for sharing. I love Finland, and that area. I think I ate at the restraunt in your photo.


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## Mr. Versatile (Nov 24, 2005)

Those roads look great! I wish I had something like that nearby. Our roads are full of pot holes, frost heaves, and chip and seal pavement. The countryside where you are looks beautiful, too.


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## M.J. (Jan 28, 2004)

nice to see Finland in spring/summer - I was in Helsinki and Porvoo in January a few years ago - it was cold and dark and cold - sauna was amazing

thanks for posting


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## jd3 (Oct 8, 2004)

This forum is even better than National Geographic. I get to see places that I know I'll never get to visit.


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## JP (Feb 8, 2005)

Thanks for posting. It is really nice to see other parts of the world. Those look like wonderful bike riding roads. How do the cars treat cyclists there?


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## Tonis_t (Jul 29, 2007)

JP said:


> How do the cars treat cyclists there?


Really well imo. I haven't had a single bad incident during the year I have been here. Folks are mostly nice and cars have always left me plenty of room. Commuting is much much bigger in Finland than sports related riding. You don't see many people on the bike training and since I'm one if the weird people riding road bike and wearing spandex, I always try to make an positive example out of my self (always smiling and waving to cars and so on). You still have to remember, that this is mostly country side and small towns. It's more hectic around bigger towns.


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## singlecross (Nov 1, 2006)

Very nice ride... looks great there in Spring..

singlecross


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## nate (Jun 20, 2004)

The photos are really good quality for a mobile phone. Your English is excellent. How is your Finnish? I assume your Estonian is perfect and am guessing you may speak other languages.


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## fasteddy07 (Jun 4, 2007)

Tonis,

What a great report, thanks for taking the time to share that with us!
I want to go there !


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## YuriB (Mar 24, 2005)

Thanks for the post. I'm long overdue for a trip to the motherland.


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## muscleendurance (Jan 11, 2009)

damn! y'all need to stop doing such nice and scenic ride reports, my list of touring trips is growing at an exponential rate  beautifull ride, looks like a joy to do, and pretty quiet it seems too. Yet another piece of heaven to bike in, but it was cold though yeah? fulll winter gear it looked like and snow on the roads melting.


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## Tonis_t (Jul 29, 2007)

muscleendurance said:


> damn! y'all need to stop doing such nice and scenic ride reports, my list of touring trips is growing at an exponential rate  beautifull ride, looks like a joy to do, and pretty quiet it seems too. Yet another piece of heaven to bike in, but it was cold though yeah? fulll winter gear it looked like and snow on the roads melting.


Temperature was about 13 Celsius (55 F) so there was no snow and I do have some more stuff to wear when it's colder . The last snow melted on April and there was some ice here and there on May. You might confuse the ground on the picture of my bike for snow (even I was thinking that something was wrong there) but it is actually sun paled granite that looks almost completely white on sunlight.


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## jsedlak (Jun 17, 2008)

Great shots and report! Reminds me a lot of Vermont with the rolling hills and country roads, small towns and red barns.


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## Geet (Sep 17, 2004)

Thanks for the pictures.

The ancestral home on my mother's side is just east of there near Lapinjarvi (Pockar or Puckaro). Nice to see that area again. 

One of these days I would love to do a ride from the far north around Inari to Helsinki. I drove up north (Rovaniemi) during my last visit there. The countryside is so beautiful in the spring and summer. Then top it off with the long days of daylight and lots of side routes and it is cycling heaven.


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## evs (Feb 18, 2004)

*Nice trip report*

I can't wait till you do another report with a better camera.  Are you going to be there a long time? If so, do you have another camera you can use? Do you do alot of rides like that? Good stuff. It looks like some fun roller coaster riding.
Thanks for the pics


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## Ridgetop (Mar 1, 2005)

Very nice countryside and those roads look like they are in amazing condition.


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