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Bikepacking in the far north.

Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2022 12:48 pm
by Bearbonesnorm
I reckon there'll be some love for this. :wink:

https://www.bikeland.fi/en/arcticbycycl ... pHDfyK1VXw

Re: Bikepacking in the far north.

Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2022 1:25 pm
by faustus
Hell yeah! :-bd

Sign me up for the Artic Post road route..!

Re: Bikepacking in the far north.

Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2022 1:43 pm
by Moder-dye
Heart says wow! But not likely :cry:

Re: Bikepacking in the far north.

Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2022 2:53 pm
by whitestone
Oh, yes :-bd

Having been to Rovaniemi twice I'd love to go again. I think the Arctic Post route might be a little "challenging" in winter :lol:

Edit: Well lined pockets are essential as well - once you start getting in the far north things get expensive very quickly. Big distances and not a lot of people = spenny!

Re: Bikepacking in the far north.

Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2022 2:59 pm
by faustus
Short 'dry' season for sure...and you have all night sunshine (and lots of midges too). The natural beauty and isolation looks fantastic though

Re: Bikepacking in the far north.

Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2022 4:24 pm
by The Cumbrian
Those lean-to shelters are great too. I've stayed in a few of them in Sweden, and even when I was sleeping in my hammock they were really useful for cooking and lounging about in, especially as most of them had fire places.

Re: Bikepacking in the far north.

Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2022 5:20 pm
by fatbikephil
Looks good that. I said after the Rovaniemi I'd like to go back for some touring aboot. I wonder if they will maintain any of these routes in the winter for some fat biking? :-bd

Re: Bikepacking in the far north.

Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2022 5:55 pm
by whitestone
fatbikephil wrote: Tue Jun 28, 2022 5:20 pm Looks good that. I said after the Rovaniemi I'd like to go back for some touring aboot. I wonder if they will maintain any of these routes in the winter for some fat biking? :-bd
Looks like some trails are used - https://www.bikeland.fi/en/talvipolut (but the info boxes are all in Finnish) also the blurb for the Arctic Post route says that it's reckoned to be one of the best ski tours in the world. I suspect that there's quite a bit that could be done - on our first trip we went for an Arctic bivy and there were snow-mobile tracks all over the place so it's quite possible that most Laavus near towns/villages get visited but really you need some local knowledge.

Just looked at flights to Kittila - £500 and takes nearly a day or £580 but just seven hours. No guarantee on the last leg that a bike bag would fit on the plane - we had "fun" getting back one time as the airline had swapped out the stated plane for a smaller one. The head baggage handler headed out to measure the plane's cargo door to check that our bike bags would fit and only then could we check-in!

Re: Bikepacking in the far north.

Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2022 6:15 pm
by voodoo_simon
fatbikephil wrote: Tue Jun 28, 2022 5:20 pm Looks good that. I said after the Rovaniemi I'd like to go back for some touring aboot. I wonder if they will maintain any of these routes in the winter for some fat biking? :-bd
Have you seen https://instagram.com/rolloutdoors?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Re: Bikepacking in the far north.

Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2022 6:45 pm
by fatbikephil
Yep definitely something I'd like to have a go at probably year after next. I know somebody who lives in Oulu so will probably combine bike trip with seeing them.

Re: Bikepacking in the far north.

Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2022 7:41 pm
by Alpinum
Thanks for sharing Stu :-bd

The land up there is well used in winter, more so than in summer for obvious reasons.
There's a helpful online map on which you can have winter tracks on display. Will look it up once infront of the desktop pc as I can't find it on my mobile.
Also various papermaps that show winter routes are available.
With this you can quite easily plan a trip without much/any local knowledge. Of course heavy snowfall will make things interesting once out there.
Eg. a late winter trip to Halti must be a grand fatbiking trip.
Must go to Finland again...

Re: Bikepacking in the far north.

Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2022 8:25 pm
by Dakkar
Bet the mossis are a bugger.

But Europe's own Alaska

Re: Bikepacking in the far north.

Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2022 8:35 pm
by jay91
Looks/sounds great :-bd