For his annual winter bikepacking getaway, Tom Wall of the Cycling366 YouTube channel caught a cheap flight to Northern Finland. He towed his Thule trailer into Pyhä Luosto National Park, where things didn’t go quite as planned. Find a written reflection from Tom and watch his 23-minute video here…

Words and photos by Tom Wall

Every year, I make a point of going somewhere really cold for a winter bikepacking trip. I love the escapism it brings, and places are often even quieter during this time, making it the perfect way to be alone with my thoughts and experience the good type of being alone – peaceful solitude.

This year, I flew to Rovaniemi in Northern Finland, a city that straddles the Arctic Circle. I caught a cool double-decker train to Kemijärvi and rode the 35 miles north to Pyhä Luosto National Park, where I’d planned to stop at Huttuloma, a wilderness hut that’s free to stay in. The route I’d chosen turned out to be a logging route at first, so huge lorries would occasionally whizz by me at breakneck speeds, kicking up snow, which put a damper on things!

  • winter bikepacking lapland

I’d brought all my winter camping gear and my Thule Chariot Cross trailer with ski attachments for the deeper snow. I would swap the wheels out when I eventually reached the park. The snow was deep and hadn’t been ploughed, so the five miles left of my first day were spent trudging extremely slowly through knee-deep snow. By the time I arrived at the hut, I was shattered. As you’ll see in the video, things continued to not quite go to plan here, but not really in a bad way!

After an incredible night in the national park, I looped around to the next set of huts for lunch. I didn’t see a single person at all – bliss! My plan had to change (a common feature of this sort of trip) because the next hut was inaccessible due to deep snow. Instead, I headed back to Pyhä and stayed at an apartment I’d seen online, just off the ski slopes nearby.

  • winter bikepacking lapland
winter bikepacking lapland

The icing on the cake for me was the next day, when I rode 30 miles back to Kemijärvi on some incredible cycle paths and wild camped on a small frozen lake just outside of town. I’d seen loads of people walking on these lakes and ice fishing, so I knew the ice was strong enough to hold me, my bike, and my tent.

Beyond the chance to be truly alone and reflect, my main takeaway from this trip was simple: Finnish people are incredibly kind and generous, and it’s such an amazing place to ride a bike. I didn’t get one funny look pulling the massive trailer and cycling in the snow. To the Finns, cycling and being outdoors in any condition is normal – the way it should be!

Further Reading

Make sure to dig into these related articles for more info...

FILED IN (CATEGORIES & TAGS)

Dispatch

Please keep the conversation civil, constructive, and inclusive, or your comment will be removed.