Finland Border to Border: Days 5-8
Monday, March 9, 2015
I noticed that I did not tell you where we skied in the last post! The tracks lead us from Taivalkoski to Syöte (in Pudasjärvi). Syöte is a downhill area on the ”edge” of the Syöte National Park. In the evening (after I sent our last post), there was a brief presentation for us about the park. It looks like a place I would like to visit in the summer!
Today’s Border to Border plan was to ski 88km from Syöte to Ranua. While the weather was awesome and the skis were working well, Ahvo and I decided to “quit while ahead”. We skied to the 44km point where lunch was served and the bus was waiting. We caught a ride (with a number of others) to the last feed/service station where we hopped out to ski the last 12km (GPS says it was more) on the lake and into a stiff headwind. Having never skied or trained this volume, it was probably a smart choice, although admittedly I feel like I should have/could have done it. The body has confirmed, however, that taking it a bit easier today was not a dumb idea.
Today marks the “halfway point” in our journey and, fittingly, we are spending the night in the center of Ranua, the home of the Border to Border.
“Two decades (now three) have passed by in the eventful history of the "From Border To Border" ski tour. In 1983, the then mayor of Ranua, Kauno Harju, presented his idea of organising a ski tour across Lapland, from the Russian border to the Swedish border, to his colleagues Tapio Leppäkoski and Jorma Törn. Mr. Harju had been inspired by the Canadien Ski Marathon, a two-day and 160 kilometre event organised in Canada. Kauno Harju’s idea was to organise the event via the municipalities of Kuusamo, Posio, Ranua, Simo, Kemi, Keminmaa and Tornio. And indeed, this became the basis of the then 320-kilometre route until 1993.”
~ From Border to Border website
I decided not to put the GPS off while we were in the bus, so today’s graph is a little more exciting than normal (Ahvo might be able to ski at 75km/hr, but I certainly cannot!). As you can see from the graph, we had a pretty substantial downhill today as well. It was a bit of a test for our downhill skills, especially since the track was hard. The “cost of skiing” today was 2658 kilocalories and I completed 537% of my daily physical activity.
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
The journey today continued with a “light” 46km from Ranua to the small town of Hosio with a stop about 20km in to roast sausages over an open fire. Before that, we took the official group photo as well as a “Team USA” photo. Although I am registered as a Finn for this trip, I am a proud member of both teams. Team USA included Minnesotans Mike Brumbaugh, Kate Ellis, Leslie Hale, Jan Guenther, and Byron Lubenkov and Alaskans Colleen Jones, Lindy Jones, and Merry Ellefson in addition to Ahvo and myself.
The trails from here on out will be a bit flatter than the beginning. As we head further east in the Northern Ostorbothnia region we will be skiing a lot on lakes and bogs and otherwise flat terrain.
Our lodging tonight was a bit different than previous nights. So far we have been in hotels in groups of 2-4. Roommates are alternated for maximal social benefits (unless otherwise requested). Tonight, we have been divided into two groups. The group I belong to is spending the night in the Ruona Village House that we skied past during the day while Ahvo’s group is some 15km away at the old school building in Hosio, which was our final destination today.
I cannot report what is happening tonight in Hosio, but when we left (the bus took my half of the group back to Ruona), folks were enjoying coffee, pulla (Finnish cardamom bread) and heading to sauna.
Ruona is, so far, the most interesting place that we have stayed. When we skied through, we were met by a polar bear that likes to hug (female) skiers! The man offering us juice today has the (unofficial) Finnish record for streak running (30 years in June 2015!), the volunteers at the village house made us a fantastic dinner that was followed by oven cheese served with a berry stew for desert, our sauna was portable (see the pictures), and one of the local men was selling some of his handcrafts including a pine tar sauna elf that made its way home with me.
The evening was spent chatting and some of our international skiers learned about Finnish history (most Village houses/schools in Finland have some sort of commemorative plaque with the names of those who died in the war(s)). The locals were able to speak English pretty well, but I also spent some time translating.
It looks like I won’t be able to send this post tonight. We are a bit “off the grid” and I have pretty weak cellphone service, so using my phone as a modem is not going to happen.
The “cost of skiing” today was 2293 kilocalories and I completed 447% of my recommended daily physical activity.
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Almost done! Today we skied from Hosio to Honkamaa, roughly 60km (a bit over according to the GPS). Those of us that were staying at Ruona hopped on the bus after breakfast for a quick trip over to Hosio where our journey began in the backyard. We are still a bit “off the grid” so I will have to send these posts later.
The trail was a winding, but “flat” (a lot of gradual downhill). A beautiful sunny day.
I bet some of you are wondering what kind of track/trail we have been skiing on. Sometimes our route makes use of established and well-used trail systems, and sometimes we have a single-track that winds through the woods. The organizers do a good job keeping a good to decent track ready for us and considering the conditions of melting/freezing, sometimes utilizing the side of highways and sometimes winding through the woods, I don’t think anyone can justly complain about the occasional dirt, gravel or occasional unevenness.
In terms of skis, it seems that just about everyone has a pair of no-wax skis in addition to their waxable skis with them, Yoko Optigrip 2.0, Salomon Zeros, and Atomic Skintec seem to round out the top-3 with some fishscales mixed in. A waxing service is available at every hotel/house that we have stayed at and like any skiing event, a few wax gurus can be found in the group.
The “cost of skiing” today was 2987 kilocalories and added up to 624% of my recommended daily physical activity.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
We made it!!
Another roughly 55km day is behind us, and Sweden is just across the river. It was yet another beautiful sunny day of skiing. Today’s journey brought us from Honkamaa to Karunki (just North of Tornio). The terrain required a fair amount of double poling and I started laughing somewhere about the halfway mark because it seemed like every time the trail turned/curved left it would reveal another 400-800m stretch of flat double poling.
Today, I was admittedly pretty beat. My muscles were lacking energy and I could easily start complaining about what parts of me are sore (but I will spare you, I came to ski, not to complain!). Ahvo skied with the “fast” group and I skied a bit slower. At the beginning I skied with some of the other Americans and eventually I fell into the same rhythm as our ski guide Jussi.
The group ahead of us and the group behind us saw reindeer, but all we saw was reindeer poo. I did see reindeer on our first day of skiing, but they were on a farm in the distance. I did see a number of animal tracks in the snow though. Easily identified were moose, fox, reindeer, rabbit, and skier tracks.
The “cost of skiing” today was 2232 kilocalories and added up to 470% of my recommended daily physical activity
After skiing we headed to sauna again, ate a small snack and prepared for our evening program. You see, at the beginning of the trip we were instructed to come up with a skit/song/presentation with our “national teams”. Those who were alone were allowed to adopt or be adopted if they did not want to perform alone.
We heard a lovely poem from a Finnish-British skier, a joik (traditional Sami song) from the Norwegian/Danish Team, saw a Bavarian dance from the German team, and the Finnish team had a picture identification competition (identify what day of skiing our pictures were from) and a little pantomime of how many times each of us fell (6 times from me!). Team USA came up with a song. Merry and Byron wrote the words and it was sung to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. For your enjoyment, I got it on video!
Here are the words to the song:
We have come from near and far
To ski your trails and drink your beer
Have you seen Ahvo here
All in orange in Yoko gear
Thank you saunas, berry juice
Keeps us strong, our bowels loose
When you piss out in the snow
Ask Jan Guenther where to go
Oh we love the power lines
And thank God Angry Birds had wine
Sitting on the t-bar up
Walking down and crawling up
Pickles here and pickles there
Pickles, pickle everywhere
Gerard chased Merry through the trees
Germans chasing Jan with glee
Nikolai chasing Leslie too
Till he broke his pole, boo-hoo
Thanks to Tor for sharing wax
Snow and sausage to the max
Legs are tired and hearts are beat
Kate will sleep and Mike will eat
Rajalta Rajalle we love yes
Byron’s journey was the best
Broken skis and broken poles
Abandoned clothes to bare his soul
Lindy follows Coleen true
Ritva translates til she’s blue
Jorgen skis with British pride
OK now this poem has died.
Kippis!
Friday, March 13, 2015
The journey home. This morning we all began to head our separate ways. One bus brought folks back to Kuusamo via the airport in Kemi while the other headed to Oulu. Ahvo and I headed to Oulu where our car was parked. Now I am in Vuokatti for some teaching next week and Ahvo is headed back to Minnesota on Sunday.
I am not sure I know how to describe the end of skiing border to border. A unique journey has been completed, and new friends were made. If you share multiple kilometers, hotel rooms, challenges, successes, and an experience like this, you inevitably grow closer. There have been a lot of hugs and handshakes since we made it to the finish (of Finnish) line. Some tears and lots of laughter.
A special thank you to our bus guide Elsi, our ski guide Jussi, our bus driver for most of the trip Lauri, and head organizer Anitta. Without your hard work, skiing and logistics would have been a lot more challenging.
To the RR2 group, thanks for the memories! We hope to see you in the future!
And to those of you who have considered skiing from Border to Border in Finland (and those who have not), it is an unforgettable challenge and well worth every drop of sweat, tube of klister and sore muscle. Make sure to stop by at FinnSisu or GearWest to ask Ahvo or Jan about the trip!