Yeti rides

Compact cameras

noreply@blogger.com (Yeti) — Sun, 12 May 2013 08:24:00 +0000

I'm a firm believer in having a compact camera, despite also have a camera system with two bodies and five lenses as well as a usable camera in the smartphone. The reason for this is that an easily accessible compact camera is a lot faster to use than a system camera or smartphone. As an example, all the pictures from the MTB-Turku spring camp were taken "on the run" without affecting the riding speed of the group, and with a camera slower to use I would only have gotten a few pics from the short breaks. This type of photography also defines what kind of compact camera is suitable for me: It has to be small enough to fit into a larger pocket or the "gas tank" bag of the bike as well as operable with one hand, including getting it in and out of the pocket/bag while riding. This means that the largest pocket cameras are not small enough, but the biggest limit is that the lens cap has to be automatic, in one way or another. And the possibility to do time lapses is also needed, either through built-in functionality or a interval remote.

The best compact camera currently is probably the Sony RX1. With its full-frame sensor and 3000 € price it is a camera for very specific needs, and it does not have an automatic lens cap. Returning down to earth and more normal prices, we have the Sony RX100 as the current king of the hill. It is a little too expensive for my use and budget, though. The image quality should be excellent, but its 28-100 mm equivalent f1.8-4.9 lens has a quite small aperture in the tele end. Despite the rather large sensor, this limits the possible DOF control. It does have an automatic lens cap.

Another interesting camera is the Panasonic LX7. It has a good lens, 24-90 mm equivalent f1.4-2.3, which should enable at least some control of the DOF. Is it possible to get an automatic lens cap for it?

I have a Canon S90 since three years. It is a good compact camera and has held up to a lot of abuse. The latest incarnation, the S110, is still an interesting alternative, but the RX1 and LX7 cameras beat it in almost all aspects. The 24-120 mm equivalent f2.0-5.9 has an unnecessary small aperture in the tele end, preventing any softening of the background in most cases.

The Olympus XZ-2 has the same excellent lens as the popular XZ-1. The 28-112 mm equivalent f1.8 to 2.5 allows at least some control of the DOF. An automatic lens cap is available.

The above cameras are the ones I've been at least a little interested in. For a more complete round-up, see here or here.

Some time ago the kids started to want a camera to play with. My three year old Canon S90 still works well, but I started to look into getting another camera for myself and giving the S90 to the kids. I didn't want to pay too much, though, but I do have a brief experience with a cheaper compact before I bought the S90. I returned the camera after a taking some test pictures. It had 14 MP, but the picture quality was worse than that of my previous 7 MP camera and I ended up with the S90, which I have been satisfied with. From what I've seen, the cheap compact cameras are not much better than a good smartphone camera.

I regularly checked if the Canon S100 would be on sale after the S110 came out, but didn't find one for a reasonable price. Instead I noticed that my local Rajala camera shop sold the Olympus XZ-1 for just 199 € and after some googling I bought it.

After using the XZ-1 for a month I'm quite satisfied with it. The sensor level image quality is neither worse nor better than the of the Canon S90, but the lens is significantly better. Both have 10 MP, which mostly is quite sufficient. If the picture otherwise is technically in order, you can make a pretty big print from 10 MP. The XZ-1 also has a built-in three stop ND filter, making it possible to use a large aperture also in good light. There is no built-in timelapse software, but a cheap interval remote works fine. The Canon S90 got timelapse functionality with the CHDK. I would prefer a built-in electronic viewfinder in addition to the back display, but only the Fujifilm cameras have that. I do have the Olympus VF-2 electronic viewfinder, which fits the XZ-1, but being a separate item, I might not use it much. The camera came with an ordinary lens cap with an attachment strap, that falls off when the camera is started. That doesn't still allow you to put away the camera with one hand, so I got the optional automatic lens cap that is attached to the filter thread.

The main advantage of the XZ-1 compared to the S90 is that you can actually soften the background at least a little, which I think is quite usable. The bokeh isn't the smoothest, though, which sometimes is visible and sometimes not.

You won't get the same short DOF as cameras with bigger sensors, though. An m43 camera with a good lens, like the 45/1.8 here, gives more possibilites and going up to APS-C or fullframe sensors it gets even easier.

Another feature I like a lot is the super macro setting. This is something I've never had before. It focuses, with full autofocus, down to 1 cm from the lens. The S90 didn't focus this close even in manual focus, which was a pain to use.

The large aperture is useful even in this macro mode: Compare the previous picture with this one, which is taken with a smaller aperture.

There are of course downsides. Every camera is a compromise and it is hard to get image quality, size and an affordable price in one package. The XZ-1 is a good enough solution for my purpose, but there are some drawbacks:
- The video is not good enough for me, but I do have another very good camera for that purpose.
- The camera could do the shutdown routines in a different order. Currently it empties the buffers to the memory card before it retracts the lens, while I would prefer it to retract the lens first. This is of importance in group rides when you need to be very fast.
- The mode dial on the top is too loose. I use only the aperture priority mode, but the dial doesn't always stay there. I might try some tape with it.
- It is bigger than the S90 and does not fit into a jeans pocket.
- The image quality degenerates quickly on ISO values higher than 400. A camera like the Sony RX100 probably has a two stop advantage here, though the faster lens of the XZ-1 levels the field a little.

MTB-Turku Spring Camp

noreply@blogger.com (Yeti) — Mon, 06 May 2013 16:04:00 +0000

It was time for the third MTB-Turku spring camp, arranged by JJ. A cabin was rented at Elijärvi, and it was to serve as our base camp for two nights.

We were supposed to meet at the cabin at 17:00, but only a few people actually managed to find the cabin. The rest of us met at the parking place a few kilometers from the cabin where the ride of the evening would start. We started to ride a little before six in the evening, the trails being mostly the Vaskijärvi tour extended to Soikeroinen.

Matti H had to take the "Orange", instead of his almost legendary rigid singlespeed Surly 1x1.

The group of eleven riders about to enter the Vaskijärvi Nature Reserve.

The Iso-Valanen lake. Just four weeks earlier I skied there with JJ.

Peippo with his Moonlander. He was one of the four riders that rode all trails during the three days. It takes a rather strong rider to be one of fastest with such a bike. My summerized Mukluk takes a little more energy to ride than an ordinary mountain bike, but a Surly Moonlander with the wide rims and tires is still a bit heavier to ride.

My summerized Mukluk. I had the full frame bag on and rode without a backpack.

Riding on...

.. until the first flat tire after less than an hour.

Peippo

Pave

On the move again.

Duckboards again.

The Kajavajärvi lake.

Nature reserve forest.

A short break.

A steepish climb with Kapu...

... followed by Matti H and Pave.

JJ on top of Pirunkirkko (the Devil's Church), a steep cliff.

Matti H avoids dehydration.

Going down.

After this we rode on forest roads back to the cars, a little after the sunset at 21:40. Back at the cabin it was time for sauna and some food.

The following morning started with breakfast, after which we gathered at the cars and observed a quick field service of a rear suspension mechanism.

We then drove for maybe twenty minutes to Rantapiha, where we started riding the new duckboards north of the Savojärvi lake.

A short section of terra firma...

... before entering the duckboards of the Kurjenrahka mire.

The Kurjenrahka mire wasn't especially colorful.

Riding on...

... until an involuntary bath in the wet mire. The rest of us waited until dryish clothes were put on.

The duckboards of the Vajosuo mire.

At the Vajosuo shelter, where JJ starts the fire for grilling sausages.

Matti H is a happy man. Grilled sausage and beer.

Vajosuo doesn't look much different than Kurjenrahka.

The new duckboards are welcome, though. The old ones are difficult to ride on in anything else than dry weather.

After a short while a tired exploded with a loud bang. The outer tire had a large slit in it, but it was fixed and got the rider the closest route to the car.

A somewhat soft trail.

The final hour of riding for the day was rather speedy.

Back at the cabin a little before six in the evening. It was time for dinner and sauna.

The cooks were quite scary, but the food was great.

The rest of the evening passed quickly with sauna, swimming in the no longer frozen lake, watching Mtb videos and talking.

The next morning was grey with the occasional rain shower. After cleaning the cabin we packed our stuff and rode for 30 minutes to Mynämäki to ride the Kalliobaana trails. Only six of us now remained.

It was rather cold and took some time to get the warmth back. The rides of the previous days were also felt in the legs and in took a half hour for me to really get muscles going.

The weather was still gray, but it didn't really rain. The speed was quite good this third day. I managed to break a chain link during a climb, but it was quickly fixed.

Lunch.

After some more riding the following technical problem occurred. A broken rear derailleur hanger was also quickly fixed.

A long climb to really stress the last muscle fibers in the legs.

Only four of us rode the entire route. A long way home necessitated leaving earlier for the others. With one hour of riding left my rear derailleur broke down. A zip tie kept it together until the ride was over.

The sauna was not warm, so we had to make do with a hot shower before finishing the day with a delicious pizza.

Thanks to all the participants for the company and an especially big thanks to JJ for pulling this together. An excellent way to spend a weekend.

Spring overnighter with the kids.

noreply@blogger.com (Yeti) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 15:06:00 +0000

It wasn't hard to convince the kids to go on a short backpacking overnighter. I just had to mention the word pancakes. We decided to go to the Liesjärvi National Park, where I've only been once before, a brief visit maybe 15 years ago. It is a one hour drive from Turku, which isn't too bad. The weather forecast was good, promising crisp and clear weather, something that wasn't entirely realized.

We arrived at the Pirttilahti parking place around half past six in the evening and immediately started to walk. The weather was sunny and quite warm, almost 10°C. The trail was wide and easy to walk on.

The lakes were still mostly ice covered and there were still not many signs of spring in the nature, except the birds.

The trail went on an interesting low ridge between two lakes.

Two of one.

An interesting looking tree.

We now have a new photographer in the family.

After the ridge section we continued through the forest to the tent site at Savilahti. Camping is only allowed on a few designated sites in the national park.

Still some snow in the forest.

Savilahti, a bit before the camp site. It now started to rain slightly.

A silent rain and the sun behind clouds. After the tent was up, the boys disappeared into the tent to warm themselves in the sleeping bags. The air wasn't particularly warm.

The sun soon came out again.

Some occasional rain showers kept things interesting.

The light was quite extraordinary.

The little photo session was finished with a little hail.

Meanwhile in the tent.

Now it was time for the pancakes. I think I will move to using canisters with the stove now that the summer is coming.

It soon got dark and it was time to sleep.

The night was not silent. Whooper swans, loons and goldeneyes flying by generated sounds through the night. The kids stayed warm in their winter sleeping bags, while I stayed cold in my 600 g summer bag, which I brought to save weight.

The next morning certainly sounded like a spring morning from inside the tent, with the sound of at least ten bird species. Outside it felt more like November, though. It was cold, slightly foggy and the sun was nowhere to be seen, despite the sunrise being at 5:30.

Fresh ice. The temperature went a few degrees below freezing.

The kids still had it warm and cozy.

Time for breakfast. I had forgot to bring my coffee filter, but fortunately I had a spare Buff.

While I packed down the tent, the younger boy had to confess that he had played by the ice and got a little wet. Nothing like cold toes to learn a lesson. The spare wool socks kept him warm enough for the rest of the morning, though.

On the move again.

Real forest in the national park.

And on we went, returning the same way as we came.

The weather was still grey...

... but as we approached the car, the sun started coming out. The return journey in the car passed under a clear blue skye.

A nice little outing again. During the car ride home, the kids asked when we should return.

PS. I also tested a new compact camera during this trip. The kids wanted a camera, so they now use my three year old Canon S90, which still is an excellent compact camera. I bought a Olympus Xz-1 for a very good price, now that the Xz-2 is out, and tried it out on this trip. All picture until we left in the morning were taken with it.

The sensor level image quality is very similar to that of Canon S90. Both are 10 MP cameras, with a sensor much larger than ordinary cheap pocket cameras have. The Xz-1, however, have a very good lens. At 28 mm equivalent it has an aperture of 1.8 and at the full zoom of 112 mm an aperture of 2.5, compared to the S90 values of 2.0 at 28 mm and 4.9 at 105 mm. The lens also otherwise seems sharper with less purple fringing. The Xz-1 is bigger than the S90, but can still be operated with one hand only (a requirement of mine) with the optional automatic lens cover. This far it seems great.

Spring

noreply@blogger.com (Yeti) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 13:57:00 +0000

Since my last skiing trip of the winter, the spring has arrived rapidly. Mostly above freezing temperatures with rain quickly got rid of the snow, though I personally would have been happier without the rain, since there is already enough water in the terrain. I originally planned to go on a backpacking overnighter with the kids this weekend, but when I had to spend Thursday and Friday in the bed with a high fever and some vomiting, this didn't happen. On Saturday I felt better, and spent a lot of time outdoors during the weekend strolling around in the neighbouring forest with and without the kids, in an attempt to get rid of the intense aching in the back after having been in the bed for two days. Hence a status report of the spring where I live.

It feels almost unbelievable that I was skiing on 30 cm of snow two weeks ago on mires, so I wanted to check see how the small mire 200 meters from my backyard looked. It was wet...

Generally, there is a lot of water in the terrain.

No overnighter, but twist bread is ok.

And pancakes also seem acceptable.

There is still some snow in the pine forest, and it will take some time before the spring is seen there in the form of new green plants. There are a number of evergreen plants there, though.

In other type of forests, and especially open places, the first spring flowers are already there.

Liverwort.

Coltsfoot

The lakes are still mostly covered with ice...

... but the birds are already returning to the nearby wetland.

Coot.

Whooper Swan.

Common Goldeneye.

The night temperatures still occasionally go below zero, but the ice quickly melts again.

This kind of winter-to-spring transition is optimal, at least from my point of view. Ski season continued into April and then a quick transition into real spring, not like last year when the ski season ended around March 20th and then nothing happened almost for a month.

Skiing in the Vaskijärvi Nature Reserve

noreply@blogger.com (Yeti) — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 14:32:00 +0000

The winter continues and there was no reason not to go out on a ski overnighter, especially since this isn't anything you normally do in April. Usually we have spring by now in Southern Finland. JJ also thought a ski overnighter would be a good idea and suggested the Vaskijärvi area, which consists a several large open mires and a few lakes.

A little over five in the afternoon we got going. It was several degrees over freezing and the sun felt warm. There was a short forest section before we arrived at the mire.

The open mires are usually surrounded by less open mires with small pines.

Arriving at the lake Vähä-Valanen.

The glide wasn't spectacular off the snow.

JJ skiing on Vähä-Valanen.

A short mire section later we arrived at the lake Iso-Valanen.

Valastensaari

The summer route, which I've done a number of times on bike.

Continuing on the Valastensuo mire.

The next mire, Karja-Kurjensuo.

Less snow off the mire.

A small island on the mire.

Arriving at the lake Kajavajärvi.

Time for a short break.

The outlet from Kajavajärvi was open and a pretty beautiful place.

A little forest before arriving at the Kaukosuo mire.

Kaukosuo

After a little over three hours of skiing we made camp. This time I had my bivy bag. I made pancakes again, which tasted great.

A good, but short, night's sleep later we had breakfast. I made my coffee with a GSI Outdoors Personal Java Press this time.

We started skiing again at eight. The weather was now cloudy and it soon started to snow.

The snowing soon stopped, at least for the moment, and we continued back with a different route. The glide was very good and after the colder night the skis didn't sink more than a few millimeters into the snow.

There were occasional bare spots on the mire and I even found a few cranberries in perfect and tasty shape.

This mire area differs from the Kurjenrahka area, where I've spent more time, in that here the mires often end with bare cliffs. In the Kurjenrahka area the mires are usually surrounded by quite dense forest.

Straight ahead towards the Vaskijärvi lake.

The lake Vaskijärvi.

A short forested mire section...

... and then we are back at Vähä-Valanen.

A half kilometer more and we were back at the cars. It started to snow...

A very nice little trip again. Thanks for the company, JJ.

The Last Ride of the Winter...

noreply@blogger.com (Yeti) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 17:19:00 +0000

... I think, at least of you don't count commuting. The excellent winter weather of March continued into April, and at the time of writing, the ten day weather forecast shows no sign of spring. Still, the sun inevitably brings an end to the winter soon.

The open mires a bit north of Turku have a good network of prepared classic style ski tracks. While we didn't get crust strong enough for riding on this winter, which is a bit surprising considering the unusually cold March weather, I've had my eyes on these ski tracks now for a couple of weeks. It would be possible to ride on them with a fatbike without causing any damage by keeping to the narrow hard area next to the ski tracks where the ski poles hit the snow. I've refrained from it since there is the possibility that some skiers would dislike seeing tire tracks there, which would be a totally unnecessary conflict. Also, I wouldn't want to contribute to the steadily decreasing respect for the ski tracks in Finland. I finally thought it would be ok to go after the Easter holiday, when the likelyhood of anyone skiing there would be close to zero. The ski tracks on the open mires were still quite ok, but in the forest they were totally unusable.

On Monday evening 1st April I started riding around 17:30. With daylight saving time finally in place, the sun would go down 20:15, so I had enough time to ride 40 km to the Vajosuo mire.

Leaving the city...

.. riding through the countryside...

.. before finally closing in on the target area. At this point I noted that the water in my downtube bottle was partly frozen, so the temperature was decreasing again.

The crust on the mire was in some places strong enough to ride on, but the packed ski track trail was better.

I continued over the mire...

... until I set up my tent just outside the National Park border. Tents are unfortunately not allowed inside the National Park.

I had brought full winter gear, but had to sleep with the sleeping bag partly open in order not to overheat. Otherwise I slept well. The night was silent, but when it got lighter in the morning I finally heard the characteristic spring mire sound of the Black Grouse.

I got up a little before sunrise at 6:45 and set up a camera for some time lapse photography, though I think I used a too long interval between the pictures to get a usable result. The temperature was now -11C.

Back in the tent, I had coffee and a half flapjack for breakfast and then went out for some more photography.

At eight in the morning I had packed down my gear and started riding again.

A short forest section showed that the ski tracks were no longer in particularly good shape.

Nice riding on the Kurjenrahka mire.

Signs of spring.

An outdoor paradise on the mire.

The tire tracks are barely visible.

A second breakfast after two hours of riding at the Savojärvi lake.

Continuing on a trail packed by walking.

I don't think a skier would mind me riding here.

Entering the Lammenrahka mire.

Time for lunch.

After lunch I continued for another hour along the ski track trails...

... before running out of time. I then had a 40 km ride ahead of me, of which 15 km was on forest roads consisting of everything between mud, ice, slush and water.

My last hour turned into pure misery, when I had the worst bonk for one and a half year. The plan was to use the opportunity to train riding with an energy deficiency, since it is good training for the long endurance race events, but I hadn't planned to let it go this far. Riding in a zombie-like state isn't fun, but it does teach you something. Hopefully I learned to try to remember some extra energy bars next time.

And finally a small video:

Astute readers will notice that I had a big tent, as well as some other extra gear. I tested bringing everything I would need, except food, for a week-long unsupported solo trip in Lapland*. The new Salsa Alternator Rack Wide enabled me to put a larger drysack on the rack. My 12 liter seatbag would not suffice for this. I also intended to take a little more food in a separated dry bag strapped underneath the tent, where I now had the Ridgerest ground pad. The ground pad would have gone on top of the dry sack on the rack. However, after arriving home from a visit to my mother I had very little time to pack and could not find any more straps, so I just grabbed a little food and packed it were it fit. I think the original plan would have worked fine, though, and would have been good enough for the purpose. The tent is however unnecessary big and heavy, with space for three persons (two in the winter) and weighing 3.5 kg, including ten snow pegs and some other stuff. I also would take pogies on such a trip instead of just ordinary gloves.

* The Lapland April fatbike trip will not take place this year. This time I'm quite content with the winter so far, and I decided to save my limited vacation time for something else. Maybe next year.

Skiing video

noreply@blogger.com (Yeti) — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 07:11:00 +0000

I did some filming during my ski outing two weeks ago. The result can be seen below:

I encountered some technical problems this time. The GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition let me down again with its poor battery life and I only got the clip from 0:22-0:33 in the video with it. I had some special angles for the GoPro planned, but didn't get the possibility to try them. It might be the best action camera currently available, but it doesn't work when it's cold. It seems the battery is drained even when the camera is turned off and the old trick of having the batteries in a warm place and inserting them only when needed isn't really an alternative with the weatherproof housing and all. To be honest, I had a third party battery (still can't get a spare original battery here in Turku), which seems even worse than the original GoPro one. On the other hand, my Panasonic GH2 handles cold very well and only used up the capacity of about one and a half battery.

The other problem has to do with the cold and moisture condensation on the lenses. You have to be very careful not to breath out near the camera, but still the front lens often get some amount of condensation freezing to ice from the surrounding air when it is cold. It is fairly simple to get rid of simply by warming it and wiping it off with a finger, though. This time, and actually a week later as well, I encountered condensation on other lens surfaces as well, which is more difficult to handle. I'm not sure how or why this happens, but it occurred when the temperature rose rapidly from a temperature colder than -20C. Presumably the lenses had not warmed at all being inside the camera bag, and when I took them out in a temperature of -10C the humidity level was already higher causing condensation on the lens surfaces when the lens caps were removed. This has not occurred when the temperatures stay cold all day.

Ski and fatbike overnighter

noreply@blogger.com (Yeti) — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 15:00:00 +0000

Well, sort of at least. I was on skis and Toni on a fatbike. March has been a really good winter month, something which doesn't happen every year. We've had night temperature of -20C and day temperatures just below freezing, and were it not for the snowfalls, we would surely have a crust strong enough to ride on. But skiing is very nice as well and especially with a pulk that eliminates the usual need to save weight.

I started skiing in Marttila at 18:00 and with only a half an hour before sunset it was clear that I would not make the mires in time. The sun had already disappeared below the trees when I arrived. The temperature was now about -7C and decreasing rapidly.

Suprised when checking the snow depth. 90 cm was a lot more than expected, but I tried another place and came up with the expected 40-50 cm.

The mire was nice. I had only visited a small part of it before, on duckboards with a bike.

Looks like a small rodent has fallen prey to a bird.

Me and myself.

More mire pictures.

Tracks.

After maybe one and a half hour I arrived at Hirvikallio, a rock that provided a good view over the mire. I erected the tent and took a few pictures while the dusk turned to darkness.

By now I was getting hungry and had the most noble of outdoor foods planned for the evening: Pancakes with strawberry jam.

While I made and ate pancakes, Toni arrived pushing his fatbike through the snow, after having some problems finding the place.

Poor Toni had to save weight and thus had to make do with a freeze-dried meal.

The air temperature was now -17C and the forecast for the night -25C. Eventually we entered the tents. Inside the sleeping bag the warmth soon returned to the body and especially to the poor toes. It was probably around eleven in the evening when we actually went to sleep.

Again the night was very silent, with only the occasional cracking noise from trees in the cold. Around five in the morning it started to get light and we got up a little before seven. It was a beautiful and cold morning.

Toni in the morning.

We decided to do a quick photography session before having breakfast. The early morning light lasts only for a short while.

My track from yesterday was firm enough for Toni to be able to ride on it.

The making of a "Fatbike in the morning sun" picture.

The rock with the tent.

A ski track made with a snowmobile.

When we got back from the photography session, the sun was closing in on the tent.

Toni's bike and some stuff.

Coffee in the making. The temperature was still -24C.

Eventually we were done with the breakfast and packed our stuff. I went a little ahead, since my toes were feeling rather cold and a little skiing would bring back the warmth to them.

The plan was for Toni to ride in my ski and pulk tracks from yesterday. A glorious plan, but the tracks were not firm enough and Toni had to ride in the machine made ski track instead, taking care not to ride in the actual ski track and thus destroy it. I waited were my own track crossed the machine track. The temperature rose quickly now.

And there he comes.

We consulted the map and found that the best route for Toni was to continue on the machine track, while I took another route.

I took a slightly different route back to the car through a forest and over bare cliffs.

Going downhill the pulk has a will of its own, but it works fine if there is enough room.

When I returned to the car the temperature was only -6C and arriving home after a forty minute drive it was barely below freezing. Classical great March weather!

Thanks to Toni for the company again! Toni's report is here.

Out skiing

noreply@blogger.com (Yeti) — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 08:22:00 +0000

Still no crust strong enough for riding on, but there are of course other ways to move on snow. I wanted to go out on a little trip to enjoy the March winter, which can be the best part of the winter, and chose to do it on skis. When the weather forecast also showed cold and clear weather, I took Friday off from work to. The plan was to do some 40-45 km of skiing through forests and on mires.

I started skiing a little before four in the afternoon, after my wife drove me to the south end of Rehtsuo. After a short while I arrived at the mire. Somewhat surprising, I had to ski a little uphill to get to the mire. Usually mires are lower than the surroundings.

The weather was sunny and nice.

It was very easy skiing with the pulk (a Paris Expedition pulk) and a lot nicer than having a backpack.

Continuing across the frozen Rehtsuo mire. This kind of skiing is pure enjoyment.

Somewhere here the boardwalks of the summer trail should be.

Sunset at 18:15 was getting closer, but there would still be good light for onen hour after that. I thought I felt a little weaker than I should, which probably was due to my donating blood the day before. In my experience, donating blood affects you for several days afterwards and a bicycle trip with its higher intensity would probably have been a poor idea.

I soon ran out of mire and continued through a short forest section before crossing the fields near Vahto. At Myllysuo I again came to the forest. I looked for a place to stay, but recent logging made the area less desireable and I continued towards. It was now quite dark and at one point I thought I saw a flashlight in the middle of the forest for a second. Quite spooky. I later checked the map and there was a cabin about one hundred meter from where I was and my own light was probably reflected in a window of the cabin.

I continued and succesfully orienteered to a nice spot next to the Kangenmiekka mire and put up my tent a little before nine in the evening, drank two cups of hot chocolate and ate a few sandwhiches before going to sleep. It was now noticeably colder.

I slept fairly well through the night. It was a silent night, and the only thing heard was the cracking sound from trees in the cold. No owls (a slight disappointment), no wolves (I have yet to hear wolf howling) and still too early for the Black Grouse.

It started to get lighter before six in the morning. I took my bag of remaining sandwhiches into the sleeping bag to make them softer and slept for another hour. At seven I got up and had breakfast.

A eight o'clock I continued skiing. It was now a crisp -17C, but the sun would soon make it warmer.

My track from yesterday.

I explored the open mire of Kangemiekka. The pulk and the new skis made for very good skiing. I think this is the ultimate ski setup for the terrain I traversed.

The next section was through a forest. At one point I went through the ice crossing a ditch, getting my skis wet.

The water immediately froze to the skis preventing any glide and I had to scrape it off with a knife.

I continued though the forest and checked out some places that looked interesting on the map.

I mainly preferred to find my own way, giving more interesting orienteering, rather than follow the marked (summer) route.

The history of snowfall and thaws during the winter is visible on this fallen tree.

More snow art.

Just when I arrived at the Vajosuo mire and started thinking about lunch it started to snow and the wind picked up.

I had looked forward to a sunny, warm and long lunch break and even brought a book for the occasion. That didn't happen, but otherwise the lunch break was nice with a traditional Finnish liver casserole instead of the usual freeze-dried food. The advantage of having a pulk and not having to save weight...

After the lunch the cloud cover became thinner, but there was still some dramatic clouds.

Entering the Laidassuo mire.

Dinner for one.

Soon the clouds blew away and the sun came out. The wind kept the perceived temperature chilly, though.

Animal trail.

The Lammenrahka mire.

Nearing the lake Lakjärvi.

Still some open places on the Lakjärvenrahka mire.

The Lakjärvi shelter looked very inviting, but I still continued.

Finding a good tent spot at Lyyttärinkallio.

Pyttipannu for dinner.

It was to be a nice cold night.

I woke at half past five in the morning and decided to nap for a short while, but I overslept and it was almost half past seven before I got up. It was again a crisp morning with a temperature of -17C.

Mystery tracks near the tent. A largish animal had followed my pulk track and turned away only six meters from the tent. It went through the crust several times, meaning it was quite heavy. Unfortunately I took only this picture and thought the animal could be identified from it, but it is far from clear. The filter box is 90x72 mm, making the tracks quite large. Anyone know for sure?

Packing up and starting to ski at 8:30.

The Kurjenrahka mire.

A familiar rock. I've slept there twice.

I still had time for some skiing before catching the bus that would take me back to Turku.

I arrived at the bus stop with 20 minutes to spare. This had been an excellent trip in fantastic weather. It doesn't get much better than this, unless travelling a good distance to the big wilderness areas in the north.

And finally a video I made from the trip:

Skis

noreply@blogger.com (Yeti) — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 12:25:00 +0000

Like most active outdoor people, at least those living in the Nordic countries, I have a bunch of skis for different purposes. For skiing outside the groomed tracks I now have the following skis:

From the top: Salomon X-Adventure 88, Fischer E-77 and Kärkinen Eräsuksi.

My oldest pair of skis is the Fischer E-77, sometime from the end of the nineties. These skis have been my number one choice for just about any trip. They have worked well skiing in the Kilpisjärvi-Halti region in Lapland in April, on the ice in Kvarken and on shorter trips closer to home. I even sometimes commute to work with them. They are narrow enough to fit into groomed XC ski tracks (58-52-56 mm) and have steel edges to get some bite on hardened crust in the fells. A fish scale pattern provide grip going uphill. We generally don't get very deep snow here in Southern Finland, so they usually work well enough even in loose snow, but lacking floatability and having a stiff tip they are sometimes still rather suboptimal.

The Salomon X-Adventure 88 skis were a bad purchase, not because the skis are poor, but rather since I don't really have any use for them. I got them cheap, but I'm currently not going to spend much time skiing in fells, where these skis make sense. They are quite short (189 cm) and have a sidecut that makes them fun (88-60-78) going downhill. The fish scale pattern gives a decent grip going uphill and these would be my current choice if I were to do some fell skiing, but that seems a little unlikely right now. I've used them on a single trip to get some more floatation in the spring.

My newest pair of skis is the Kärkinen Eräsuksi. With a length of 270 cm and a width on 7 cm it is a traditional Finnish forest ski. The tip is loose to work well in deep snow. I have yet to try them really deep snow, but this far they seem great. When the snow is really loose, no amount of width or length is enough to keep the ski floating, but a long ski with a loose tip still makes it possible to ski. The loose tip always go up to the surface, making the going a lot easier than if the ski always is below 40 cm of snow, something which I've experienced with my Fischer E-77 skis. The length makes the skis a little more clumsy, but for someone my height they still work well and I haven't found them too bad in really dense forest either. They are not a good choice for hilly country, though, since they are difficult to turn going downhill. For that purpose, a pair of the new snowshoe/ski hybrids should work better, though I don't see how those could be a better choice in the typical Finnish forest and bog landscape.

The Fischer E-77 skis have the first model of the Salomon BC binding, the Salomon SNS Backcounty. It is still going strong, and I think this type of binding is an excellent choice. Another option is the very similar, but incompatible, Rottefella BC system. The picture below show some different models of the Salomon BC binding, with the oldest one in the middle. The two other bindings look to be exactly the same binding with different names. All the bindings are manual versions, since the automatic one is supposed to have some problems.

I'm now on my third pair of boots for the binding. The first pair of boots wasn't very great, but I was very satisfied with the Salomon X-Adventure 7 boots from 2005 (I think). Due to my frostbites last winter I had to buy bigger boots to keep the toes warm and I now use a pair of Salomon X-Adv 6 boots, which also are great.

Using bindings like these for the forest skis is very nontraditional, but I think real ski bindings make the skiing feel a lot better that the traditional rubber boots and associated generic binding. The only time a traditional rubber boot is better would be the really wet conditions, like JJ demonstrates here.

In addition to the skis above, I have a pair of wide telemark skis with Scarpa T4 boots, a not so good pair of XC skis for traditional style and a pair of XC skating skis. Since I live only a five minute walk from a groomed XC ski track, my XC skating skis actually get the most use, though that type of skiing mainly for exercise and training, rather than for the pure fun of skiing.

Riding on snowmobile trails

noreply@blogger.com (Yeti) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 16:57:00 +0000

Pure fatbike content this time. While we do have a lot of winter trails in and around the city of Turku, there are very few snowmobile trails in this part of the country, so when Toni found a longer one close to where he lives in Paimio there was immediately interest in a group ride.

I was the only one besides Toni who turned up, though. We started riding a little over eight in the morning last Sunday, starting with maybe fifteen minutes on road. The road took us to the Paimio river valley. (Some photos by Toni Lund).

The river valley even provided some ups and downs.

After a while the trail left the river valley and continued through forests and open fields.

The sky was still a little cloudy, but there was hope that the sun would show itself. This winter has been the most cloudy one in 25 years. The statistic from Helsinki shows only 50 hours of sun since the beginning of December.

After a few hours we took a coffee break. I even had a few sandwhiches.

Toni makes sure that the world knows how good we feel.

A bag from a sleeping bag and some foam pad makes an excellent drinking water carrier in the Salsa Anything cages.

Toni is very satisfied with the 45NRTH Dillinger studded tires...

... while I prefer to have a little for float from the wider Big Fat Larry tires.

After the break the familiar feel of ice cold fingers, before regaining the warmth, was mitigated by the fact that the clouds were disappearing. The sun shine made it feel warmer than the actual temperature of -4C.

After a while we had to turn back, but the snowmobile trail continued. Toni will probably check out where it goes at some point. On the way back there was some uncertainty regarding the route...

... but a fatbike ride is not complete without some bike pushing.

Some riding on roads was still left. We pumped more pressure into the tires, since riding on road with snow pressure is rather hard.

And then there was less than one hour on road left.

A very nice ride, made even nicer by the sun. Thanks for the company and the route, Toni.

Toni's ride report is here.

Winter overnighter with the kids

noreply@blogger.com (Yeti) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 18:17:00 +0000

The kids wanted to go on a short overnighter and Thursday evening this week turned out to be a good time. I didn't want it to be too cold, since the boys haven't slept outdoors that much in the winter before, but this time the weather forecast was promising. A night temperature of around -8C isn't very cold, but it still has a wintery feel to it.

I left work a little earlier, but we still got started later than I would have wanted. Fortunately, the day is now noticeably longer than two months ago during the winter solstice. The sun is now up for 9 h 43 min, compared to 5 h 43 min two months ago. We started walking around sunset.

I used a pulk to get the bulky sleeping bags, a tent and a little firewood with me. Check out Mark's instructions for modifying the Paris Expedition pulk. Note the Ikea bags.

When we arrived at the Piikkiö Linnavuori shelter, there was a couple there grilling sausage, but they soon went home and left the fire to us.

The kids didn't want to sleep in the shelter, so I had to put up the tent, which I had brought for the unlikely case that the shelter would be occupied. The temperature was now a clear and crisp -9C.

The following thing to do was to grill our sandwhiches.

The weather was still clear, but there were clouds coming in, which would mean that it wouldn't get any colder.

The boys soon thought it to be a little cold and the suggestion to go to the sleeping bags got support. The sleeping bags soon returned the warmth and we went to sleep fairly early.

I got up a little before seven in the morning and started a fire. This time I even brought a small axe, which made it very simple to start the fire. With a only knife there is usually a lot more work.

After a while it was time for breakfast. It was now warmer with -4C and cloudy.

Some time after eight in the morning we got going again.

Yours truly, photographed by the seven-year-old boy.

Continuing on the winter trail.

Soon back at the car.

A nice little excursion again and some quality time with the kids.

Vajosuo Beer Ski Tour 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Yeti) — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 15:18:00 +0000

The not yet quite traditional Vajosuo Beer Ski Tour of MTB-Turku took place this weekend. We've done it once before with a good number of participants. This time only me, JJ and Timo, an acquaintance of JJ:s, participated. The weather forecast was ok, with the temperature a few degrees below freezing. We intended to do a circular route covering some larger mires in the Kuhankuono area, in fact pretty similar to the route I took on a crust ride two years ago.

We started a little after three in the afternoon. The temperature was around -2C and the snow fairly wet, causing it to stick to the skis and destroy the glide. The first section was through a forest.

JJ

Timo

A forest road section on the way to the lake Lakjärvi. A Land Rover with snow chains had come pretty far.

The Lakjärvi shelter was occupied by a couple of guys intending to do some fishing.

Skiing on the Lammenrahka mire. It started to snow lightly.

After Lammerahka came the Laidassuo mire with a short passage with denser forest in between. It was also getting darker now.

We occasionally followed a fresh ski track, at most a few hours old, the maker of which seemed to have made great route choices. Unfortunately, off the mire the route was no longer that great and took us through some denser forest.

After a while we came upon a ski trail in good shape that in the beginning took us in the right direction. After a while it didn't feel right, though, and after consulting the map it became clear that we had made an orienteering mistake costing us about one hour. It was now totally dark.

Eventually we arrived at the Vajosuo shelter, after about five hours of skiing. There was another group of six there, but there was an empty firewood shed just some fifty meters from the shelter, so there would be place for all of us. It turned out that this other group had taken almost the same route as us, spending the previous night at the Lakjärvi shelter. JJ quickly started a fire.

The fire was used to grill sandwhiches and sausage, in addition to melting snow to water. I'm personally not that fond of melting snow to water on an open fire, since I find the smoky taste more suitable for a good whisky rather than water.

The other group went to sleep a little earlier than we did, leaving us at the shelter and fire. Despite the name, this was not a drinking trip. I had one liter of beer with me and the others slightly more. We went to to sleep about one hour after midnight. I slept well in my 600 g summer down bag with a 600 g Prodigy X quilt on top. It was only about -2C during the night, so the summer bag would have been enough, though not entirely comfortable. With this combo I was very warm and comfy.

JJ got up at eight in the morning to make a fire, shortly followed by me. The other group had been up for an hour already.

Breakfast and water for coffee.

Some time before ten in the morning we started skiing again, starting with the Vajosuo mire.

Entering the Kurjenrahka mire.

Some wet place still on the mire.

The last section was very slow, since the skis didn't glide at all. Looking under the skis, this was no surprise.

JJ scraping off the ice under the skis. This would help for a minute or so.

We skied on though, and it took around three hours to get back to the parking place.

A very nice little overnighter again, along a very nice and interesting route. Thanks a lot to the participants.

GoPro Hero3 Black Edition First Impressions

noreply@blogger.com (Yeti) — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 19:11:00 +0000

I wrote a little piece about my view on action cameras last fall. Since then the GoPro Hero3 Black Edition has entered the market and caused quite a buzz. I read all I could find about it, and while most of it were just hype without any actual testing, I did find enough solid information about it to buy one. My interest is not the traditional action camera jump-out-of-a-perfectly-functioning-airplane or watch-me-ride-15-minutes-with-the-same-view stuff, though see how I could add some dynamics to my videos by some POV angles. For me the action camera should allow me to get some footage in difficult (e.g. wet) conditions in addition to the POV angles.

On paper the GoPro Hero3 is very impressive, with a good number of video modes, including some potentially very interesting ones. Read this article for a good overview of them. It also has a built-in WiFi interface that works great with my Android smartphone. With the included housing it can take almost anything.

The form factor is in my opinion poor compared to that of the Contour Roam, which could be mounted just about anywhere without problems. The only situation where the GoPro form factor is better is for the chest harness. I also liked the Contour Roam weather proofing better, since it could take most ordinary situations like rain and water down to one meter without an extra housing. With the GoPro the extra housing is in practice always necessary and it does affect the video sharpness at least marginally.

So how good it is? Some systematic tests by knowledgeable people show that it actually is pretty good, with the video quality showing good resolution (though still far from the nominal resolutions) and color rendition.
My first impressions below are non-scientific and geared towards my own intended use, so take them for what they are. (Note that I'm using the 25 fps modes mainly, since I have some ambitions outside pure internet use. Faster frame rates are generally easier to use).

As can be seen from the video, the fisheye effect is pretty strong, which in my opinion is the biggest drawback. It can be dealt with in different ways, but I would prefer a more straight image. In some situations the fisheye effect won't be noticeable, in other situations the image can be defished with acceptable quality, especially from 2.7K source, and in some cases the medium FOV could be used to lessen the effect. Of course, there might be situations where the fisheye effect is desirable, but I generally prefer trees to be as straight as they are in the real world.

The GoPro is nowadays very easy to use and you can actually frame it fairly accurately with a smartphone. The Black Edition also includes a WiFi remote, but I don't see myself using it much when the smartphone interface is so much better.

The GoPro contains fairly good timelapse functionality, but in my opinion it is limited by the auto exposure and fisheye lens. See the video containing a short timelapse shot with the GoPro. The exposure might have been better with the spot light meter on, but I think I will do my timelapses mostly on the Canon S90, since it has full manual control and a lot better optics. For self documenting I do see some possible use of the timelapse functionality, though.

The 4K mode was a disappointment, but I guess it is more a marketing gimmick than anything else. With 15 fps it was never good enough for motion, but some so called reviews hinted that it would be a good way to get a fast frame rate for 8 megapixel stills. I tried it and the stills are just video frame grabs with similar quality. The resolution and colors are nowhere near real 8 megapixel photos. Here is an example, with the full size version being here.

What more to say? The battery life is poor and on my latest outing I got about 12 minutes of use of it. Granted, it was cold and the GoPro was in ambient temperature all the time, but my Panasonic GH2 was in the same temperature and the first battery lasted one and a half day with lots of pictures and about 30 minutes of video. I still haven't been able to get a GoPro spare battery, they seem to be out of stock at least here in Finland.

Finally, I think the video below shows the amount of POV angles I'm intending to use. Maybe I could have a few more, but I'm not going to overuse the them. Most of the video is shot with the Panasonic GH2, but the timelapse and the POV shots were done with the GoPro.

Real Winter

noreply@blogger.com (Yeti) — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 17:48:00 +0000

In the beginning of the week I came up with a cunning plan. My intention was to take Friday off and ride out with my bike on Thursday evening, spending the entire Friday riding on firm snow on the big mires. The night between Tuesday and Wednesday we got 10-15 cm of new snow making everything look like a winter paradise. This would affect my plan, though, by making it harder to ride and possibly softening the snow underneath. The weather forecast on Thursday, just a few hours before I left, showed that Friday would be an excellent day, starting with a temperature of about -20°C (-4°F) and then late in the evening a slightly warmer weather would come in. Toni also though the weather looked excellent and decided to join me.

I started at 19:30 and had 37 km ahead of me mainly on small roads. The temperature was about -13°C (8°F), but it dropped noticeably during my ride.

Arriving at the Vajosuo shelter after two and a half hours. Toni was supposed to be there and have a fire ready, but things don't always work out the way I would like.

I started a fire myself and grilled a few sandwhiches and drank hot chocolate while I waited for Toni. He turned up around midnight. It was already colder than forecasted.

We went to sleep a little before one o'clock. The night was a bit chilly, but I slept quite well and wasn't actually cold. At 7:30 I got up and made a fire. The temperature was now around -23°C (-9°F). This time my food was mainly sandwhiches, which in frozen form were rather hard to chew. Over the fire they became very tasty.

Toni was a slow starter and I went ahead to enjoy the sunrise at 9:20. It was a really crisp and beautiful morning, so please excuse the photos, or rather the amount of them.

It was perfectly possible to ride, but the amount new snow on top of the firm snow base made it fairly hard work.

A half hour later Toni joined me.

We rode on the Vajosuo mire for a while, before taking a "shortcut" through the forest surrounding the mire. Unfortunately I started about 500 m too much too the south (not too many reference points on the mire), and we got our share of bike pushing.

The somewhat optimistic plan was now to enter the Laidassuo mire, in order to follow a circular bog traverse route I did two years earlier.

In order to get to the open mire we needed to go through a section with forest as well. It was very slow going and after a while we decided to turn back. While we've gained a full hour of daylight since the winter solstice, the sun is still up for less than seven hours, so the daylight is a limiting factor.

It was early afternoon when we had lunch, freeze dried outdoor meals. We also made more water from snow. The temperature was now the highest of the day, about -17°C (1°F).

My bike in winter bikepacking mode. In addition I had a Lowepro Photo Sport 200 AW backpack with camera gear and a down jacket.

We continued on a short road section that took us the the Kurjenrahka mire, just in time for the sunset at 16:05. It was beautiful.

Soon the sky in the north turned purple.

We continued on a snowmobile track, which probably would get turned into an xc ski track this weekend. Riding on ski tracks is of course unacceptable, but we judged that tire tracks in loose snow would do no harm.

This was one of the occasions when you could feel the temperature dropping rapidly. I don't know how much is what you feel on the skin or how much is from experiencing similar conditions before, but it could easily be noticed without a thermometer.

We arrived at the Töykkälä shelter just before it became totally dark. The first thing to do was to start a fire, to warm food and fingers on. The fire doesn't give any warmth into the shelter, probably because they don't want people to use up the firewood for that purpose. Despite the temperature, we had no real problems with the cold. I did pay attention to my poor frostbitten (last winter) toes, but everything was fine.

Time for food: Sandwhiches...

... and behold! A pizza!

The rest of the evening was uneventful. After having eaten I became really tired and tucked into my sleeping bag already a little after eight. My sleeping bag wasn't really good enough for the temperature we now had, so I took a little heat pad and put it next to my feet. It was supposed to give heat for up to twenty hours, but in practice it cooled off after seven hours. If I had known it would be this cold, I would have taken my new Enlightened quilt to put onto the sleeping bag. It should have been more than sufficient.

I slept fairly well until around five in the morning, when it got a little cold. At seven I got up and started a fire. My thermometer was inside the shelter and showed -27°C (-17°F). The shelter probably adds a degree or two, so it was probably close to -30°C outside. We might again have had the coldest night of the winter. Toni had been smart and brought his new overbag and hence was warm and cozy in a similar sleeping bag as mine (same make and model, but mine is long and his regular).

You could here the cracking noise of the trees in the cold.

About 9:30 I started my 40 km ride home, mainly on roads. Toni decided to melt snow and have another cup of coffee before riding home.

The going was slow in the beginning, since I regularly stopped to walk a bit to get some blood and warmth into my toes. I even stopped a few times and took of the boots to check out the toes. I didn't feel the toes, so I got a little worried. Riding on road in this cold weather is really cold for the feet and my toes are no longer as warm as before the frostbites, and it is also difficult to know if they are really cold. During the last hour of my ride I could feel the temperature rise and it was only -13°C when I got home in the early afternoon.

This was an excellent trip in rare conditions. I would need warmer boots, which will be difficult to find, but otherwise I should have the gear for these temperatures. Thanks to Toni for joining me.

Check out Toni's report here.

The Year's First

noreply@blogger.com (Yeti) — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 17:35:00 +0000

On Saturday it occurred to me that I hadn't been on a single overnighter yet this year. I sent an email to Toni and he had the same feeling. The weather was again safely below freezing after a few days of rain and above freezing temperatures, which unfortunately reduced our snow cover from 30-40 cm to 0-10 cm We decided to meet at Linnavuori in Piikkiö.

I started around seven in the evening and first spent some time on the trails near my home and took some video footage. The trails were hard and nice with occasional spots of ice.

After my home trails I rode on roads to Piikkiö and arrived at the trail leading to the shelter. The trail was rather bumpy, since some idiot had been there on an ATV vehicle. I don't like motor vehicles in the terrain and it is with very few exceptions illegal in Finland.

I arrived at the shelter some about half past nine in the evening and unpacked my stuff into the shelter.

Soon Toni arrived.

I drank a cup of hot chocolate and we chatted about this and that. Due to the light pollution from a greenhouse nearby, there was no point in doing much photography.

We went to sleep around midnight and slept very well. I hadn't slept until nine in the morning for a very long time. The temperature was about -7C, but for some reason it felt a bit colder, especially around my feet. I think my socks might have been a little too small.

The morning commenced with the usual routines. This time I had hot water from two thermos bottles and consumed some soon-to-expire hot chocolate and porridge. Toni melted snow with his new MSR Whisperlite Universal stove and had a Pasta Bolognese meal in addition to the morning coffee. He needed extra energy to train for the Rovaniemi 150 race.

The morning was nice and we were not too late, since sunrise was at 9:30.

We took our time, but finally got going. Toni was accompanying me to Turku, to get some more miles to ride.

The ice on Lake Littoinen was again rideable. After some ice riding Toni continued towards Paimio and I was only a few kilometers from my home.

I now had only a small section of my home trails left.

A nice overnighter again, but it felt a little underwhelming compared to the fantastic winter conditions we had one week earlier.

Thanks to Toni for the company Toni's report is here.

A Midwinter Night

noreply@blogger.com (Yeti) — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 13:02:00 +0000

The last overnighter of the year took place one week after the winter solstice. I spent the a week around Christmas away with my family, visiting relatives and returned on Friday afternoon. My original plan was to go on an overnighter on Saturday evening, but the weather forecast changed dramatically and I made plans with Toni to go on Friday evening, though it meant that I would have very little time to prepare and pack my bike.

I started riding on my local trails around seven in the evening. It was about -6C and full moon, but in practice it was too dark to ride without lights in the forest.

After my local trails I rode on roads around 25 km to meet with Toni in Paimio. We soon found ourselves on a uneven walked trail on forest road that had not been plowed. Toni lowered the pressure in his tires, while I still didn't have too much trouble with my slightly bigger Big Fat Larry tires.

The bike was packed slightly differently this time. The seat bag contained my winter sleeping bag, a Marmot Never Summer Long, the left Salsa Anything Cage had my cooking gear and some food, the handlebar drybag held the Alpkit Hunka XL bivy bag and a short NeoAir and some clothes. The frame bag contained a thermos bottle, as well as extra batteries for the lights and some bike repair stuff. On my back I had a Lowepro Photo Sport 200 AW with camera gear, a down jacket and some other clothes.

The route was not entirely rideable and we spent more than one hour pushing the bikes, the last section through some 30-40 cm deep snow.

The clock was almost eleven when we arrived at our destination, the highest point in Paimio, with views in all directions and not too close to any light pollution. I was now very hungry, since I hadn't really eaten anything since lunch, and I ate an outdoor meal from Blå Band.

After that it was photo time, taking advantage of the full moon. The temperature was now -8C, with a forecasted low of -11C.

It was a half hour after midnight before we went to sleep. Sometime during the night moon disappeared behind a layer of fog. The night didn't feel cold in my winter sleeping bag, even though I didn't think it was cold enough to warrant two sleeping pads. I was fine on just my short NeoAir.

I started to prepare my morning coffee at 8:15. Since I used most of my thermos bottle water for the meal before I went to sleep, I had to make water from snow. I eventually got coffee, though my old MSR Pocket Rocket stove was a little slow in this temperature.

Toni had a full thermos bottle of water and made do without a stove.

In the cold temperature, the moisture had crystallized on just about everything.

My poor old Canon S90 had been out taking time lapse pictures (ISO 400, f2.0, 15s with 50 s interval) until its battery died.

Toni enjoyed the crisp morning.

Going back. I tried to ride the downhill parts, but had to give up eventually.

Toni accepted that the bike had to be pushed this section.

A tractor had been out making an uneven, but rideable, surface for us.

Putting more air into the tires before the road section home. I had around 25 km to ride, which proved to be enough. With only a small sandwhich for breakfast I again got the opportunity to ride with a very low energy level.

My final trails just outside my home.

I got home in the early afternoon after a very nice trip. Thanks, Toni, for the company. Check out Toni's report here.

I even managed to finish a video of the trip, thanks to the miserable weather outside, and I think it turned out quite nice.

The year 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Yeti) — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 10:18:00 +0000

January was mostly spent recuperating from a flu and sinusitis, though I did have a nice weekend trip to Utö.

February saw the filming of fatbiking for Erätulilla, a documentary TV series broadcasted on Finnish national television. It was the coldest weekend of the winter and I managed to get frostbites on my toes, which limited me a little for the rest of the winter.

March started with a nice winter weather, but saw unneccessary warm temperatures at the end of the month.

April was somewhat suboptimal weatherwise. The spring that started unnecessarily early in March took a break and resumed only in the latter half of April.

May is my favorite month. It so full of anticipation of the summer to come, the nature explodes in green and the bugs do not yet cause any trouble.

In June I went on a nice bikepacking trip in Pirkanmaa with Hendrik and Toni. I also replaced two bikes with a single one.

In July I spent time on vacation with the family, in addition to some local rides and a bikepacking trip where Finland, Sweden and Norway meet.

August was a silent month, except at work. The first half of August probably saw the best weather of the summer, but after that the fall rains started.

In September I had to give up my plan to go to Lapland for week of bikepacking. The situation at work was hectic, and would remain so until Christmas, and there were also all sorts of important meeting at the kids' school. I visited Utö again, though, which was nice.

October had some nice surprises. I spent a weekend on an island in Kvarken and also participated in a very cold and hard Mammoth March.

In November I actually had time for two short overnighters, I bought a kayak and the winter arrived in the last days of the month. Not bad, considering how depressing November usually is.

December was very busy at work, but during the weekends I had time to (childishly) enjoy the winter. At the end of the month I had a nice bikepacking overnighter with Toni under the full moon, a perfectly acceptable way to end the year.

Merry Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Yeti) — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 16:07:00 +0000

Surly Pugsley or Salsa Mukluk

noreply@blogger.com (Yeti) — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 13:04:00 +0000

I don't do gear reviews. Most of the gear reviews on the internet are fairly useless and I don't want to contribute to that mass. There are of course exceptions to this, but for me it would take a long time to test something thoroughly enough to give an honest and accurate review, and then the gear item in question would probably no longer be on the market. This writeup is a good example of that: I now have enough snow time on my 2012 Salsa Mukluk to give my assessment of it, but the 2013 model differs from the 2012 in several important geometry properties.

I had the Surly Pugsley for a little less than two years until I replaced it with a 2012 Salsa Mukluk a little less than six months ago. A good overview of the differences in geometry between theses two can be found here. I'm talking about geometry here, since my bikes have been built up from components and I have no idea how the manufacturer complete builds compare. The biggest difference between the Pugsley and pre-2013 Mukluk is that the Mukluk has a more stable, and hence slower, steering. The Mukluk also has a lower bottom bracket, giving a lower center of gravity, and longer chain stays for even more stability. For summer trails this should theoretically mean that the Pugsley would be more agile on the summer trails, but since my Pugsley was built up like an expedition tank compared to my lean and mean Mukluk, I won't comment much on that. I think the Mukluk worked very well on the summer trails for me, also in very technical places. The more stable steering of the Mukluk did feel better than that of the Pugsley when fully loaded, though.

My Pugsley as an expedition tank.

The Mukluk equipped for an overnighter.

The Mukluk in summer trail mode.

For the winter, the summer wheels (47 mm trial rims with 3.8" Larry tires) where swapped out to fatter tires and rims (82 mm drilled Rolling Darryl with 4.7" Big Fat Larry tires). During the last few weeks we have received a good amount of snow and there have been plenty of opportunities to see how the Mukluk geometry works in the snow.

Big Fat Larry with low snow pressure. Note how the tire deforms. This makes it roll like a tank on a hard surface, but distributes the pressure over a large area in snow.

The stability of the Mukluk in difficult snow conditions, like new snow on top of a semi-soft trail, is really noticeably better than that of the Pugsley. The Pugsley always felt a bit twitchy in these conditions. The Pugsley could probably have been a bit more stable by having the rear wheel as far back as possible in the sliding dropouts, essentially making the chain stays longer, but the Mukluk still has the lower bottom bracket and slacker head tube angle going for it in snow.

Going in deep snow there are probably no big differences, but the stability might again help.

Now aside from these geometry differences, there are some other aspects to be aware of as well. The Pugsley is made of steel, making it heavier that the aluminium Mukluk. Some people talk about the feel of steel, but I don't think I would be able to detect the differences when there already is a good amount of tire dampening vibrations from the trails. A big advantage of the Mukluk is the 170 mm rear, which makes it possible to use light trial rims for summer wheels while maintaining a good wheel strength. This is also a disadvantage compared to the Pugsley, since the Pugsley with its 135 mm offset design makes it possible to swap the front and rear wheels, which could come in handy if e.g. the freewheel decides to fail while you are far away from the civilization. The Pugsley also has room for Surly's new 29x3" tire/rim combo, which certainly would be interesting for the summer. It won't fit the 2012 Mukluk.

Both bikes have a big main triangle, allowing a good sized frame bag. For shorter people the standover might be an issue, but being 192 cm tall I've never had to worry about that.

The bottom line is that I think that for winter use, the Mukluk has some advantages over the Pugsley. These observations of mine are probably only relevant for someone of my height, since I don't think the geometry properties of a bike are consistent between sizes, when such a big part of the bike/rider system is the rider. Also, remember that the 2013 Mukluk differs from the 2012 version.

Yet another winter ride

noreply@blogger.com (Yeti) — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 15:34:00 +0000

I'm repeating myself, but this is the last "winter is here" post until I have something more to write about, I promise. The winter just makes me so childishly happy after the rainy and depressing fall.

The winter started here the last days of November, though we had a few days with very cold weather and snow in October as well.

The ski tracks are also in good shape, and if not for a slight injury in my left hand, I would certainly have gone skiing as well. I only have a five minute walk to a groomed xc ski track, and skiing is excellent high-intensity aerobic training.

The nearby lake also now also have ice on it and based on the number of people out skiing and fishing on it, the ice seems to be strong enough for riding a bike.

The amount of snow is still pretty small, about 15 cm in open places, and for the most part the trails are pretty hard from people walking on them, so an ordinary mountain bike is currently generally sufficient. Still, there are places which would be unrideable with a normal bike but easy to ride with a fatbike. I haven't yet encountered anything really tricky, though, so I cannot yet compare the performance of the Mukluk in difficult snow conditions with that of the Pugsley. According to everything I've read, the Mukluk should be noticeable better in conditions where the twitchy steering of the Pugsley takes more effort, but that remains to be seen.

Independence Day

noreply@blogger.com (Yeti) — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 12:47:00 +0000

Today Finland celebrates 95 years as an independent nation. The turmoil in Russia during the Bolshevik revolution gave Finland the needed opportunity and Parliament of Finland declared Finland's independence on 6 December 1917. After that a very violent civil war followed, with the Whites fighting against the socialistic Reds (in reality it was a lot more complex than non-socialist versus socialists). With a little assistance from Germany the Whites won over the Reds, who were assisted by Russian troops. The wounds from the traumatic civil war healed slowly and it took a new war to finally reunite the people of Finland. In 1939 the Soviet Union attacked Finland in the Winter War, which lasted a few months. A forced and fragile peace followed until the Continuation War started in 1941. It lasted until September 1944, when a temporary Armistice was signed. Finland kept its independence at a great cost. The total losses on the Finnish side was around 63000 dead or missing against 265000 on the Soviet side. The Finns fought hard enough against the numerically superior Red Army that the price for conquering Finland would have become too high for the Soviet Union. There were of course a whole lot of additional details, including Germany fighting on the Finnish side, but that is the topic for another history lesson.

The Finland of today stands in gratitude to my grandfather's generation, who sacrificed their youth, and in many cases lives, defending Finland. Still, Finland's independence has been a success story by all measures and this has mainly been due to the resourcefulness of the Finnish people, since Finland doesn't have particularly many natural riches.

And now to the Independence Day ride. The winter started a week ago and I've now winterized the fatbike, see the ThingLink stuff on the following picture.

I put flat pedals, freshly bought from Foxcomp, on the bike, since my old Shimano MW-81 winter SPD shoes are nowadays good to only a little below freezing. I think the shoes have shrunk, and my post-frostbite toes are no longer as warm as before. A pair of Keen Summit County winter boots with space for liner socks and thick wools socks should keep my feet warm in temperatures down to about -25C. -30C is probably too much for trips lasting several days, though. A pair of gaiters keeps the snow out of the boots.

Big Fat Larry 4.7" tires on 82 mm Holy Rolling Darryl rims. A lot wider that my 3.8" Larry tires on 47 mm TrialTech rims for summer use.

The fatter tires on the 82 mm rims needed some modifications to the drive line to avoid chain rubbing when in the lightest gear. The rear cassette was modified by removing the second smallest cog and putting a spacer between the hub and the cassette, essentially moving the cassette a few mm outwards.

Around 3 mm of clearance between the chain and the tires, which should suffice.

The Salsa Anything cage makes it possible to put a 5 liter bag with gear on the fork.

I was the first one out this morning. There are only a few centimeters of snow in the dense forest and 12-15 cm in open places.

Not much snow yet, but it makes for a very graphical landscape.

This time I was out for pure fun, and a coffee breaks increases the enjoyment a lot.

At its best, the winter is a very nice time of the year. And there are no mosquitoes.

That's it for now.

Winter!

noreply@blogger.com (Yeti) — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 15:35:00 +0000

I'm a little late and everybody else has been out enjoying the sunshine and winter on both Saturday and Sunday. I was away for most of the weekend and got home just in time to start riding one hour before sunset. By that time the weather had turned cloudy and non-photogenic, but I still think I'm entitled to a blog post about the long awaited winter.

Looking out right now, it feels almost unreal that I tested my new kayak just one week ago. We now have snow and it feels like winter with a temperature of -12C (10F). As I mentioned, I started a short two hour ride about one hour before sunset.

The fall misery is covered with fresh snow.

Lake Littoinen is covered with ice, though it is only strong enough for small animals.

Someone had actually been out skiing on the ice. That seems quite brave.

The snow gives a lot more light, but it still became dark some time after sunset.

Let us hope that the winter is here to stay. The weather forecasts at least seem promising.

A new kayak

noreply@blogger.com (Yeti) — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 17:32:00 +0000

I recently bought a kayak after not doing any active kayaking for seven years. The main reason I quit sea kayaking back then was a back injury (a badly herniated disc between L4 and L5), which did limit me for some time and still makes it impossible to run frequently on harder surfaces. Additionally, with two small kids under two years old at the time, I didn't have the time for it.

Nowadays my back is a lot better and while my family still mostly takes precedence over my own selfish pursuits, I do have a little more time available. During the fall, the idea of to do some kayaking again matured, and I started to search the internet to see if anything interesting had developed during the time I hadn't followed sea kayaking very closely.

I had a fairly good idea of what I wanted. A composite kayak was no longer my first choice, since I would like to do some more kayaking in the stony waters of Osthrobotnia in Wester Finland. Check out the picture below to see why a composite kayak is not the first choice in that area (that kayak is the one I previously had). Some more googling showed that the best choice of material for my intended use still seemed to be Prijon's HTP plastic, which is a lot stiffer and durable than other plastic alternatives and in a totally different league than composite materials. The only downside of this material is the weight, which means that a kayaking weighing 25 kg in fiberglass would weight about 28 kg in HTP. Checking out the Prijon models two or three alternatives were found, and when a used Prijon Kodiak became available locally the choice became quite easy.

The Prijon Kodiak is a high volume expedition kayak and has been used for some serious expeditions in difficult conditions. As such, it has an unnecessary high load capacity for me. Being used to bikepacking and having the gear and knowledge to be totally self sufficient for a week of bikepacking with less than 15 kg of gear and food, the Kodiak's 50 kg of loading capacity, excluding myself, certainly is more than enough. The main disadvantage of this is that it floats unnecessary high in the water, making it less stable and more sensitive to wind. With my height (192 cm) and shoe size 46 I don't fit into much smaller kayaks, though. The Prijon Marlin HTP version could have been an option, but it is no longer made and would probably be hard to find used. The Prijon Yukon, also no longer made, would probably be easier to find used and is probably the most versatile kayak available. I don't think it would have been fast enough for me, though. The other Prijon models are not big enough for me.

While waiting for the winter to arrive, it occurred to me that there was no reason not to go out and test the kayak. Today I had some time for that and paddling around Kuusisto seemed like a good option. I started in a grey November drizzle, but soon the cloud cover became less uniform. The air temperature was 4C and the water temperature was probably close to that. Hence the water was cold enough that a drysuit was the only reasonable clothing to have, since in case of an (unlikely) capsize the situation would otherwise quickly become very dangerous.

The kayak certainly felt stable enough, despite some very contradictory information on internet. It is hard to say anything about the speed, but the Prijon Kodiak is supposed to be pretty fast.

There was no wind and the light and everything felt very Novemberish, though not in the worst possible sense.

Returning for the camera, which I had on a paddle float.

After almost three hours I closed in on the island that I was to spend a small coffee break on.

Since I bought this kayak for shorter or longer tours, and not for exercise, the coffee was more than just coffee, it also had a symbolic significance.

After the short break, I continued and had about one hour of paddling left.

Sunset in less than one hour.

After four hours of actual paddling and around 25 km I was back where I started. Despite doing only very sporadic paddling for seven years, paddling felt great and completely natural.

Vajosuo Beer Ride 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Yeti) — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 16:55:00 +0000

The fourth traditional November beer ride took place this weekend. It was pretty much a reprise from last year, both in weather, wetness and this blog post. The weather was also traditional November greyness, though the temperature was a little higher than usual and did not even go close to freezing. Seven of us started from Rantapiha around 19:30 a Saturday evening.

The first section went on the new duckboards north of Savojärvi and was very easy to ride, though there were plenty of opportunities to get wet.

This time we tried some nice trails east of Kuhankuono as well and rode back on forest roads.

The section Kuhankuono-Töykkälä was more difficult, since the duckboards were in worse shape and also more slippery.

The final section along Vajosuo was technically very difficult, since the duckboards were extremely slippery and also in poor shape. I managed to stay dry, but a few other experienced closer contact with the bog water. At eleven in the evening, after a little over three hours of riding, we arrived at the Vajosuo shelter, where Toni had just arrived, riding straight from Paimio. JJ started the fire, as usually, and soon we had a nice fire going.

There are many ways to transport beer, and taping beer bottles to the frame is perfectly acceptable.This time a small tragedy occurred, though, and one bottle started to leak.

Matti H:s legendary rigid singlespeed (Surly 1x1) was almost radiating.

Toni had gotten the new 45NRTH Wölvhammer winter boots. They looked extremely nice and those with a shoe size similar to Toni's tried them on. This probably resulted in some orders being made...

Ordinary Finnish sausage no longer suffices.

The rest of the evening went grilling stuff, chatting and drinking beer and some stronger antifreezing agent. All very civilized, though. We took the walk to the bird watching tower and afterwards it was time to sleep.

My sleeping spot. I rigged the rain coat to cover the head, in case it would start to rain (it didn't), since it is somewhat difficult to sleep when it rains straight on your face.

Toni and Matti H also slept in Alpkit Hunka bivy bags. Pihvi had a hammock and the rest slept in the shelter.

We went to sleep a little before three in the morning.

After a little more than one hour of sleep, I heard a strange sound. When I peeked out from the sleeping bag, I saw Matti K putting more firewood on the fire. He had started his morning ride early and had ridden from Turku and stopped at Vajosuo for breakfast at 4:20 in the morning. I just continued to sleep.

I slept well until 7:30 when I got up. After morning coffee and sandwhiches we started to pack our gear to get going.

Another take at the optimal beer ride bike? A fixed gear Surly 1x1 ridden by Pihvi.

Toni packing his 9:Zero:7 fatbike.

We got started a little over nine o'clock, a little later than expected. The duckboards of Vajosuo were very difficult to ride.

Matti H refuelling.

Just a short bit to the Takaniitunvuori break.

I still think my Salsa Mukluk is very close to the optimal bike for this type of riding. A short overnigher, including some extra beer and food, goes without resorting to a backpack. There was no space for a better camera, though, and I only took a small pocket camera.

Maik's bike.

Yet another bog.

Greenman and Maik.

At noon, after a little less than three hours of riding, we were back at the parking place. Toni still had two hours of riding home on small roads.

A nice beer ride again. Thanks to everybody for the company.

Toni's report.
A short video by JJ.