2023-04-18 64 25

Location

In a forest in Eerikkikangas, Lapinkangas, Oulu.

The point on a topographic map: [1]

Participants

Kripakko

Expedition

My plan was to leave from work and start cycling towards the hashpoint. Assuming that I would leave at 5 PM, I would have four hours until sunset and around 45 kilometres to cycle, so I would not be in any hurry. The weather was going to be sunny, and the temperature would hover a few degrees above zero. The snow cover was melting fast in Oulu, and the ground was getting exposed in forests, so I should be able to walk in the forest here too. It can't be much worse in the countryside, nearly 20 kilometres inland, right? Famous last words...

It took me until 6 PM to leave, but it was still not too late. Everything started out all right: the cycleways in the city were already clear of snow and grit and a real joy to cycle on after a long winter. However, after getting through some suburbs and three geocaches, I tried to proceed on something that looked like a walkway on the map but ended up being a literal wall of snow that I could not get through. My options were turning back or taking an icy trail that led towards Vaalantie main road. I chose the latter and ended up against a skiing track that I was in principle not supposed to follow. It was, though, very worn down due to warm weather, and I could walk on the side pushing the bicycle, causing only negligible destruction. I could see the road in front of me, on top of an earth bank and surrounded by guardrails and deep snow, here [2]. I stopped to curse out loud and to think how to get on the road; I could go along the skiing track under the underpass or walk straight through the half-metre-deep snow to the northwestern end of the guardrail. I again chose the latter and after a while could set the bicycle on the hard road surface and continue cycling.

After cycling about 15 kilometres more, I arrived at the intersection where a forest road began. It was not in a good condition, consisting of an annoying combination of slush, ice and mud. My skinny road tires were not suitable for that, but I could still go on. A mountain bike or a fatbike would have fared better, but then riding a long distance on tarmac would have been tougher, so it's a compromise. After crawling for what felt like an eternity, I finally parked the bicycle and got ready to walk. There was a lot more snow than I had expected, more than half a metre in places. I only had to traverse 280 metres, so I thought I could do it despite it being very tough. I did not want to turn back after already coming this far.

Slowly but surely, I got to the hashpoint which was at the border between sparse forest and a former logging area. The deepest snow that I encountered was about 80 cm deep, and I could really appreciate the depth looking at my footprints on the way back. I was surprisingly able to avoid getting my shoes wet until I stepped in a ditch just two metres before I would have been back on the muddy road again. Somehow, I had stepped over the wet part on the way to the hashpoint and not got wet at all. I had been wise and prepared myself with spare socks and shoes which I quickly changed into once I was standing on the road. It was instantly much better, but my toes got a little cold and felt cold all the way until I got back home.

On the way back, I crossed the Oulujoki river and took a different route to end up in Mäntylä. I did not want to stop much because I was feeling cold and because it was getting late. I did stop to take a few pictures and to find a geocache in Maikkula. The sun set at 21:05, and it began to very gradually get dark. I could feel the temperature decreasing too, but I doubt that it went below zero. I forgot to check. I was back at home just before 10 PM, cold and tired but satisfied.

According to the GPS receiver, the length of the trip was 47.1 km, of which I cycled 46.1 km and walked 1.0 km in total. I had to walk a few hundred metres to and from the geocaches.

Tracklog

Near the beginning of the trip, I visited two multicaches and a mystery geocache. I cut a part of the tracklog away so I would not reveal their final locations.

Edit 2024-08-27: I added today’s hashpoint to the tracklog file to show that I visited it on this expedition. It is on that long stretch of road next to the river that I took both ways.