After the warm up day, we were eager to get some proper riding done. Unfortunately the weather had turned a little to the sour side, so we decided to warm up on gravel roads first before hitting the trails.

We rode to the Koli-Lieksa ferry and had some lunch at the restaurant in the harbour. It turned out that one of the people working there was a mountain bike fanatic, and he gave us some excellent route information in the Koli area.

We took off in improving weather and rode westward, going around Koli from the north. We found the beginning of the trail at the end of a small forest road. It looked pretty overgrown but we decided to take it anyway. Route finding was pretty tricky at times, but it was still good fun. Especially crossing an old pasture with waist high vegetation.

The Sikosalmi ferry was a new experience for me. I’ve been on a similar, but bigger, float with a motorbike in Latvia, but never with a mountain bike.

After the ferry the terrain turned pretty technical and tricky. It was rocky with undulating elevation. I was really struggling and couldn’t wait for the section to end. Luckily it did and we cruised back to base.