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Story time: Heritage of wastelands

 This time my ride took me 100 kilometres of country side gravel roads deep into the forests via old fire roads. In autumn forests are not so dense and I like to think that it's the time of year forests reveals their secrets for the ones willing to look.

No traffic, just gravel

I was able to ride all by myself. Not a single car went by, not a single person was seen. There's something beautiful in riding small gravel roads that go through dense forests. The sound of the tyres rolling on a gravel road is kind of peaceful and meditative. Add some autumn breeze and colourful leaves falling of from the trees and you can easily loose yourself there. It's what riding gravel is all about. Sensations, adventure and discovery.


Do you ever think about the roads you're riding on? Why they were built? How old they are? Surprisingly many roads go back in history for hundreds of years. Many roads used to be just a small tracks or carriage roads.

Revealing secrets

I was around 40 kilometres in as something caught my eye about 20 meters from the road. Something white, something man made. I stopped and noticed a caravan in the forest. First I though that someone is just camping there but then I realized that there's no road going there, the caravan must have been there for a long time. I decided to take a look...

Door was wide open. No sign of animals, just junk and trash. It was clear that the caravan was fairly old. Somehow I got the feeling that someone used to live in it, but not for some time . How it ended up in the forest? Middle of trees, in the forest, no roads or even trails leading to it. I have no idea, but it's interesting for sure.

This caravan is something that one couldn't see in the summer, but in autumn the forest wanted to reveal it's secrets, at least one of them.


Heritage of wastelands

Sometimes I wonder what we're leaving behind. After us, the mankind, disappears. Our forests are full of waste left behind by us. Some of it by purpose and some of it more or less accidentally. It's ugly, it's sad but there's always a story behind it. Sure, some people might just dumb junk into the woods and that's all there really is.



Sometimes, however, someones junk is others journey back in time. I was riding on a small old fire road and noticed that there's was ruins of an old shack in the horizon. I was excited, who knows what I will find. The shack was wide open and half of it roof was missing. Inside the shack was something that I have had not seen for years if ever. There was a sleigh. Similar one that Santa is known to travel with. ;)


Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture that actually shows the sleigh. Why was it left behind? Why was this shack in the middle of the forest with no other buildings anywhere near to be seen? Another interesting thing is that this shack does not exist in any of the maps that usually buildings like this exist. 

I had to continue the ride sooner than I really wanted but as wind was getting fairly strong and I was middle of old dead trees...

Farewell forest

My time in the forest roads started come to an end as I heard cars going on a busy state road not far where I was riding on this beautiful abandoned forest road. Sun was shining through the spruce and pine trees. It was fairly warm given that it was middle of October in Finland. 


After the forest I ride asphalt for something like 10 kilometres before I saw a beach. Very quiet and remote beach, even the pier was tilted. What a perfect spot to have some snacks before riding home. I had around 20 kilometres to go at this point. Wind calmed down very suddenly which was nice, yet somewhat mystical too.


Finland, the land of thousands lakes, stories and adventures. Secrets hidden in plain sight. 

Cheers,
Niko

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