Gravel roads in Finland

[maravy]

Hei kaikki. Kahden viikon ryhdyimme matkalle Nordkappiin. Olisimme kulunut ja hienoja sorateillä Suomessa. Voisitteko antaa vihjeen? Kiitos paljon. Tervehdin faneille Enduro in Suomi!
  Pahoittelen Machine Translation (Google Translator)

[Bluestone]

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?ll ... jVlgOBiQks

[maravy]

Thank you very much Bluestone.

[MarDu]

This may also help you to plan your routes. http://www.paikkatietoikkuna.fi/web/en/map-window

Select Map layers -> Transport networks -> Road pavement. Yellow and green coloured roads are more or less gravel. I guess smaller roads without any information (colour) are also pretty much gravel.

[meikä]

Gravel roads are easy to find because they are everywhere, but big gravel roads are not much fun. All gravel roads marked in maps are generally in good condition so don't be afraid to venture into anywhere. Most people look for some sort of paths anyway (marked with thick dashed line in finnish maps, garmin etc. show them as navigable roads but they may be undriveable by cars and pass through yards etc.). So if you are not in a terrible hurry, look for small but smooth, twisty gravel roads. Also the Rally Finland around town of Jyväskylä will be on in the weekend of 28.-31. July.

[Jokke Espoosta]

I guess most of us understand English better than Google Translated Finnish At least I'm not sure if I understood everything you tried to say on the first post.

Nice, smaller gravel roads are easy to find everywhere else than near Helsinki. Just avoid the largest routes and you should be spending most of the time on gravel. I don't know if you're looking for larger gravel roads or smaller "enduro routes", but at least the first ones are easy to find. A big part of the Finnish road net is also covered on Google Street View, so you can use it when planning the route. The dullest part of Finland is near Helsinki where almost everything is either asphalt or forbidden, but everywhere else there's an endless network of nice, smaller gravel roads.

...and remember that off road driving is simply illegal if you don't have a permission from the land owner, so stay on something that you can call a road while looking the land owner in the eye

If you want information about a certain area, please ask and I'm sure you'll get answers.

Welcome!

[gixxerman]

Here in Central Finland we have endless amount of nice roads(gravel).Are you passing trough,or going to spend some time and having fun here iFinland? Don't be afraid of asking advice here in Jyväskylä area.

[Jyrays]

Do not forget we have many lakes and waterways too!

Roadways:
total: 454,000 km
highways: 78,000 km (50,000 paved, including 700 km of expressways; 28,000 unpaved)
urban roads: 26,000 km
private and forest roads: 350,000 km (2012)

http://www.paikkatietoikkuna.fi/web/en/ ... arker=true

[maravy]

to MarDu: thank you very much for perfect tip! paikkatietoikkuna.fi is absolutelly fantastic source to planning trip

gixxerman: yes, i looking to map and much envy, here in czech is many routes asphalted and forest trails is forbiden for cars and bikes (small country and too much people)

Jokke Espoosta: hehe, ok, google translator results is mad sometimes Yes, i looking to google street view, but is slowly sometimes

About illegal off road - i dont want ride out off trails, i will stay to roads. And i will respect any prohibiting signs of course. I will make a route in basecamp and post here for control

We have unfortunatelly little of time to trip, about 17 days. And our route is about 9000km long. We will start 29.8. in Sweden.
Here is a "alpha" version. Finland part is in development

[maravy]

to Jyrays: Finland is very beautifull and big country and our time for trip is very short
But we planning next trips to your country, we love traveling and motorbikes, is ideal combination for exploring other countries and peoples

I visited http://www.visitfinland.com/lakeland/ and here find many places to visit.

About lakes. We listen many stories about lot of mosquitos here. Is some good sollution for it? Or is only way accustom

[Jyrays]

You better take more east, it is more beautiful there.

Mosquito are biggest problem in Lapland, in south it is enough to look a little windy place

I did work on details, but just an overview.

[SS]

I highly recommend to buy some proper repellent, you probably need it all ready in Norway...

I suppose they all contain the same chemical; N,N-dietyyli-m-tolu amidi

One good product is Hyttys-Ässä, available on every pharmacy in Finland.

SS

[Sukke]

Maravy, it seems, that you have now routed to main highways, they are surele most dull and also most grouded roads in Finland, grouded by Finnish stantards;) If your time is limited, you should atleast move your route to secondary roads, they have almost any traffic so they are as fast as the route at main road but scenery is usually much nicer and driving is also much relaxing. Most of the secondary roads are also paved, so you have to go even smaller, if you want to find gravel roads.

At south there is so many different routes, that I don't even try to give you one, but at north is only few or sometimes even one possible, so for that I can give some hints. One nice gravel road is going from Karigasniemi to Inari via Angeli. From Inari you could take western route going to Kittilä, that is partly gravel, but still nice fast road. Or if you prefer going to east, you could take highway to south from Inari until Ruosseläntie(about 131 km from Inari) and take Ruosseläntie to Lokka. There is a new road going from Ruosseläntie to Lokka, that is gravel from highwayt to Lokka, it is not yeat visible at google maps, but you can see it at Google Earth satellite view. From Lokka or Kittilä you will have massive amount of Finnish back country roads to choose, whether you like to take a small detour at Lapland mountains or just take the shortest route to south.

You should also spend some time at the Middle-Finland, as there roads are more bendy, than up north and it is not even close as grouded, than South-Finland.

You will be here so late at autumn, that you don't need to worry about mosquitos. There might be some other small bugs though, even nastier, than mosquitos, but it depends about weather. What you will surely need is warm clothes and good raingear.

[JJ]

Hello and welcome to Finland!

We stayed overnight in Brno a couple of weeks ago. It was quite warm, but luckily the hotel had a minibar and there was...

[maravy]

Sukke, thank you for tips! I added to my route Angeli and Lokki. Garmin (here maps from my bmw navigator) knowing trail from Ruosseläntie to Lokki:



Thank you Jyrays, i moved route more to east.



Big problem is time