Lahdenpohja is a small town in the Karelian landscape on the northwest shore of Lake Ladoga, about thirty-five kilometres from Sortavala, and its name still carries the Finnish sound it had before 1940. The Finnish name means something like the bay's headland, and the town sits at the head of a long inlet, where fingers of lake water reach into a countryside of pine, granite and small fields. Some eight thousand people live here, and the pace is quiet, with fishing boats at the shore.
The landscape here belongs to the Ladoga skerries, an immense scattering of rocky islands and inlets shaped by the ice sheet, and it is some of the most distinctive scenery in northern Europe. The stone is old, rounded and often pink, and the pines cling to it with their roots in the cracks. In places the water is clear enough to see the bottom several metres down. Hidden in the maze of channels are tiny islands with their own small chapels or fishing huts.
History here is complicated. Before the Winter War of 1939 and 1940 the region was part of Finland, and many Finns lived in villages around the lake, with Lahdenpohja as a market town. After the war, the territory was ceded to the Soviet Union, and its people were evacuated and resettled in Finland, so the area is part of a deep and bittersweet memory in Finnish family stories. Some old Finnish buildings, graveyards and bridges remain.
For riders, the A-121 follows this coast, a road of smooth straights and long, flowing curves through the forest, which then narrows and gets more rugged as it nears Sortavala. Views over the water appear in glimpses between the trees, and a number of small pull-offs allow you to stop at the shore. Road surfaces vary a lot, and long trucks are common, so do not take blind overtakes.
Lahdenpohja has fuel and basic shops, and there are small cafés on the main street. For anything bigger, such as repairs or specialist supplies, the larger towns on the route are safer bets. Cold, clear water from the lake is excellent for a swim in July and August, and in autumn the forest has a rich smell of mushrooms and resin. Mosquitoes and midges are a feature of the summer.