Just north of the Arctic Circle, in the valley of the Torne river that forms the border between Finland and Sweden, stand some of the stations of the Struve Geodetic Arc. Between 1816 and 1855, the astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve and his teams measured a chain of triangles from the Arctic coast of Norway to the Black Sea, more than two thousand eight hundred kilometres, to determine the exact shape of the Earth. The arc is now a World Heritage Site spread over ten countries, and the points in the Torne valley, with names like Pullinki, Perävaara and Jupukka, are marked by drill holes and cairns on the hilltops.
The Torne valley is wide and wooded, with the river flowing broad and fast between the two countries, and villages scattered along both banks. Pello, on the Finnish side, is the nearest town, with around four and a half thousand people. In summer, the midnight sun shines all night, and in winter the northern lights dance across the sky. Reindeer are common on the roads, and you need to ride carefully, especially at dusk and dawn, when they wander onto the tarmac.
The riding here is long and lonely, with straight roads through endless forest, broken by lakes, rivers and hills. Surfaces are generally good, but frost heave can make them bumpy, and gravel roads lead to remote places. Traffic is minimal, and distances between services are long. The riding season is short, roughly June to September, and mosquitoes can be ferocious in midsummer.
Pello has fuel, shops and a few places to eat, and Övertorneå, across the river in Sweden, is another option. Ylitornio, further south, is the nearest town of five thousand. The bridges across the Torne make it easy to switch between countries, and the Swedish and Finnish sides of the valley share a common language heritage in Meänkieli, the Torne valley Finnish. Bring a good mosquito repellent and plan fuel carefully.