Somewhere in the cold, pale waters of the White Sea, a few hours by boat from the Karelian mainland, lie the Solovetsky Islands, and Small Mucksalma is one of the smaller pieces of the group. It is not a place most riders will ever reach on a motorcycle. There are no bridges or long roads, and the islands are reached by ferry or boat in summer, and by small plane when the sea freezes. So the label here is less about asphalt than about the story, and it is a remarkable one.
The monastery that dominates the main island was founded in the fifteenth century by two monks, Savvaty and Zosima, who settled here in a landscape of lakes, pine and moss. Over the following centuries it grew into a rich and fortified community, with thick granite walls, towers and a great cathedral, and the monks built canals, mills and a causeway to the neighbouring island. That causeway, a dike made of huge boulders, links the main island with Big Mucksalma, and it is an astonishing piece of medieval engineering. UNESCO recognised the cultural and historic ensemble in 1992.
The history turned dark in the twentieth century, when the Soviet authorities converted the monastery into a prison camp, one of the earliest in the Gulag system, and a hard place of forced labour and executions. The monastery has since returned to monastic life, and the memory of the camp is part of what visitors see and feel. The islands are also a natural reserve, with white nights in early summer, when the sun skims the horizon and the sea looks like polished metal, and with birds, seals and white beluga whales in the surrounding waters.
For anyone planning a ride, the honest advice is to treat this point as the far edge of a map, a reminder of the northern reaches of Europe rather than a stop on a normal route. The nearest mainland access is by boat from towns on the White Sea coast, and conditions, permits and travel advice change, so check current information before building any plan around it. In summer the weather is cool and damp, with fog and mosquitoes, and in winter, it is harsh.