Why this ride
A 319 km round trip from Artjärvi - roughly 4 h 56 in the saddle. The stops in between: Verla Groundwood and Board Mill, Sunila Housing Area and back through Verla Groundwood and Board Mill. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
PORLOM II Tornikallio and Sunila Housing Area
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 319 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 56
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. PORLOM II Tornikallio
Tornikallio means tower rock in Finnish, and it is a common name for a rocky hill with a view. Artjärvi and Myrskylä lie in the rolling farmland where Uusimaa meets Kymenlaakso, a landscape of small lakes, red barns, rye and oat fields and patches of spruce forest, drained by the Porvoonjoki river on its way to the Gulf of Finland. It is gentler than the lake district farther north, and it has a well-worn look, with old wooden farmhouses and village churches painted white or ochre.
Read the complete PORLOM II Tornikallio write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
PORLOM II Tornikallio is where the day begins. Next is Verla Groundwood and Board Mill.
2. Verla Groundwood and Board Mill
A mill in the middle of a forest is a strange thing to find in Finland, until you remember that the forest was the point. The Verla Groundwood and Board Mill, in Kymenlaakso in south-eastern Finland, was built in the 1870s beside a waterfall, where the river provided power and the surrounding woods provided the raw material. It made groundwood pulp and cardboard until it closed in 1964, and what remains is one of the best-preserved examples of a small wood-processing village in the world, which is why UNESCO listed it in 1996.
Read the complete Verla Groundwood and Board Mill write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Verla Groundwood and Board Mill comes up about 82 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sunila Housing Area.
3. Sunila Housing Area
Alvar Aalto designed this place before the Second World War, and you can still read the plan on the ground. Sunila is a pulp mill on a rocky island near Kotka, on the Gulf of Finland, and Aalto designed both the mill buildings and the housing for the workers, in the late 1930s. The houses step down the slope in terraces among the pines, with an eye for views and shared space, which was unusual for an industrial settlement then. The mill still runs, with smoke rising over the pines on cold mornings, so the place is a working one, not a museum, and the housing area is lived in by residents who deserve some quiet.
Read the complete Sunila Housing Area write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 160 km into the recorded legs you reach Sunila Housing Area. Next is back through Verla Groundwood and Board Mill.
4. back through Verla Groundwood and Board Mill
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Verla Groundwood and Board Mill write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Verla Groundwood and Board Mill, late in the day. Next is PORLOM II Tornikallio.
5. PORLOM II Tornikallio
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete PORLOM II Tornikallio write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at PORLOM II Tornikallio. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
PORLOM II Tornikallio to Verla Groundwood and Board Mill
PORLOM II Tornikallio → Verla Groundwood and Board Mill is 82 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Verla Groundwood and Board Mill to Sunila Housing Area
Verla Groundwood and Board Mill → Sunila Housing Area is 78 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Sunila Housing Area to back through Verla Groundwood and Board Mill
Sunila Housing Area → back through Verla Groundwood and Board Mill is 77 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Verla Groundwood and Board Mill to PORLOM II Tornikallio
back through Verla Groundwood and Board Mill → PORLOM II Tornikallio is 82 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.