CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
From Haparanda it runs 193 km to Haparanda; allow about 3 h 27 of riding. The stops in between: PERRA-VAARA Perävaara, AVASAKSA Aavasaksa and back through PERRA-VAARA Perävaara. It crosses from Sweden into Finland - carry ID and check the toll rules.
Two countries share this river valley, and two currencies, and, curiously, two clocks, since Finland is an hour ahead of Sweden. Tornio on the Finnish side and Haparanda on the Swedish are twin towns divided by the Torne river, and the line between them is a short bridge. The big grey church of Alatornio stands on the Finnish bank a few kilometres upstream, a stone building from the late eighteenth century, in a region where wooden churches are far more common. The Torne itself flows free of dams, one of the great wild rivers of Europe, and every spring its ice breaks up in a spectacular rush.
Read the complete TORNEA Alatornion kirkko write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
TORNEA Alatornion kirkko is where the day begins. Next is PERRA-VAARA Perävaara.
Perävaara is a modest hill in the Swedish Tornedalen, a little north of Haparanda, and it is one of the points of the Struve Geodetic Arc. Between 1816 and 1855, the astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve and his teams measured a chain of triangles stretching from Hammerfest on the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea, over two and a half thousand kilometres, to determine the exact size and shape of the Earth. The survey points were marked on hilltops, church towers and rocks, and the surviving ones in ten countries were listed by UNESCO in 2005. At Perävaara, the station is a small marker on the summit, with a sign explaining its place in the chain. Struve's neighbours on the arc nearby include Jupukka and Pullinki, both a short ride away.
Read the complete PERRA-VAARA Perävaara write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
PERRA-VAARA Perävaara comes up about 37 km into the recorded legs. Next is AVASAKSA Aavasaksa.
Aavasaksa is a wooded hill rising above the Torne river on the Finnish side of the border with Sweden, near the town of Ylitornio, just south of the Arctic Circle. It is a modest height, around 240 metres, but it has a remarkable history. In 1736 and 1737, a French expedition led by Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis came to the Torne valley to measure the length of a degree of latitude near the pole, and their observations helped prove that the earth is flattened at the poles, as Newton had predicted. Over a century later, Aavasaksa became one of the points of the Struve Geodetic Arc, the chain of survey stations running from Norway to the Black Sea, inscribed by UNESCO in 2005.
Read the complete AVASAKSA Aavasaksa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 96 km into the recorded legs you reach AVASAKSA Aavasaksa. Next is back through PERRA-VAARA Perävaara.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete PERRA-VAARA Perävaara write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through PERRA-VAARA Perävaara, late in the day. Next is TORNEA Alatornion kirkko.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete TORNEA Alatornion kirkko write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at TORNEA Alatornion kirkko. That is the ride.
TORNEA Alatornion kirkko → PERRA-VAARA Perävaara is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
PERRA-VAARA Perävaara → AVASAKSA Aavasaksa is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
AVASAKSA Aavasaksa → back through PERRA-VAARA Perävaara is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through PERRA-VAARA Perävaara → TORNEA Alatornion kirkko is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.