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.
247 km from Haparanda to Haparanda, about 3 h 58 of riding. On the way it passes AVASAKSA Aavasaksa, PULLINKI Pullinki and back through AVASAKSA Aavasaksa. It crosses from Sweden into Finland - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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 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.
AVASAKSA Aavasaksa comes up about 78 km into the recorded legs. Next is PULLINKI Pullinki.
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.
Read the complete PULLINKI Pullinki write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 123 km into the recorded legs you reach PULLINKI Pullinki. Next is back through AVASAKSA Aavasaksa.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete AVASAKSA Aavasaksa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through AVASAKSA Aavasaksa, 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 → AVASAKSA Aavasaksa is 78 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
AVASAKSA Aavasaksa → PULLINKI Pullinki is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
PULLINKI Pullinki → back through AVASAKSA Aavasaksa is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through AVASAKSA Aavasaksa → TORNEA Alatornion kirkko is 78 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.