Ruska - Ride across Finland 2018

For sure, though nothing too extreme, I don't think anyone found snow. Several days of cold rain can be more difficult though. Usually the amount of rain in millimeters isn't that high this time of the year but it is raining often and everything stays wet in these temperatures. The route seemed tough too, some of the checkpoints required a good hike. As always there's not much serbices in the northern half of the route and this time some chose even less beaten paths, on muddy gravel with a rivercrossing, with hundreds of kilometers without any shops or restaurants or hotels. Even some who've done the ride several times scratched. There would've been an opportunity to ridethrough the Pöyrisjärvi wilderness area too to shorten the route maybe a bit but it would have taken more time, following the tracks of the reindeer herders over the fells, swamps and soft sand, but no-one was quite that crazy this time. It would've been inviting to go there just for that and you could come up with lots of options like this for your own route in Ruska. Though it is challenging as it is and there's also the rule that it gets harder the more times you've done it, like at some point you will be asked to do it with paper maps and then without even those.