KT's Finland snow and ice capades: Flowy snowy fat biking, hiking Kiilopaa fell at "sunset" (aka everything is gray), a bird in the hand

Today was jam packed with activities. On the itinerary for today was skiing, fat biking, hiking, and then biking again.

Despite having a busy day ahead, I still wanted to get out for an early morning ski before we had to return them. It would have been tragic in my mind to not maximize these amazing ski trails. Plus, I am a much better traveling companion when I get my ya-ya's out early. The Kiilopaa area is the Urho Kekkosen Kansallispuisto National Park (2550sq km and is one of Finland's largest protected areas) and is totally my jam. It is for folks who want to use human power to get outside and adventure (think Nordic skiing, backcountry skiing, snowshoeing, biking, hiking, etc). It also seems like this area draws Finns rather than the Saariselka area which is much more for international tourists.

On my ski, I saw and heard many Arctic birds including: Great tit, snow bunting, Lapland longspur, white-winged crossbill, willow tit, common raven, Siberian jay, and willow ptarmigan. It ended up being a day full of cool bird encounters. I even was lucky enough to have a Siberian jay eat out of my hand - so awesome!

Another fire pit and lean-to along the ski trails.

An early morning ski makes me a happy camper.

A tree rocking a stylish snow hat.

This groomer (out at 6:30am) means business.

Ahhhh...fresh corduroy 😃

The trails are in a National Park. Notice that there is a thermometer on the trail sign - knowing the temps in this polar region before heading out on an adventure is a good idea.

There are many ski trails that are lit - notice the lights all along this trail.

Don't mess with the Finn's ski trails - they are for skiing only!

More gnome snow sculptures outside of the Kiilopaa lodge. The lights are frozen right into the snow and ice.

Reindeer at Arctic Sky

This van was parked at the supermarket - It looks like it has been there for a little while.

The fresh donuts at the supermarket were sublime - especially the ones filled with cloudberry jam. Cloudberries are only found in northern Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Russia. They have a cranberryish unique taste.

Our next adventure was fat biking in Lapland. It was one of the activities for which we were really looking forward. The trails are specially groomed for mountain bikes and look awesome! We rented bikes from a guy who only has a handful of bikes and he delivered them right to our lodging. We rode from our lodging on the road to Kiilopaa to meet up with the groomed fat biking trails. After getting information about what trails had been groomed since yesterday's big winds, we were off.

The road ride from our lodging to the fat biking trails (there were trails that were closer, but they were not groomed yet). You can see Kiilopaa Fell in the far distance. It is a gently sloping white mound.

Sarah's a pro at fat biking.

There were some soft spots where our tires sank despite already being groomed because of the drifting snow from the day before. These were the tricky sections.

Fallon had never been mountain biking before, but she was game to try. Check out her balancing skills 😆

Fallon sank in the deep snow when she got off the trail - but her bike didn't.

Sarah sank in the deep snow too when she got off the trail - the fat bikes stay right on top.

Fallon on super flowy fun trails.

We stopped at a fire pit to warm up and have a snack.

We had some sandwiches and decided in the future we would try the Finn's technique of grilling sausages.

Siberian jay

Lots of Finns ski with sausages and cook them over the fires.

I stood for only about 10 seconds with a few nuts and berries in my hand before a Siberian jay swooped down for a snack.

The feeling of the jay's feet on my hand was so cool.

Sarah and Fallon off in the distance.

The fat biking was excellent in Lapland's winter wonderland.

Check out the overpass for the road that was built over the ski trails. Now that's commitment to having great trails.

Super stoked bikers!

When we got back to the lodge from biking, I wanted to hike up to the top of Kiilopaa fell for sunset. To my surprise, both Sarah and Fallon said they wanted to go too. So we snacked on some food in the lodge and then headed out for our hike.

Groomer for the fat bike trails.

We got some snacks at the Kiilopaa lodge.

In the lodge, there was this machine for drying any stuff that got wet while you were outside adventuring.

Part way through our hike.

As we were hiking up, it became obvious that there would be not much of a sunset - just lots of gray. I loved looking at the snow covered evergreens. They took on such interesting shapes.

The summit blends in with the gray sky.

Cool shapes are formed by the snow covered evergreens.

There were still beautiful views from the summit, despite the grayness. The snow-capped fells that surrounded us contrasted a little from the gray sky. It was quite windy on the summit, so we took some pictures and headed down before we got too cold.

With all of the muted gray colors, it looks like I am floating.

Once we were back at the base of Kiilopaa, our day was not done yet. We still had to bike a few kilometers along the road in the freezing rain and dark. We configured our headlamps so that we had a bright one facing rear and we all stayed together hoping that no cars would hit us. This part of the fat biking adventure may have felt like type II fun for some of us.

Biking back to Arctic Sky along the road using 3 headlamps facing forward and 1 facing back so that car is could see us.

Check out these selfie taking skills of mine while I am biking, freezing my hand off and am holding my mitten in my mouth.

Back at Arctic sky after our biking adventure with a shiny coating of ice on us.

We had worked up an appetite after all of our fun. We dropped Fallon off at her lodging and Sarah and I looked around for a place to eat. We found a restaurant and ordered food quickly. Our meals were yummy - We were feeling adventurous, so I tried reindeer for the first time and Sarah tried a meal with many different kinds of local fish. We were beat, so we even skipped the sauna and just went straight to bed.