Finland - Urho Kekkonen Nation Park MTB Loop
"From the official route's website: https://www.bikeland.fi/en/urhokekkonen-nationalpark-mtb-loop The Urho Kekkonen National Park MTB Loop is a 131km and 2-3 day mountain bike loop on the edges of one of the oldest and biggest national parks in Finland. The route starts from Ivalo via fast and smooth gravel roads to the northern border of the Urho Kekkonen National Park, where a 50km continuous single- and double-track starts across the western parts of the national park. The route is mostly easy riding on a mountain bike with occasional short more technical sections, keeping the riding interesting. Good riding, combined with some old, but well-kept wilderness shelters by qin clear rivers and creeks make the route a fantastic way to explore the nature and mountain biking trails of the Urho Kekkonen National park."
Ride difficulty rating
The Urho Kekkonen National park entails one of the highest and biggest fell areas in Finland and the second largest national park in Finland. A big part of the national park consists of endless fells above the treeline, giving the local mountain biking network its slogan “open fell biking”. The park has strict conservation policies which for now allow cycling mostly on the western part of the area, leaving the rest of the park for hikers.
Overall, the 2-3 and Urho Kekkonen National Park MTB Loop is a classic all-terrain bikepacking route, with multiple different gravel and dirt roads, smooth maintained trekking routes, and natural single track. The large proportion of single track pushes it easily into the mountain biking category and it’s ideally ridden with a mountain bike with front suspension, or any rig fitting at least 2.5” mountain bike tires.
