Cycling is rapidly gaining popularity in Lapland’s fell landscapes. The matter arouses passions, and not everyone is happy.
Kolarien’s a bright gray straight line shines in the middle of the birch tree. Two cyclists are pedaling along a freshly graveled route towards the village of Ylläsjärvi already before Midsummer. The popularity of cycling in Lapland has grown drastically in recent years, and tourism agencies hope that it will become an attraction for the summer season. Finnish tourists are interested in cycling, especially in national parks.
Due to the increased number of visitors, the most popular routes have worn out in many places, and in recent years Metsähallitus has had to maintain the routes of Lapland’s national parks.
“It is a fact that the routes have to be made sustainable somehow. The number of visitors is so large,” says Metsähallitus’ special expert on land use Ilkka Vaara.
The last one in the course of two years, routes in the Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park have been gravelled for a total of 15 kilometers at a cost of over half a million euros. In addition, 2.5 kilometers of extensions made of steel gratings have been installed in the terrain. Their price has come to almost 280,000 euros.
The freshly graveled summer route near the village of Ylläsjärvi follows the alignment of the snowmobile route.
According to Metsähallitus, more than two kilometers of routes in Urho Kekkonen National Park have been gravelled in the last two years. Gravel has been flown to the most difficult places by helicopter.
Maintenance of routes by graveling divides opinions. Active outdoorsman living in Ylläs Kaisa Reinius wondering about graveling.
“The gravel path gives you a city feel and the nature experience is further away. The nature of the path changes.”
In Reinius’ opinion, graveling does not make the routes safer or save nature from wear and tear.
“Speeds increase when gravel is used. The new path will come next door as soon as the gravel path is even a little wet.”
Pedestrians and cyclists should be directed to different routes if possible, Reinius hopes.
“It’s strange that traffic rules are forgotten in the summer. In winter, you can fit more on the slopes.”
According to Reinius, electric bikes could be banned in national parks.
Kaisa Reinius, who lives in Ylläs, thinks that graveling the routes in national parks takes away part of the nature experience. Reinius walked on the kintpu paths found in his backyard, which have remained in good condition.
“You should move there with muscle power. Nature would wear out less if there were fewer kilometers. Apparently, some people feel that you can’t have nature experiences if you can’t get to the top of the fell.”
Feedback the routes have also gone directly to Metsähallitus. At the turn of the year, Metsähallitus used an online survey to find out the wishes of the visitors.
According to Vaara, a special expert on land use, opinions are divided about the graveling of routes.
“Some hope that there will be no more freeways made of stone ash in the park, others want wide lanes,” says Vaara.
A third of the comments in the survey were about cycling. According to Vaara, cycling divided opinions very strongly.
“The speed of cyclists was criticized, especially those with electric assistance. There are probably more comments supporting cycling,” says Ilkka Vaara.
The Swedish Forest Agency started allowing cycling in Lapland’s national parks five years ago. Now Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park is renewing its management and use plan, because the current one no longer works in a situation where the number of users has increased.
The plan defines, among other things, on which routes you can cycle. There are no separate mountain biking routes in the national parks, but Metsähallitus calls the routes shared use routes. Some of them are recommended for cycling.
According to Vaara, while preparing the management and use plan, it has started to appear that there are no opportunities to offer narrow and winding cycling paths in the national park.
“We have to remember one of the most important founding purposes, i.e. the protection of unique nature.”
According to Vaara, banning electric bicycles is not possible.
“With its own decisions, Metsähallitus cannot draw a line on what kind of bikes can be used in the park. An electric bicycle is considered a bicycle among others. It has not been possible to prove that an electric bike would consume more terrain,” says Vaara.
With electric assistance however, a day hiker on a bike can get deeper into the park than a person moving under their own power. However, according to Vaara, Metsähallitus is trying to respond to this situation.
Over the past couple of years, the vast majority of municipalities in northern Lapland have developed bicycle tourism in a variety of projects with a total of several million euros. In total, bicycle tourism has been developed in Finland with more than 25 million euros.
Coordinator of the Bicycle Tourism Center who lives in Ylläs Heli Laukkanen believes that bicycle tourism will become a significant part of tourism in Lapland.
“In the first stage, the decisive thing is that the companies are open in the summer as well, even if we don’t reach the peak numbers of the winter. Many companies cooperate with Ylläs, and the services are open even in the summer.”
Only In Ylläs, renting bikes already generates an annual turnover of almost 1.3 million euros for the companies in the area. The initial investment for rental bikes has been more than one million euros, and there are now more than 500 bikes, almost half of which are electrically assisted.
Cyclists outside the national park near the village of Ylläsjärvi.
“The popularity of cycling that has grown in Southern Finland can be seen directly in Lapland,” says Laukkanen.
According to Laukkanen, there is still limited expertise in building mountain biking trails in Finland.
“If we wanted to be known as an international mountain biking country, every kilometer of trails should be built in such a way that they serve mountain biking and take into account different sports, even on shared use routes. And millions of euros would be needed for that.”
In Metsähallitus’ survey, one of the most problematic places in Pallas-Yllästunturi was considered to be the route descending from Kukastunturi, which largely follows the track bottom. Cyclists descending from Kukastunturi in mid-June.
Tourism industry perspective, the biggest opportunities for cycling in Lapland can be found outside the national parks and ski resorts, for example cycling and touring cycling on roads and gravel roads, Laukkanen estimates.
In Central Europe, touring cycling is more popular than mountain biking. Based on a survey conducted in Germany, half of the respondents engage in bicycle touring and only one-tenth engage in mountain biking.
According to Laukkanen, there would be a demand for subsidized cycling tourism in such a way that a service truck would transport the goods from one overnight location to another.
“The idea is that bike hikers camp in their tents, but based on surveys, the most popular form of accommodation would be a hotel or a guest house. Those who use the services, i.e. playful credit card cyclists, should be brought here,” says Laukkanen.
According to Laukkanen, nowhere else are there as many dirt roads as in Finland and Lapland. Compared to mountain biking, the creation and commercialization of these routes is easier.
“Sand roads no longer need to be built.”
Summer route at the top of Kukastunturi in the Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park as photographed from the air.
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