Long Day

Tue, Jul 09, 2024

Konnevesi, Finland to Joutsa, Finland

miles today 73.2

miles so far 970.1

feet climbed today 3,035.0

feet climbed so far 32,376.0

Relive video  

Strava link

We had breakfast at 6.

We left around 645am. The weather looked good until afternoon, then rain. The temperature was 52 to 65 with a light wind. We got going early to try to avoid rain as much as possible and because we had 70 miles to go. 

We had to wait a few minutes for the pilot car for the road construction. 

Along with 70 miles,  we had lots of hills. 

We saw another canal and lock.

We were able to use several bike paths near towns.

Around 11, we found our favorite Finland grocery store, S-Market (there are also the smaller K-Markets). We ate our sandwiches then went in and got a bag of nuts that you scoop and mix yourself.  Then, the weather turned bad. So, we waited.

After about 30 more minutes,  we headed out to find the Elvis memorial. It was closed, so I have no idea what the story is... a big fan, I guess. 

On down the road... 

We had to get on a highway to get over a pass. It had a big shoulder but was noisy with traffic. We were happy to exit onto a dirt road in search of an observation tower, except that it looked like rain again.

We didn't actually see the tower. It was up another side road and we were anxious to get down the hill into town before the rain. 

In town, Leivonmaki, we found a shelter to check the weather radar, then moved across the road to the small grocery store.  We sat in there for about an hour waiting for the heavy rain to pass. We didn't want to be on the highway during heavy rain. There were two guys working in the store.  One was from Pakistan, the other from India (I think). The one from Pakistan had been on Finland for a year and wasn't sure he'd stay.  He wasn't too fond of the winter.

Once the red stuff on the radar moved east of route 4, we headed out (about 345pm). We got to our turn off the highway to the B&B Lamminmäen, and had to go back about a half mile on a dirt road to a secluded area. I found the place on booking.com.  I had contacted them to see about dinner.  The response was... 

Hello,

we can arrange some dinner for you, my husband is a chef and you will

get home made food. Do you have any food restrictions? All our food is

lactose free anyway.

We have here a restaurant for celebration events etc. Breakfast is

served there, too. The other nearest restaurants are 7 km from here in

Joutsa center.

Anne

So I took her up on her offer.  The room was $92, and the personal chef meal was $18 each (it was delicious... herkulinen!).

These are the mushrooms that we ate in the omelet. They picked the mushrooms from their own forest.

The lodge used to be a barn. Now it is used for events.