August 9th, 2017
The ”GS Trophy” for this year will occur in small roads of western Russia, around Petrozavodsk. We had not done much of planning but we trusted that we have enough experience of handling the border crossing byrochracy. Naturally we had prepared the routes to (day 1) and from (day 4) Petrozavodsk and daily tours south (day 2) & north (day 3) from Petrozavodsk. All of this on smaller roads except the day 4 route back home which we wanted to have on bigger roads in order to make it home before the night.
However, the plans were to be changed even before the trip started 🙂 This was due to Sami being contacted by George Loveday who was on TET-route through Finland (http://www.transeurotrail.org/) and the route goes closeby Kuopio where we live.
Sami met George in the afternoon and as his bike (BMW F650GS Dakar) needed an oil filter, we went to buy one from local store which had one available.
Then the plan was to have a short ride with George and Mika also joined us at Sami’s place. We decided offer George an accommodation and experience of Finnish summer habits at Mika’s summer house and he was ok with the proposal. So Mika and George started their way to Mika’s summer house and Sami would join as soon his family has arrived and he could say bye to them before the trip.
Mika and George did some grocery shopping on their way and enjoyed the beatiful scenery at Vehmersalmi.
After Sami also arrived at the summer house, we spent the evening grilling sausages on fire, experiencing Sauna and just having wonderful chat. Soon after midnight we decided to call it a day and went to bed as we all we to start early in the morning.
Great start for the ”GS Trophy” with an internatioal twist!
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