It is finally autumn and the annual trip up to the mountains is on. Our bike club Luleå Terrängcyklister arrange a trip every year. I missed the event last year so i was pretty stoked to join for the 2017 trip.
We go to Björkliden, a ski and hike resort far up north way pass the arctic circle. This is a place I’ve been visiting since i was eleven mostly for alpine skiing, but the cycling there is just amazing.
Six riders were joining forces to conquer the trails and me and Robert got off work first so we went early Thursday morning on the 450 kilometer drive up in the mountains.
After a five hour drive, including shopping for food and beer we arrive at our cabin. The weather is lovely and we hook up with Daniel (who came even earlier with his family) and went for a short spin before the others arrived.
Why we choose Björkliden for all mountain cycling is because it is located just by the tree line in the mountains. Just a short climb and you are right there in the middle of the mountain. The evening spin led us to a small crystal clear lake called Crater Lake, about half an hour ride to get there.
Then we went down hill passed the hotel and cabins to the big lake located below Björkliden, Torneå Träsk. One of the streams falls down to the beautiful Silver Fall and the beach is all flat rocks, perfect for a beer and some chill…
The rest of the gang arrived while we were having a sauna and we were all stoked for the next day. One of my favorite rides up here, To Låktatjåkka Mountain Lodge.
Låktatjåkka Mountain Lodge
Next morning was very windy, but luckily for us it was tail wind. The lodge is located about 10 kilometer straight up in the mountains at 1228 meters. It´s a rough climb and lots of bike hiking but the stunning surroundings makes it worth the effort, not to mention the 10 kilometer down hill back. It has been quite a rough summer up here and there are a few areas of snow left, but nothing we couldn’t handle.
Låktatjåkka mountain lodge is an amazing place. They have nine rooms if you want to spend the night. Fully equipped restaurant and Swedens highest located bar. We spent a weekend here the whole family in early May. The contrasts are quite astounding.
The beer and waffle are the best in the world after a hike like this. But actually we set a new record due to tail wind. We usually do the hike in three hours but this time we made it in two and a half. We dried up and rested our legs before the decent.
Since the winds were quite tough we decided to take a different route down. There is a trail on the backside that´s a bit shorter but actually loads of super fun single track. It leads down to an olds railway station and we had prepared for this and parked one of our cars at the end of the trail. I have never taken this trial before but it was quite a ride.
Trials like these makes life worth living, you could almost go all the way with out one pedal stroke. Singletrack, rock gardens, bridges and mud. This line has it all…
The last kilometer goes through mountain birch and big rocks. Riding fat is clearly an advantage when it´s not that steep and trails are technical.
The first day was over and all of us fell a sleep pretty fast longing for the trip to the slick rocks of Reinnesfjellet in Norway tomorrow.
Stay tuned for slick rock action…
Cheers
Bike life in Swedish Lapland 
Have you ever consider how much that biking in the mountains is tearing the sensitive mountain soil down? High mountain areas are very sensitive for damages since it is so dry, and the tires are ripping up the ground due to speed and weight (of bike and biker). The higher the speed the more the bike will rip up the sensitive mountain soil — and you are clearly out for cutting time, which mean you must are focused on speed. And once that dry high mountain soil is damaged it will takes at least 10-15 years before it is healed, and it will never be since for instance Björkliden is always visited by hikers and other bikers.
I spoke to environmental solicitor Nils Hallberg at Naturvårdsverket in September/October this year and he said that there are big problems with biker in Jämtland like Vålådalen. There are special biking trails there, but a biker had took another trail — a hiking trail — and had a GroPro during that ride and then he uploaded the film on social media. The area was swamped up by bikers who wanted to ride bikes on that particular hiking trail as the guy that had uploaded the film, and they all ignored the specially made biker trails. The result of that was that the municipality and Länsstyrelse had to transport out tons of pebbles in order to repare that hiking trial that got severely damaged by the bikers. They have had problems on other hiking trials with biking that tears the trails asounder. Those examples show what problems biking in the mountains is actually causing — and the more people upload “awesome” films on riding bikes in the mountains the bigger the number of bikers in the mountains will be, and the damages will grow larger.
Hikers wear down the mountains too since any impact is causing damages to the sensitive mountain soil, but bikes are getting more and more close to vehicles and they are prohibited in mountains if one does not have a special permit. For instance is biking creating drenches that will lead melting snow down the mountain sides much faster than if no biking had occurred there, and that increases the risk of erosion — and that is why vehicles are prohibited in the mountains.
So I am so against biking in the mountains. But I see you on Cykelforum on the 18th of November so I can address this problem directly to you.
Hej, tack för din kommentar. Jag förstår vad du menar och medger att det finns problem. Och svaret på frågan är ja, det har jag tänkt på. Men, den typ av cykling du talar om är sk downhill eller enduro. Vanligtvis håller dessa cyklister till i sk bikeparks, dvs skidorter som satsat på utförscykling på sommaren. Som alltid när man vistas i naturen och nyttjar vår allemansrätt gäller såklart ansvar. Om du är så emot cykling behöver du sätta dig mer in i vad för typer det finns. Det du gör nu är som att beskylla kajaker för vattenskoterproblem. Jag cyklar fatbike, det går långsamt och lämnar ett lättare avtryck än ett par skor. Tex kan jag cykla på skare där jag inte kan gå. Nu är ju cykelforum i år fokuserat på vintercykling men jag diskuterar gärna fjällcykling med dig.
Mvh Olov