Leivolankylä's fast winter cycling route 7.4 km, Vuokatti

The Leivolankylä winter cycling route is marked for the forest section starting from Vuokatinhovintie. Follow the blue and white winter cycling signs and direction arrows at intersections. 

The route can also be taken as a short introduction to the terrain on Vuokatinhovi's ridge as a circular loop. 

The winter cycling route begins at the Vuokatti Arena parking lot, Opistontie 1. From here, you head onto Vuokatinhovintie and cycle east for about a kilometer. The route enters the forest from the left side of the road near the Vuokatinhovi intersection. You can spot the start of the terrain from the winter cycling sign.

The route initially ascends gently to the Piimä-Heikki ridge. At the hilltop, you cross the junction of ski tracks diagonally so that the route goes right under the power line. After a small hill, there is a winding and narrow descent, halfway through which you emerge onto a ski track going through an underpass tunnel. ATTENTION SKIERS, who may be descending rapidly toward the tunnel. 

Immediately after the underpass tunnel, the winter cycling route turns left and begins climbing toward the next ridge crest. From the hilltop, a view opens to a large gravel pit on the right. The route then descends slightly downhill briefly before crossing a road leading to the gravel pit. Soon after crossing the road, the route splits into a circular loop and you choose the path heading right. From here, you pedal a gentle uphill through a denser young pine forest snaking to the highest point of the route. From here, the views open again to the gravel pit, but now from its other edge. 

From the highest point of the ridge crest starts a fast and fairly long descent with a few tighter turns. The route descends all the way to the bay of Rauramonlampi at Leivolankylä. From Leivolankylä, you can continue further, for example, toward Sotkamo.

Instead, the route returns a couple of hundred meters along the same path until it turns right for the return circular loop. The terrain is rolling with trees varying from young to older pine forest. The return loop includes one steeper challenging uphill just before the circular loop rejoins the two-way main route. From here, we return through the underpass back to the Piimä-Heikki ridge slope. From there begins a fast descent toward Vuokatinhovi. The downhill route is different from the way out. Return to Vuokatti Arena again along Vuokatinhovintie.