Below are the 2025 season's trail updates in the order they were published. Each one includes a link to the Facebook post and the discussion around it.

Trail update 1: The OSM trail map, and plenty to ride on a mountain bike

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/295460833895724/posts/9972230722885305/

An overview of Finland's MTB trails

The far north aside, the mountain bike trails are getting back in shape for the summer's adventures. If over the winter you have forgotten where all you can find rideable trail, take a look at Trailmap's overview map and you see all of Finland's trails at a glance: https://web.trailmap.fi/maps/overview — the map has both organic mtb trails and built routes.

The colours of the trails? There is a logic to it — it works a bit like traffic lights. More on that in the next trail update. Zoom in and take a peek at what the trails look like in your neck of the woods: green, red, something in between?

The trail network you see on the map is the result of years of volunteer work: for the mapping we have OpenStreetMap's (OSM) volunteer mappers to thank. The official routes and cycling spots, meanwhile, are based on JYU's LIPAS database.

Trail update 2: What the colours and patterns of the trails tell you

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/295460833895724/posts/10016933818414995/

Colour and patterns on the trail map

The freshly checked figure is 27515 km. That is how much colourful MTB trail there is on Finland's OSM trail map. A decent amount to ride for the summer. And thanks to the diligent trail mappers, there are considerably more trails on the map than at the start of last summer's season.

How do you pick the ones that suit you? The colours tell you: green is easy (pine-needle trail, say) and at the other extreme deep red is trials-flavoured über rough singletrack where almost everyone gets off and pushes. In between then, with traffic-light logic: yellow, orange, red. For smooth, relaxed riding it works well to pick green and yellow, seasoned with short stretches of orange. It pays to look carefully at the contour lines on the map: plenty of people can still ride red downhill; uphill it is mostly pushing.

The thinnest trails are narrow "ant paths", at normal width you can already ride with room to spare, and the thickest are "dual track". (Blue-)green wide trails are usually recreational paths and ski trail beds, nice for transitions.

If there are dots or lines beside the trail it is worth a closer look: blue tells you (usually) about a wet trail (bog or mud, say), green about vegetation (either always or growing over in midsummer), and red cross lines about a riding ban (on one side for bikes, on both sides for feet as well).

Check out the colourful MTB trails: https://web.trailmap.fi/maps/overview — the app also has a more detailed map legend for the various trail markings.

Trail update 3: The trail map's dizzying growth

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/295460833895724/posts/10073807319394311/

The trail map - endless riding

Where have all those MTB trails on the OSM trail map, the ones that do not show on the official maps, come from? There are now over 27 500 kilometres of them. They did not come from nowhere.

Thousands of kilometres of new MTB trails are added to the OSM trail map every year. The growth curves of the last few years tell us that new trails are still being marked on the map surprisingly well — while the information on old trails is updated at the same time.

New trails are not appearing at this rate, of course. They are found and they are mapped. Someone has had to walk or ride them, record them and draw them onto the map. Trailmap's trail map is based entirely on edits made by OpenStreetMap volunteers, in practice by mountain bikers, orienteers, trail runners and the like.

Finland is currently the second best mapped country in Europe for MTB trails. Only Italy is (still) ahead. Over 1000 people have taken part in mapping trails in Finland. Around 300 of them are active mappers, who do not just ride the trails but constantly work to improve the maps for all of us who move on them.

If you have ever ridden a good trail that does not show on the map, you could be the next person to add it. Even a single added stretch can inspire the next rider, connect two familiar rides or even take someone somewhere new.

→ Take a look at the trail growth curve in the picture and check what the MTB trail situation looks like in your area: https://web.trailmap.fi/maps/overview

The trail map's dizzying growth

Trail update 4: Do you know where you may ride on the trails – and where you may not?

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/295460833895724/posts/23888342234180919/

The picture's example, UKK park: the nature reserve boundary and a couple of trails prohibited for bikes

The trails on the OSM trail map are not official routes; you move on them under everyman's right. That means exceptionally broad opportunities to move about in nature — as long as you use common sense and know the limits of everyman's right. Everyman's right does not extend to the yards of houses, to cultivated fields (note that direct sowing can be hard to spot), to saplings or to nature reserves where cycling is specifically prohibited.

On Trailmap's map, access restrictions are marked with red hatching beside the trail:

• a line on one side = prohibited for cycling
• a line on both sides = prohibited for pedestrians as well

There are not, however, prohibition markings on every restricted area, so on nature reserves in particular it is worth being careful. You can identify nature reserves on the map by a green boundary line. Some areas have good information available, but working out all the restrictions is not always easy even for Metsähallitus sites.

OSM mappers have made an active effort to mark restrictions — an example being the UKK park in Saariselkä, where a local operator (thanks, Saariselkä Outdoor Expert!) made a precise update to the trails' prohibition markings over last summer.

The basics of everyman's right, concisely: https://www.luontoon.fi/jokaisenoikeudet

The Ministry of the Environment's excellent and comprehensive guide to restrictions and interpretations in different situations: https://helda.helsinki.fi/server/api/core/bitstreams/acebaf9b-cb8b-4c11-9f30-d432483f69cd/content

Everyman's right is an exceptionally broad right to move about in nature; let's all move sensibly and take care together that it stays that way in future.

Trail update 5: Navigating on the trails

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/295460833895724/posts/24047246858290455/

Both is better

You have found interesting MTB trails on the OSM trail map (https://web.trailmap.fi), but how do you ride them smoothly on a ride? The two most common approaches are probably either planning a route in advance or just heading out to the area in question and improvising the route on the fly.

You can load the trail map onto Garmin bike computers (/en/garmin-maps), but because the screen is fairly small, a route line made in advance is a big help. You do not have to follow the planned route slavishly, of course — you can ride the trails according to what looks good out there, and the planned route then acts as support in the situation where it is not so obvious which way to go at a trail junction. From Trailmap a route transfers to newer Garmins effortlessly with a couple of button presses.

A phone on the bars makes coming up with a route on the fly a lot easier. A big, sharp screen and a faster map beat even the best bike computer. A Quadlock-type mount, which holds the phone firmly on the bars and has no reflective plastic over the screen, works well — and a cut above "pouches". Instead of your everyday phone it can also be an older, retired one: load the map into memory before you set off and you do not even need a network connection.

I use both myself depending on the situation: the Garmin always records the rides and it does fine on straightforward routes. The phone is then on the bars as needed. The picture is from gravel, but the same setup is on the mountain bike too.

People in the group often ask about waymarked MTB routes. Nice they are (usually), but in many areas they are pretty thin on the ground compared to the amount of organic trails. Learning the OSM trail map and navigation is thus one of those basic mountain biking skills that pays itself back.

Trail update #6: Do you think MTB trails are on the NLS topographic map? The truth may surprise you.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/295460833895724/posts/24306689089012896/

The NLS topographic map shows the forest. The trail map shows the trails. The difference is roughly the same as between riding trails on a road bike and on a mountain bike.

The traditional National Land Survey (MML) NLS topographic map is of good and consistent quality all over Finland. Except... those trails. MML does not have the resources, and it is not their job to keep precise track of trails. That is why, especially near population centres, wild numbers of trails are missing, and some are out of date (grown over). Many people do not notice this, because the map's other terrain information is such good quality.

OpenStreetMap's (OSM) trail map, on the other hand, is the result of the work of a volunteer mapping community. The map's consistency varies more than the NLS topographic map's, but in some areas it is stunningly good. MTB trails are the best example of this: in Finland they are mapped quite comprehensively and, what's more, classified by rideability. On the other hand the OSM map is often missing contour lines, bogs, rock outcrops, ditches, buildings and many other details, or their coverage is uneven.

Wouldn't it be great if you could combine these two map data sets and take the best parts of both? Yep — that is exactly how Trailmap's default map works. It combines the strengths of MML, the LIPAS database and other Finnish map data with OSM's trail map. So a homegrown app has its advantages.

The pair of pictures from Hallila tells the whole story in one image. The place in Trailmap: https://web.trailmap.fi/#14.84/61.46105/23.81383

The Trailmap default map: fine trails in Hallila, and lots of them

The MML NLS topographic map: sorry, who took all of Hallila's trails?