Korpijaakko

Here are some photos and words from an overnight trip with N the last weekend.

When this post magically appears online I’ll be on my way guiding a one-week packrafting tour from Kilpisjärvi (Finland) to Reisadalen (Norway). You can follow our tour over Social Hiking. The tracking is based on SPOT 2, of which I wrote a longish review, so don’t be worried even if the tracking stops or disappears. It’s just the SPOT…

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But now, the overnighter!

We hadn’t been on an overnight trip (or anything longer) with N since early June so it was about to time to change that and as the weather was beautiful and forecast good we headed to a lean-to (Luotolahdenkapia) by lake Kuolimo near some impressive rocky shores. The start was delayed a bit and we walked along the Orrainpolku trail mostly in the dusk twilight occasionally spooked by Black Grouses (Tetrao Tetrix) taking on their wings from the nearby trees. The views were beautiful also in the dusk.

At the lean-to N started to prepare food (mushroom soup with bacon, onion and forest mushrooms picked on the way) and I started to get familiar with the Madtree Core hammock. We had late but great dinner with some red followed with steam-baked chocolate cake and quality beer by the BushBuddy campfire (real open fire was prohibited because of the dryness).

After midnight I retired to the hammock while slept in the lean-to. I didn’t pitch the Rae tarp to be able to enjoy the starry skies but at the first hint of dawn twilight I was awoken by rain starting to fall on me and quick decision was to gather the gear and go into the lean-to instead of applying the tarp. So sorry, no photos of the Madtree goodies. But don’t worry I’ll write more about them later.

We slept in, prepared breakfast on the BushBuddy and as the weather got better back-tracked a bit to see the nice views in the daylight. Then we walked the rest of the 10km trail loop back to the car visiting another lean-to and picking some mushrooms on the way.

It was a nice little trip. I believe there are more local overnighters to come in the future since I decided to invest on a new bike (a Ghost SE 2920, for the bike geeks out there) which should bring a great twist to these little trips close to home.

PS. Some more photos in my gallery if you’re interested.