Finland - backpacking in Oulanka National Park
An early view of our trail, which is called "the bears ring".
Boardwalk eases passage over boggy alpine ground cover, through birch
and evergreen forest.
The rain which saw us off from the trailhead stopped, and we even
caught a few glimpses of sunshine.
Colorful birch trees and their mirror images.
Ristikallio cliffs, one of several scenic gorge areas in the park.
The river makes a gap in this line of tall cliffs - we're standing on
one edge, you can see trees atop the other side (left).
Another colorful clifftop view, now on Day 2 at the Oulanka
River. Rain picked up and we took shelter for much of the
afternoon, but surprisingly that was the last significant rain during
our hike.
We woke up to a very cold morning on Day 3 after spending the night in
our tent near the Kiutakongas rapids. I thought the water
looked like foamy root beer (see bottom right).
The sun came out as we reached the bottom of the rapids.
We saw a total of 28 reindeer along the trail. They're
semi-domestic but left to roam the woods. They're only a little
bit shy of hikers, but sometimes they have minor scuffles amongst
themselves (see the little trotter with the scared look).
More of the big guy's herd. Notice reindeer with blue and yellow
collars (left and right), and one with rings around its eyes (center).
Just call him Woody - this birch stump had a custom wig made of moss,
complete with bark curls.
Nightfall at a comfortable hut that we shared with about ten other
hikers - a couple of them here tending a fire (bottom right).
Gold and bronze birches and floating leaves.
Part of Day 4 was spent hiking along the Kitkajoki River.
This day (Monday Sept. 24) gave us the most brilliant color of our trip.
Impossibly neon yellow birches with riverside cliffs beyond.
More of the same - I was stopping every few seconds to take another
picture.
Darker birch leaves and white water at Myllykoski, an old mill that now
serves as an overnight hut. But we got a cozy and cheap cabin of
our own in the nearby village of Juuma, which seemed about ready to
close down for the year.
The trail had several river crossings like this one, and never called
for any difficult rock-hopping. Here we're almost to Juuma.
On Day 5 we took a quick side trip to the falls at Jyrävä
before continuing down the main trail.
A female capercaillie (males are all black with red "eyebrows").
Amanda with yet another grove of gold leaves and white bark.
We had thought to stop for the day at a campground just before this
spot, but fair weather convinced us to push onward.
After several more km, we had to climb the hill seen here, and then
another even taller one.
But the views more than made up for the effort.
I especially liked looking down at the narrow islands with single rows
of trees growing along them.
Our last night on the trail was spent in a lean-to area that was
hosting several reindeer when we arrived. We put our rain fly
across the lean-to's opening to block wind, so we could only listen as
the
reindeer came back three times that night: clomping along next to the
building, clicking their ankles the same way wild caribou do, and
audibly slurping water from the lake.