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.