We haven't been travelling for a long time and over the last month, have hardly made it out of the house, so this Sunday we decided to do a bit of a forest walk. Finland is pretty much all forest and lake, so no one really needs to go to far to get into the tree, however we decided to drive to one of the many hiking areas and this time, it was Kintulammi - which is under an hour from where we live.
The air is really fresh and while the air is generally clean in Finland anyway, it is a different kind of thing when out in the middle of the forest, with all the trees, leaf litter and moss. Being Autumn, it is pretty cool now and is only around 8C (46F), but while walking it doesn't feel cold at all and for me who is apparently hot-blooded, a jumper is enough.
Finnish trails like this nearly always have covered places to grill and while they are normally pretty basic shelters, these ones were really large and quite attractive, nestled amongst the trees. There were several of these around and we passed a few and all of them had people grilling sausages and other food.
We stopped at this one, which looks like a bit of a church, which I suspect is because a few hundred meters away is a large rock called "Kirkkokivi" (Church Rock). There is wood for the fire available and it is clean and well maintained. Smallsteps loves grilled sausage and we surprised her with some marshmallows too :)
The other thing she loves is lingonberries and this time she was able to get them straight off the bushes, as well as some blueberries still, which was a bit of a surprise to me, as normally that is more an end of July kind of thing to do. The lingonberries at least were really sweet (considering they are a sour berry) and Smallsteps ate a lot of them along the way.
And the Church Rock close by too, which I probably should have photographed with someone standing next to it, to give some kind of reference for its size. It wasn't that big but it was a little out of place in the patch of forest it rested in and they had built some wooden benches around it like pews, for people to rest and contemplate life upon.
Considering we were pretty much in the middle of nowhere, there were actually quite a lot of people around and we passed many who were carrying buckets full of mushrooms they had picked. It is a really popular thing to do at this time of year, but I have no idea what I am doing, so have never done it myself - but I keep meaning to learn...
This was our first real "forest walk" with Smallsteps and we were unsure how far she would go, so we only planned on being out a couple hours, which was definitely not enough for her and next time we will have to do a day trip. Though, she is pretty tired now and we only did a few kilometers.
What is nice in Finland is that counties tend to do a pretty good job of making these kinds of places accessible for people to visit and do things like build plank walks over the swampy areas so that no one needs to be "too prepared" to enjoy an outing. There are tens of kilometers of trails to take and it is possible to even camp there for the night if that is your kind of thing.
It was a nice few hours out though and it was refreshing to be free in the open and doing something different for a change. We should do it more, but my torn calf has still not healed properly yet, so walking over the uneven ground and up and down the hills wasn't the easiest, but at least I made it and got a few photos along the way.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
Such beautiful photos! And lingonberries! I haven't had those in decades, and even back then, I only had them as jelly or juice. Both were soooo good. I wonder if they would grow in the northeast US?
Looks like a lovely day, and that smallsteps is a hiker in the making.
I actually have no idea where they grow. I think they are native to the nordics. My daughter loves them! Even the frozen ones that are far more sour. As a toddler, she would shovel them in by the spoonful :)
Nice post😀...reminiscing the good old days of shit comments.
It's always lovely to step out and simply go somewhere, yet I also struggle to go out some weekends (like this one). I wonder why, there's always so much guaranteed fun when an outing comes along
:)
Seeing my daughter skip over stones and jump from the big ones just reminds me how fast she is growing.
She really is. You may not notice is as often as we do cause she's with you all the time, but time really does fly by. It's amazing really... I have no doubt she'll be grateful for these documented experiences of her childhood
That looks like an amazing hike. I like the covered cook spot. That's a great idea. It's quite fancy as well. Regarding the mushroom foraging - if you are not absolutely sure about them then it's generally not a good idea to pick mushrooms. Often wild edible mushrooms have poisonous look-alike and toxic mushrooms tend to be deadly in very small doses. With berries you can get away with eating small amounts over long periods of time and seeing how you react and feel from them. With mushrooms you just die lol. Obviously do what you think is right, but if you do decide to forage hopefully you know someone who is familiar with the varieties in the area because doing it from book or online research may not be enough. Just my two cents of course.
Great hike photos!
Yeah, I have been meaning to go with some locals who do it all the time. My in-laws used to go, but they sold their cottage in the forest this year, so they have chosen not to wander into the random forests. One of the cool things here is, collecting mushrooms and berries can be done anywhere, even on other people's property :)
It looks like a really good place to clear one’s head
One of the things that is good in Finland: silence is easy to find.
Wow this is something that I always look forward to, quiet environment
Finland is the place for you then!! People don't even talk here! :D
So wood is supplied for you to cook things and don't have to forage yourself. I wish other places would do that. Learning about what are good and bad mushrooms is something you should do as there is nothing better than having a basket of fresh mushrooms to cook with. I only know a few but there must be so many in the forest and who knows maybe truffles.
Yeah, they supply cut wood and often additional wood and an axe. I have no idea who actually does it, but the council organise it. Unfortunately, one of the places we go yearly for this kind of trip and is very close, got burned down by vandals. It is rare, but I have a feeling becoming more common.
I have no idea about truffles here at all. Never heard of people going truffling, but there must be, right?
I just looked up truffle hunting in Finland and yes it is big over there. Farmers get about $350 per kg right now and it is expanding. Need a dog though and is on my bucket list for retirement days.
Oh cool. Perhaps I can train Smallsteps :D
Possibly but she is smart enough to sell them to you so maybe viable getting a dog that is already trained. Hive and truffle hunting could be a good thing to pursue lol.
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Thanks :)
I really enjoyed our little walk we took on Friday. It just seemed like the right time to go. For a change it was not raining, and had some clouds to make pictures interesting, and about the same temperature as you 46f (8c). I do like being in an area where in one hour we are in the mountains or in 15 minutes we can be on a sand beach. (it is far to crowded during the summer so just a winter visit place for us and sunsets on occasion).
It would be nice if we had some shelters with sides, but the roof only ones are not to bad, we just do not have enough of them.
This is my dream. I would love to live on the coast here. Friends just bought a small fixerupper cabin in the Finnish archipelago that is only accessible by boat. It is going to be pretty amazing when they renovate and build there. That is a little too remote for me, but I have always dreamt of a easy to maintain cabin that looks out to sea.
This place seems popular and there were three within a kilometer of each other. They are really handy and very common. I have never hiked up north in Lappland, but in the fall it is very common and there are these and empty cabins to use dotted all over the place. Finns are pretty outdoorsy people.
There are a few forestry maintained cabins along some of the hiking trails not many but they do seem to be popular also here in Alaska. I am not looking forward to the snow, but such is nature in the north. We had a pretty good frost last night, water was still dripping off the roof a little while ago.
I feel like I have been inside for two years now - it doesn't make the winter seem inviting...
One thing I like about winter is documenting my driveway. Every year it seems that it is the worst winter ever, or to soon or too late, this year I hope I remember to add the temperature to my post. Pretty soon I need to do the first one before the snow falls, which is pretty hard to time, but at least that first snow will go away pretty quick, but then all snow bets are off. I still need to get out and check the generator and refresh the gas.
Do you have one of those apps on your phone that you can take a shot of the drive and get weather information overlaid onto it?
The phone did come with a weather app. I look at it sometimes, but mostly my phone is turned off unless I need to use it. I am not sure if the app does drive overlays, just gives the weather for where you are.
Oh wow, the fall vibes are so strong over there. Beautiful fall colors & photos
Do you miss it?
No not really, but since I have not seen it in some time, it really surprised me! It's still +28 degrees during daytime in here 😂
Everywhere looks great for camping 😌😌. You could consider that..since small steps enjoyed her time out
I am not a camper, but perhaps I might start :)
Most definitely plan doing this at least once a month, little steps will grow up quick enough, spend as much time as you are able to do venture walks or hikes.
Healing happens so much quicker if you plan to take it slow, still enjoying the benefits of being outdoors as a family exploring together. Little steps is far tougher than you give her credit.
!LUV
She is definitely tough, but if we get too far away, I am currently unable to piggyback her and my wife can barely lift her these days :)
Wow what a beautiful forest. Your photos do a great job in capturing the beauty of it all, such wonderful memories for your daughter as well. My girls go crazy for berries, they would easily eat a whole punnet to themselves, I have to be quick as I would get none. It's too dry where I am for wild berries, we are lucky if we come across blackberries but they are so small. xxx
One of the things I really like in Finland in the summer is, eating blueberries all the time! The strawberries are great here too :)
Longenberries, interesting. I've never Heard of that term before. Like a wild fruit, we got plenty: Roseberry, blueberries... Normal, next Time have a try on
This Barbary figs
These are lingonberries:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccinium_vitis-idaea
🙂 nice
I like what I see it's amazing to have places like this we don't have forest in province
This is pretty much what all of Finland looks like once out of the cities. :)
is it Finland then you must know about Vikings no?
Actually, there were Finnish individual Vikings, but no significant Viking groups, because they couldn't organize themselves at a large enough scale. They would run when the Vikings attacked and the coast is marshy with very few rivers for boats to get inland, so in the end, the Vikings traded with Finns instead of trying to take land. :D
thanks for telling me I'm no big fan of biking but was interested to know more
She is so precious
Indeed she is :)
I have heard that most of Finland covered with forests. It would be good to go to hiking as well as camping. The first photo reminded of me the movie The Ritual.
It was 84 F here, almost double than there. So, I went to seaside. Have a good week.
Weirdly, it is almost 4x as warm!
It was 8C here = 46F
but:
Yep, I think that first it would be better for you to learn and document yourself well before starting to collect and accumulate those wild mushrooms that you don't know fully yet. It's not going to be that later are you gonna consume one that opens your pineal gland too much and you are going to immerse yourself more than necessary in your innerself having to stay there trapped inside yourself for a long long time. LoL
Lovely photos by the way. :)
I have a lot of friends that go mushrooming, both to collect for a soup and for a trip.
Excellent! it sounds well enough for me. Being able to take shortcuts to new knowledge through social mushrooming and then have the chance to eventually eat an unknown succulent new soup or suddenly start an unexpected stunning trip thru the cosmos together in group. }:)
it's really good to grill sausages in the middle of the trees.
It is indeed.
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Hiya, @ybanezkim26 here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Honorable Mentions in Your post has been manually curated by the @pinmapple team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting other authors like yourself and us so we can keep the project going!First of all I think you did a really good thing going out is a really good thing especially with your family because these days we spend a lot of time in our houses and just staring at the computer screen and doing nothing else that makes us depressed and makes us angry on our self and maths question our shelf existence going into the nature makes you feel happy and motivates you to do more and more good things
she looks so beautiful in that little jumper suit all of her picture looks beautiful she is cute Mashallah may Allah bless her with happiness and health
all of your pictures look so awesome I can see that you have put a lot of work into that or maybe you are just the professional so you can take any picture and it will turn out to be a wonderful one