Hidden gems

On Monday my parents and I explored couple of walking paths I had come across while surveying the hiking routes in the Koli village area outside the Koli National Park in 2007. I wouldn't have known about these routes if I hadn't surveyed them myself as they're not marked as hiking routes in any hiking/tourist maps. I wasn't sure what condition the routes were in or what we would encounter. Both routes turned out to be probably the most rewarding and memorable ones on the whole trip.

The first route is located on a private property (thank goodness for everyman's rights) on a hill that has some nice views but no official hiking routes. There was enough track for us to follow at most places but on some occasions you wouldn't notice the route if you didn't know it's there. At the end of the route, on the top of a hill there's a campfire site and a lean-to, and the view can be seen above. Back in 2007 the landowner seemed interested or at least approving of clearing of the route and putting up route markings for hikers, but obviously that didn't happen and the site remains uknown to most tourists.

The other path runs through Kaiskunniemi, about two kilometer long and very narrow cape, which has some curious geological formations and beautiful scenery in all directions. At one point there's only about 1-2 meter wide strip of small rocks dividing the water, so I guess on high water the cape ends there. There was also about 100-200 meter long stretch of land that had been completely burned, with charred trees and little to no vegetation left. I guess it might've been caused by a lightning.

We also warmed the sauna and swam in a lake (or large pond) by the cottage we were staying in and visited the more famous Koli peaks (see Saturday's blip), but, as mentioned, the two surprising routes were clearly the most memorable part of the day.