Lapland Chronicles, Day 3

Rain, mosquitos and everlasting thunder

I opened my eyes to see the tent was dimly lit by the sun. Stretching for a bit, I reached for my phone only to realize that the time was 3 am, and that the sun had pretty much never set. Feeling somewhat tired but not sleepy, I decided to do the reasonable thing any sane person would do at a beach — go for a swim.

The weather outside the tent was a breezy 9 degrees Celsius as I made my way towards the shoreline wearing nothing but a pair of long-johns and a hoodie. My Crocs filled with sand quickly, and it wasn’t the kind of warm sand you find at southern european beaches. But I wasn’t going to be too afraid of the coldness or wetness. I was going for a swim after all. Seeing as it was 3 am, the highway behind me was dead-silent, and nobody was in the vicinity, I decided to go skinny dipping.

The freezing water caressed my legs as I tried to force myself into deeper water, only to find out that this was one of those beaches that went on forever without getting any deeper. At some point I just gave up and lowered myself into the thigh-high “ice bath”. I didn’t linger for long or dip my head in because I only had a poor excuse of a travel towel with me, and I knew I would die of hypothermia before getting back to the car.

Later, at the car, I watched as my wet crocs glistened in the nascent sunlight. For some reason I thought they might dry if I’d just wait for a bit. The air moisture was too high for that fantasy to become a reality. I stared blankly at them for a while, thinking idly about the passing of time, as if I could somehow force the water off of my shoes.

Mom came looking for me, thinking that I might’ve drowned in the lake. Apparently she woke up to me sploshing around in the water, and got worried because she had just had a nightmare or something. Funny how that works.

After heading back to bed, waking up and heading off for the real adventure of the day, we quickly stopped in Posio for a supply run. It was rather uneventful, but we were amused by how works of Anu Pentik, a local artist who is known nationwide, were scattered across the tiny city center. Namely, a great blue clay globe with these eye-like mosaic motifs scattered about stuck with us.

From Posio, we headed to Korouoma, which is one of the biggest canyons in Finland. I chose Korouoma as our first hike during the trip because I remembered visiting there years ago and being floored by how beautiful it is. The idea of day 3 was to do both of the 5-kilometre circular hikes that the place offers, going up and down the walls of the canyon. At the same time, we’d get a good test of our fitness for the adventures of the following days.

At Koron Pirtti, featuring an eager mom and a hungry bear

First though, we decided to escape the incoming rain by heading to the newly opened wilderness cafe — Koron Pirtti — next to the Korouoma canyon parking lot. We drank a coffee and hot chocolate, alongside splitting a kampanisu, a traditional sweet pastry from Lapland. The Pirtti’s facelift was extraordinary; the building itself was a completely new wooden hut, but it was decorated in a very old-timey and inviting fashion. Just next to the new cafe stood the old cafe, which had been turned into a self-service fleamarket, and based on the volume of the music, a disco. We jokingly danced around a bit to some loud heavy metal while enjoying the atmosphere. It felt like an odd thing to do have in a forest that was completely silent otherwise, but somehow it fit in.

The descent from the parking lot to the bottom of Korouoma was the easiest part of the whole day, although we were instantly swamped with about a million mosquitos, that never really relented before we eventually left the canyon in the evening.

When we got to the bottom, we quickly found the start of the first route, Piippukallion Pihaus. It started with a short trek through the canyon floor, following the river at the bottom, before climbing up to a peak (Piippukallio) at the other side of the canyon from the parking lot. At the very top was a beautiful lean-to shelter that was even equipped with an outhouse, although we were slightly disappointed that the outhouse didn’t have a scenic window out to the canyon.

Views over Korouoma Canyon from near the top of Piippukallio

I’ve usually been pretty staunchly opposed to using any kind of mosquito repellent, but this route broke me, and seeing the bastards bleed me dry in the dozens even at the top at the windy peak was enough for me. I caved and asked mom for some mosquito spray. Safe to say, the rest of the journey was much more pleasant, even if not even nearly mosquito-free.

Coming down from Piippukallio was arguably harder than going up, because we now had to undo the elevation gain we had previously done over 2,2 kilometres in just 800 metres. Thank god for walking sticks. Returning from the rather dry environment up-high into the moist canyon floor meant the return of more mosquitos, although we were both now more resilient to their attacks.

We didn’t bother dillydallying after the first route, so we set off for Koronjää — another 5 kilometre route — just after the first. The route once again took us through the canyon floor, now heading the other way. Along the way were the streams and signs denoting the places of three famous ice falls in Korouoma, which were only there in winter.

Anecdotally; despite its northern location, Finland doesn’t really have permafrost anywhere, not to mention ice falls. If you were expecting to visit Santa’s village in June and hoping to find snow, I’m sorry to disappoint.

But the non-existent ice falls didn’t disappoint us! The walls of rock of Korouoma were as majestic and ominous as ever even without them. Rain started pattering down on us again as we trudged on. The crackle of thunder would persist within the canyon for a miraculously long time, bouncing between the canyon walls. One particularly loud bang reverberated for a good 30 seconds before fading away.

Non-existent ice fall number one

Making our way back towards the parking lot, we crossed an old sheep-herding field and walked along the historic forest paths where people had once guided horse-drawn sleds through. You could see little pits in the ground near some of the harsher slopes; those were used for digging dirt in the winter, which could be used to slow the sleds down at dangerous inclines.

All-in-all, Korouoma was a stunning place that definitely left an impression in the both of us, despite the rain and the mosquitos.

We were done for the day at around 6 pm, and realizing that it would be futile to go ahead with our next plan on this day, we decided to find a place to sleep instead. Mom was insistent that she wanted a warm night’s rest, so we drove back towards Posio to a nice camping/rental hut area called Himmerki where we had been once before. Arriving there 5 minutes before 7 pm, the kind young lad at the check-in told us that he could still prepare us some food before the kitchen closes. We both ordered their signature highland beef hamburgers, and I must say that it was one of the better hamburgers I’ve eaten in a while (and that’s coming from a bit of a hamburger enthusiast). It was the definition of an extremely well crafted “basic” burger, without trying to re-invent the wheel. Sometimes simplicity breeds greatness.

A hamburger, a shower and a few moments of journaling later, we were both ready to sleep. Thankfully, our wonderful rental log hut turned out to be the best sleep so far on the trip.

To be continued…

I couldn’t not share this frog friend from Korouoma