 |
We arrived at Kemihaara border guard station
at 14.15. We packed our rucksacks finally for the
hiking trip and put our skiing clothes on. The weather was good: sun was
shining and it was -5°C but the wind was blowing from north east against
our faces. First we skied for a while on unbeaten snow. Quite soon we found
fresh motor sleigh track and along it our journey continued quickly to
Naltiojoki hut where we arrived at five o'clock.
Naltiojoki
We looked around for a while and then we headed for the summit of Naltiotunturi fjell. The distance from the hut to the fjell is only about 2,5 km. The first part of the climbing to the fjell was quite heavy because the snow was sinking badly. On the upper slope the snow was harder and the end of the climbing was easy. We were on the summit at 18.00. The weather was rather cloudy and visibility was quite bad. However, we took some photos. There was a small building on the top of the fjell. We assumed that it was a hut of border guards. It was nice downhill skiing back to the hut. Later the wind calmed down and the moon started to shine. We went to bed before ten.I slept quite well because there was suitably three mattresses in the
hut. In the morning it was rather cool as the hut was a little flimsy.
At 7 I got up, set fire to the stove and fetched water from the river.
It was sunny but cold outside. Thermometer showed -18 degrees Celsius.
Mika and Seppo slept almost till eight o'clock. We were on skis at 11.15
(first day with daylight-saving time).
Vieriharju and Manto-oja
We headed for Vieriaapa bog and skied first on the west side of a reindeer fence. At Vieriharju hut we were after skiing about two hours. We drank coffee and ate a little at the hut. The weather was sunny and the temperature had risen almost to zero. After staying about an hour at the hut we continued skiing to the north still on the east side of Vierihaara river. Then we headed for Mantoselkä ridge.
On Mantoselkä we skied along some line marked on the sides of trees. Then we saw at a distance of 100 m an elk ploughing through the deep snow. Finally we came to the reindeer fence. There was a gate in the fence and after going through it we found a good track. Then it was only few hundreds meters to Manto-oja hut. At the hut we made a meal out of macaroni and sausage. The meal break lasted from four to six o'clock.
From Manto-oja hut we skied aside a reindeer fence and at times between
two fences. We skied over Keskipalot and Keskiselkä until we came
to Kemihaara river. From there we headed for Peskihaara hut. Once we found
a track but it was not leading to right direction. Finally we found a good
track which led us to the hut. We were at the hut at half past eight when
it started darken a little.
Peskihaara
The hut was fine. It was made out of planed logs. Formerly it had been a hut of border guard and after that only a short time as a wilderness hut. This we found out from "the hut book". We melted snow to get water because there was not unfrozen water available nearby. The temperature sunk during the night and the moon rose to shine. The hut get quickly warm and the temperature rose inside to 26°C. It was almost midnight when we went to bed.I got up at half past seven. The temperature was a little below 10°C in the hut. Outside it was -12°C and clear weather. At half past eight I started to cook porridge. It was already half past ten when we ready to continue our trip. We skied upwards on Peskihaara river along a marked track. At noon we came to the watershed terrain of Kemijoki and Jaurujoki rivers and continued aside a reindeer fence to the north west.
At Härkämurusta there is a tiny building which is a call box
for a wilderness phone. There we stopped for a short pause. Then we started
skiing downhill towards Peuraselkä hut. The track was good but at
times it was easier to ski on unbeaten snow so that the speed would not
rise too much. There was tens of trees fallen by a storm on the slope.
Soon we came to Peuraselkä hut and ate
lunch there.
Peuraselkä
After four we left the hut to make a evening trip to the direction of Presidenttikuru (President gorge). Reindeers had dug the snow of hills on the northern side of Jaurujoki. We saw some reindeers too. The further we went the more we saw reindeers and the more the snow had been dug. Skiing was difficult in the uneven snow. We climbed on a hill to the south from Presidenttikuru. During the climbing I saw a big bird which was probably an eagle. On the top of the hill we admired the scenery and took some photos. It was possible to see far away to Russia as we were almost at the border zone. We drank cup of hot soup (we had hot water in a thermos with us) sitting on a fallen pine.The way back to the hut was quick and easy. We were back at 19.30. I sawed a big log into three parts and chopped them with Seppo. It was a pleasure to chop straight pine with no branches. In the evening normal tasks were done in the usual manner. The stove heated the hut well. At night I woke up as a mouse (or probably a vole) was rustling one of my food bags. I lifted the bag up from the floor. The hut was still almost too hot and there was still an ember in the stove. The rest of the night I slept rather well.
I woke up a little past seven and set fire to the stove. It was -18°C
outside and the hut was much cooler than in the evening. It seemed to be
clear but the sun was still behind a hill. At ten we were already on track.
It was again sunny weather and it was some degrees below zero.
Tahvo's hut
We skied along a good track to Tahvo's hut in two hours. We ate chicken-vegetable pot for lunch. At two o'clock we left for a day trip and saw the first human beings for almost three days. They were coming to have a sauna bath at Tahvo's hut. We skied uphill on the east edge of the gorge of Tyyroja brook towards Povivaara fjell. In some places the snow was warmed by the sun and it grasped to the skis. During the climbing the weather turned cloudy and it started to blow from south.We climbed to the summit of Povivaara and after that we continued towards Vongoiva fjell. Then we turned to the west and skied past the west side of Povivaara to a gorge to the south of Povivaara. In the gorge we stopped for a pause and had a light lunch. It was cloudy, windy and it was almost snowing. We came down on the west side of Tyyroja brook. We were back at the hut before seven o'clock.
There were two groups of two men at the hut. The other group stayed overnight behind the hut in a 'laavu' (partly open tent) by a fire. The other group slept on the upper bunk as we had "reserved" the lower bunk. As soon as we arrived we started to heat the sauna. The sauna warmed quickly but the water slowly. While staying in the sauna the water warmed so much that it was suitable for washing. The hut was very warm in the evening and at night although we had burned only very few fire woods in the stove.
I woke up a little before seven. I didn't got up to make noise as the
others were still sleeping. The men on the upper bunk got up about half
past seven and they started to prepare breakfast. We started with Seppo
to cook porridge at eight. The morning tasks took rather long time. It
has started to snow in the morning at eight o'clock and it snowed lightly
almost the whole day.
Siulanruoktu
From Tahvo's hut we skied along hard snow sleigh track aside Jaurujoki river to Siulanruoktu hut. As we came to the hut already at noon we ate only light snack not a real lunch. We stayed over one and half hour in the hut. From the hut we continued a little bit upstream to Jaurujoki river. Then we had very hard climbing from the river-bed up to the bank.Our intention was to follow Siulaoja brook upwards. The terrain was
hilly and the snow was sinking. The terrain drove us more to the west than
we intended. There we found more even terrain and more bearing snow. Then
we found a good track which led to the right direction. There was few small
ravines which we skied across. Then the terrain was more even and it was
gently sloping towards Hammaskuru gorge. At seven we came to old "log road"
and there was a good track which led to Hammaskuru
hut.
Hammaskuru
At the hut we met the same guys which were the previous night in Tahvo's hut. They have skied longer route via Repoaapa bog with their sleighs. We ate canned meat with macaroni and rested the rest of the evening. Between chatting I went to chop a little fire wood. It was snowing but the snow changed into sleet and stopped before night. We were so satisfied after the good meal that we skipped the usual evening tea.I woke up again before seven. I had slept quite well although it was
first night on the camp mattress. The weather was misty but it was -3°C
outside. I fetched water from the unfrozen place of the river which was
few hundreds meters away. Skis were sliding well. I cooked porridge and
Mika mended his boots. The other guys left before ten but we stayed little
longer at the hut.
Vuomapää and Vongoiva fjells
We followed the old log road to the north. The clouds and the fog started to disappear quickly. Soon it was clear and sunny. We met two motor sleighs; probably service men of the national park. We started to ski uphill between Siulapää and Vuomapää fjells. At times we stopped and admired the landscape. On the upper slope we stopped for a pause. After one steep slope we stopped for a lunch break. When packing rucksack I noticed that I had forgotten my flashlight (Maglite!) in the Hammaskuru hut.
We climbed the rest of the way out of the gorge we had followed. We were skiing still upwards on the slope. At times we stopped again to admire the landscape and to take photos. The weather was excellent: it was not blowing even there high up. The sun was shining from the cloudless sky. We continued our journey to the direction of Vongoivan kammi (=peat shelter). We saw a herd of reindeers running back and forth on the slopes. Finally they passed us rather close and run to the west.
We skied downhill on an even but rather steep slope to Vongoiva shelter. The shelter was locked but we prepared a meal outside in front of the shelter. Water was dropping from the snowy roof of the shelter and it was rather warm. We stayed there from four o'clock till quarter past five. We had planned to stay overnight the next night in Siulanruoktu hut. We changed our plans and decided to go back to Tahvo's hut. It would be probably easier to ski to Tahvo's hut than Siulanruktu hut. It would be also easier to continue our trip to Härkävaara from Tahvo's hut.
At the bottom of Vongoivanjoki gorge the snow was really soft but fortunately the snow was harder on the upper slope. We skied even speed on the east side of Vongoivanjoki river ahead. Somewhere at height of 350 m we turned away from the river and started to ski gently upwards. We skied across two small cross gorges. The third cross gorge was deep and we wade in deep snow when climbing up from the bottom of the gorge.
The sun was setting but in some places the snow was still wet and it
grasped to the bottom of Mika's skis. He hacked the grasped and frozen
snow with his ski-sticks. Both of Mika's ski-sticks almost broke so that
we must splint them with tent sticks and tape. The terrain turned into
hilly. Some slopes were hard to ski down. In some places the snow was soft
and elsewhere hard. Each of us fell down in turn.
Back to Tahvo's hut
Finally we came to Tyyroja gorge and skied to Tahvo's hut at half past eight. We noticed that there were no other persons. We drank honey tea and ate crisp bread. Then we warmed the sauna and took a sauna bath. We went to bed after half past eleven.I woke up at half past seven but got up not until at eight o'clock. I visited the outhouse, fetched water and set fire to the stove. It was clear weather and ten degrees below zero. The sun started to peek behind trees on the opposite slope. After nine I started to cook porridge although Mika and Seppo were still sleeping. Four women and one man dropped in the hut. They had stayed overnight in Siulanruoktu hut and they were going to Peuraselkä. A hiker with a sleigh came in the hut visibly intending to stay overnight.
Finally we left the hut at half past eleven. We skied along familiar
track downstream Jaurujoki river up to the gate of reindeer fence. From
there led an old track to the south towards Härkävaara (Ox hill).
We searched crossing place to cross Jaurujoki river. Soon we found a 'snow
bridge'. It seemed risky but we concluded that there was fallen tree under
the snow.
Auhtiselkä
After crossing Jaurujoki we continued skiing along the old track. Soon we changed to ski along a motor sleigh track which led to the same direction. In some places the snow was soften by the sun and skis started to slide badly. Unexpectedly the track turned back we had to ski unbeaten snow. Fortunately the snow bore skis rather well. We were skiing on forest slopes of Auhtiselkä ridge upwards. The snow started to grasp badly to skis. Finally we stopped and waxed our skis. After that skis started to slide rather well but they didn't slide backwards (except Mika's skis).We found again a good track. The uphill finished and we started to ski gently sloping downhill. Finally we came to the bog between summits of Auhtiselkä ridge. From the southern edge of the bog was a small brook streaming to the south. We skied downstream aside the brook. Then we stopped for a lunch break. We got water from the brook but it tasted a little bad. It was warm in the woods. We were not cold although we were quite sweaty. The lunch break lasted from half past three to almost half past four.
After lunch we had to ski across one deep gorge. However, we were in fifteen minutes at the northern edge of Nummerusaapa bog. It was blowing hard from south. However, the wind was not cold. We were following a weak track which led across the bog. In the middle of the bog we had to climb over a reindeer fence. After the fence the terrain was quite monotonous. The skis were not sliding well but Seppo led us promptly ahead. At times we crossed some small brooks although they were almost invisible under the snow. The bog narrowed into a narrow river-bed. Unexpectedly we came to Härkävaara hut.
Härkävaara
The place was meaningless but the hut was handsome. It was big and build out of massive snag logs. There was no woodshed but a pile of wood behind the hut. In the hut we drunk tea ate crisp-bread, biscuits etc. The big stove warmed up the hut very well. We chopped together some firewood too. It was about half past ten when we went to bed.I woke up after six and didn't got to sleep anymore. At seven I woke
up Mika and Seppo as we had agreed before. I set fire to the stove and
fetched water from the river. Gradually Mika and Seppo got up. I cooked
the porridge and we ate it with crisp-bread and blueberry soup. The sun
peeked behind clouds but withdrew then behind the clouds. It was two degrees
below zero.
Back to Kemihaara
At half past nine we started to ski towards south. First there was good track and it was light to ski along it. At places the track disappeared when we came to open terrain and blizzard had covered the track with snow. We were skiing few kilometres on the east side of Liittohaara river. At times we stopped for short pauses and looked after the map. Somewhere before Peskihaara river the track crossed Liittohaara river and headed for south. The skis were not sliding well as the weather had again warmed and the snow grasped to skis.Fortunately we came soon to marked route which was driven with motor
sleigh probably in the same morning. On that track skis were sliding rather
well. The track led across Peskiaapa bog. Because the track was good we
didn't much look at the map. We moved on promptly with short pauses. At
times we wondered where we actually were. We came to the place where was
guideposts showing way to Vieriharju and Korvatunturinmurusta. We had come
much more eastern route than we had foreseen. Probably we had crossed Peskihaara
river without noticing it at all and we had followed Keskihaara river.
Soon we came to the border of the national park without having time for
lunch break. At one we came to parking place of Kemihaara and the thermometer
which I had carried all the way on the side of my rucksack showed six degrees
above zero.
