Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Eastern Finland, Joensuu-Lapeenranta, May 20-25, 2017 (Day 2)

The first night wasn't filled with a lot of sleep for me. For some reason around 2 a.m. I woke up needing to pee, but once I got out of my sleeping bag I was freezing and couldn't get back to sleep. I had to get up and start the fire so I could warm up. The only good thing that came from being up from 2-6 a.m. was I got to watch the sun rise over Iso Valkealampi.


I was able to get back to sleep luckily, so I wasn't totally exhausted for the day ahead of us. Honestly I'm not the type of person to be in a huge rush to break camp, and it's totally ok with me to head out around 11 a.m. to start riding. The weather here is a little different though, and it's not too hot during mid day, so there is no need to leave early and avoid the heat. 


When we broke camp we decided to venture a little off of the nature trail we had been on, because of the swamp encounters the day before. So we headed in a southeast direction away from our camp, and zigzagged our way toward the Tohmajärvi area. 

We stopped in Kiihtelysvaara at the Sale (grocery store) to gather a few food items for lunch, and consult the maps to determine we were headed in the right direction. As you can see, Olli is the official planner and navigator.


After we loaded up on supplies we headed out again toward the border. We headed about 9 miles toward our lunch spot for the day, which was at a place called Ahvenlampi. We actually passed the turn and had to backtrack a little to get there. There was a beach, but the water was a little too cold for a swim. We each took an alcohol stove with us, but at these cooking spots it didn't take long to start a small fire and cook our food over it. 


            

After lunch we took off again, but a couple miles down the road Olli remembered his ferro rod, and we ended up having to turn back around to go locate it. Luckily it had just fallen under a board and we were able to find it quickly. Then we were off, again. 


   As you can see the weather wasn't very representative of spring. This day was a little bit chilly, but lucky for us we were travelling with the wind most of the day. We headed toward Tohmajärvi, so we could refill our water and take a few snacks for the evening. 


I don't know why, but I like these photos of bikes in front of stores. Anyway after a consultation of the map we found a place near Muljula that should have a laavu, but it was hard to find any real information about the actual spot, or any reviews. Eventually we decided to just try it out, and if it wasn't worth while we would continue on to Kitee and find a good spot. As we got closer though, you could tell it was going to be a nice area.


We don't really know why there wasn't much information online about this area, because it was a great spot. We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived and saw that there was a lot more to offer than just a laavu (lean-to).


Normally you are supposed to book these little cabins in advance, but we got extremely lucky and called the man who takes care of the place. He informed us that no one had booked it for the night and we were welcome to sleep here. Since the day had been chilly, it was really nice to know we would be completely out of the wind and warm for the night. The views nearby weren't bad either. 
















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