Hi,
Your cheering and encouraging words nicely energise this journey.
I haven’t been very active with writing on this winter hike. Partly because of a lack of time, partly because wanting to save batteries and also because mood or alertness haven’t been encouraging.
Mood varies quite easily on such an excursion, and this is influenced by many factors, such as the conditions, sleep, the shape of the terrain and the condition of the equipment. At times you shout at the toboggan in the thicket, and on the other side of the slope you already apologize for the matter and say to yourself that you have dragged it there. Now I thought I would be able to write again when a rest day is approaching and hopefully after the maintenance chores there will be time to publish it.
It has been interesting to compare these long hikes with each other, summer kayaking 2016 and this winter water ski… I mean skiing. Although there are similarities in terms of equipment and food for excursions in themselves, nevertheless, honestly, for a normal citizen like myself, summer is a more pleasant time to make a longer excursion. Pulling the toboggan or skiing with a rucksack on the spring snows of Lapland for a week goes nicely, but this… exceeds expectations in its difficulty. So many factors affect the course of the excursion and slow down the performance. And when stopping, you immediately get cold.
Of course, these things have been taken into account and prepared for, but in terms of the meaningfulness of camping, I think our other three seasons are more rewarding.
Perhaps the best way to describe the situation is to think of sitting with a coffee mug in hand on my couch at home and looking out onto the terrace, where the wind has turned snow into piles. In an instant, the situation will turn around. 95% of the time spent inside I now spend it outside in the little wind and cold, but I still have to deliver the same daily routines, with the difference that the average temperature is lowered to -4 degrees Celsius. I drink water as soon as I have melted it from the snow. I’ll sleep as soon as I’ve set up a tent and filled the sleeping mat and kept the sleeping bags dry enough. I will keep warm as long as I eat (as long as I had boiled water in the evening in a thermos) and exercise constantly, etc. It changes a lot when I compare these tasks carried out in +20 degrees.
I didn’t expect this skiing to be enjoyable, but on the other hand, I didn’t quite expect it to be mere surviving either. While kayaking you could throw yourself on your back to watch the clouds glide, but if you did this while skiing, the snow would go through the ribbings and on your interlayer or skin that can withstand dryness, or the snow just rains in your eyes. I mistakenly use the word ”excursion” for my ski trip, which is an ordeal and a test for myself, who is used to modern comforts. That is what I have asked for and what I have received. Indeed, at the halfway point, I am already many experiences richer.
A special richness to the journey is provided by the meetings of the actual maintenance troops, including the ”extra” maintenance troops! Hannu Määttä from Kuhmo had heard about my skiing and, through friends, delivered a snack and ski wax along the route. Pentti Kotiaho from Savantum, who is responsible for GPS connections, delivered a grocery bag and supplies to my route with his son Sampo on his way to a ski holiday in Kuusamo. Especially these chats with border patrols and local residents, as well as your encouragement, bring meaningfulness to a traveler who has chosen difficult conditions for a while.
I drank one of the best hot chocolates of my life from the village of Alavuokki a few kilometers north when, at 9.30 a.m., while eating lunch by the roadside from the thermos in -23-degrees, a postman stops at me and hands over a steaming cup of hot chocolate sent by the Mäkeläisen Pojat -shopkeeper. Here, when leaning on the poles, this hit song often starts playing in my head: ”No one around, lets go to the bar, this village is like a deserted island…” (loosly translated from the song Autiosaari) Fortunately, two village shops have already been encountered and both have been visited!
I saw the first free wolverine of my life less than 200 m away. It crossed the road I was skiing on. Made a territory marking on the side of the road and continued jogging in the direction of the slough. It’s a really great sight when a black grouse, capercaillie, willow grouse or hazel grouse takes off from a few meters away! The snow blanket is intact and clean, and suddenly a large chicken bird takes flight from inside the snow. Strangely and wonderfully designed thing is the chicken bird living on nutrient-poor food using the snow as thermal insulation. A tengmalm’s owl was eagerly making noises at the height of Kuhmo, and an ural owl also went rumouring around the evening camp.
-Jukka
