Click to enlarge the map.
17.—22.6.2025
This would be the third long hike with Teemu. We planned to go to the well furnished Urho Kekkonen national park with plenty of huts and people, but the hike turned out to be something else because of a raging stomach flu in the said park. Luckily there is space in Lapland. Temperature didn't go below zero in the night, but this was a cold hike.
Teemu with a Teemu.
I had been planning the hike since January. Urho Kekkonen national park would be a good destination, with plenty of huts and people who would help us if needed. No marked paths, but who needs those? The route was clear, tickets had been bought, food had been dried - but then there was terrible news. Stomach flu in the national park. Hikers evacuated. I would not want to be the only adult in the team if we were hit by stomach flu.
Our bus tickets would take us to Vuotso. Well, there is a lot of wilderness in Lapland, and we would find somewhere to hike. The original plan was to take a taxi to Orponen in the East, but now we would turn left instead and arrive in the Hammastunturi area. It would be easy to avoid huts in Hammastunturi, because they are quite rare.
This would be our first hike
The cliff named after Mr. Conrad Lihr. We did not manage to follow the orange poles.
Platform 1 at Rovaniemi was packed with Japanese tourists on Tuesday morning. We arrived on a night train on a sleeping car. Just before Rovaniemi, there was some trouble with the car electricity: lights were out and the outer doors refused to open. I'm happy that the electric door on the toilet opened. It would have been a great start for a hike, to get stuck in the train toilet. We had to wait for the bus for an hour and a half, enough time to enjoy breakfast. The bus carried other hikers to various locations in Lapland. Everyone had had a change in plans because of the diseases.
For a self-organised trip you have to pack everything in the South, not supporting the locals in Lapland. This time we did some grocery shopping in the local small supermarket. One of the specialties was the microwave oven: you could buy food, heat it, and eat it at the shop. To complete the tiny shop experience, I opened the butter that I bought, and found it half eaten! The personnel were amused: mother-in-law 83 yrs has been arranging things again, please take a new box.
We paid 120 eur for an hour of taxi. The road got worse and worse when we approached the destination, and a couple of times I suggested that the driver can just drop up somewhere, but he said the Mercedes would manage. Well there were other cars at the parking lot.
Some Lapland sightseeing had begun: reindeer, tourists photographing reindeer (with car parked in the middle of a 100 km/h road), a big gold mine, a lot of dry and ill-growing forest.
Our journey started with a marked trail 12 km long, from Pahajoki parking area to Ivalojoen Kultala ("Gold-home of river Ivalojoki"). This would be our route on the first day. It was slightly chilly, but somehow we warmed up considerably while climbing from the Sotajoki valley to the first hill. Almost no mosquitoes.
It was time to fill the water bottles for the first time. Teemu was surprised because we did not filter the water unlike on previous hikes. This time I had decided that Lappish creeks are good for drinking. On our hikes 20 years ago we never filtered, and we would continue this tradition. The water was refreshing and there was plenty of it during the whole journey. Both of us had a 0.5 l PET bottle, and we mainly drank when a creek was available, not carrying water around. Two 1 l bottles were carried empty and filled for cooking at campsites.
In the wilderness areas in Lapland it is permitted to light a fire using dead wood on the ground. People had exercised this right quite abundantly. There was an old fire site near every stream. Today there was no cooking for us, but we used the spots for sandwich breaks. At one fire place I found a thoroughly rusted Chinese axe, still in a leather case. Usually, I take litter with me, but this time I decided not to carry extra kilos when it totally was not my own fault. Instead, when we met someone on the trail, I asked her to take the axe with her, and showed it on the map. "It will double your load," I apologised, because her gear was very lightweight.
I have been to Hammastunturi and Ivalojoki with Timo in 2009. Back then there were stairs down to the Ivalojoki bank. Now there was a new route, but we managed to get lost on the Lihr cliff. First we took the new route, then climbed back because I thought it was only for sightseeing. Then we went for the stairs, only to find them removed. We decided to descend where the stairs used to be, quite steep, and each of us had to lean to the hiking pole (I always gave one to Teemu if needed). Afterwards I read that the stairs had been demolished in 2021, and for me it seemed like they had been burned: there were piles of charred nails on the ground.
There is an open hut at Kultala and most of the bunks empty, but I wanted to avoid people and diseases. We set up the tarp on soft grass. Other hikers commented that we have good air conditioning. Teemu was still watching a mosquito documentary through the net when I fell asleep.
Wearing a rain skirt will make you jolly. Suspension bridge in the back.
Viola biflora.
Bow to enter or exit the Liljeqvist hut.
I woke up to a rainy morning. Teemu was still sleeping. We slept under the tarp set up in the "A" style, a.k.a. wind tunnel, and a two-person mosquito net inside. During the night, Teemu had rolled out from the net once, and I had rolled him back and set up the net. Teemu's left cheek was showing where he had leaned against the net.
My plan had been to dry stuff when the rain stopped in the morning, but it always started again. Thus I dried the sleeping bag in the open hut. One man had slept in the hut (room for 8). There was still no movement in the tent that had been there since yesterday, and Teemu suspected that it might be just for scenery. We went through the gold rush museums at Kultala, but Teemu was not impressed by gold history or old buildings.
There is a path along Ivalojoki all the way to Sotajoki. Half of it is marked on the map too. Sometimes it is easy to follow through light vegetation, but sometimes we completely lost it at rocky places. Then we had to look for rocks that had less lichen on top: footsteps have worn it off. During peak flood in the spring, the water had been at least 3 m higher. We were mostly 1-2 m from the river surface.
It was somehow fascinating to follow a secret path that can't be found on maps. I tried to keep track of our precise location but in vain. Anyway, we were heading to another river, and it could not be missed.
I made Teemu cook us lunch. He has practiced lighting the gas during chemistry classes, but he told me that it is always done in pairs and with a slight panic. This time he had to manage alone. Only 3 km behind us today, but the trail had been a difficult one.
Most of the Lapland flora is known to me, but now I spotted a tiny pink flower. This one I had never seen before. I took a photo for mum and dad to recognise. To my huge surprise back home, they didn't. I had to flip through a couple of books to find that it is Primula stricta. It grows on river banks and especially at Ivalojoki.
After Björklundinoja we started to see marks of civilisation: bootprint, cayak tied on a tree, tarp tent, fire ring, gold washing equipment. No people though. I guess that the summer holidays will bring gold miners to their claimed land.
When planning the route I had read that the river Sotajoki can be forded. It has been a while since I forded a river, and Sotajoki would be Teemu's first one if we managed. At the river mouth it looked quite rapid and difficult. Nothing better was found when searching upstream. This would be it.
We looked for good staffs in the forest. I taught Teemu the basics: keep a good support on the staff on the downstream side, always find a stable place before the next step, open the hip belt. My risk analysis showed that there was an open hut nearby if we needed to dry clothes, we both had the essentials if one backpack was lost, and the nearest road was only a couple of hours on a path. I told Teemu that it was ok to turn back if he found the fording impossible. Then a piece of chocolate and into the water.
It was not freezing, or maybe it was the adrenaline warming us up. First Teemu was walking behind me, but halfway into the river we were holding hands. Water was up to the knees, and half-thigh during the last meters. We chose to walk with shoes on, because they were wet anyway.
The opposite river bank was steep and 15 m tall. On top we poured water out of the shoes and squeezed our socks. Teemu wondered wheter to eat a second chocolate bisquit, "well why not?" We were looking down to the river and wondering what we just did. I congratulated Teemu for the new achievement.
A man named Toivo Liljeqvist had come to the gold lands in the 1940s and built a hut for himself in 1948. Now it is an open hut maintained by the goverment. I was not expecting such a small hut, but this one was really sympathetic and would heat quickly. According to the guest book, the previous visitor has heated it in March. I told Teemu that we could stay and dry the shoes, but he said he would hike for a lot longer. So we took a last glance at the tiny sauna built half underground. A sign said it was a museum and that it is forbidden to heat it.
Shortly after Liljeqvist we came to a spot that looked much better for fording. Already on the right side, we did not try. Instead, we headed uphill along a rover path, towards small lakes that have been called pretty. Teemu got a new hiking achievement: crawl under the reindeer fence. I thought there would be a gate when the path changed from one side of the fence to the other.
The nights would be cold. We did not set the tarp at the lake shore but a bit higher to avoid cold, and tried to look for shelter under a big pine tree. I was stupid enough to let myself cool down before hiding into the sleeping bag. The mere thought of a cold night made me shiver.
Automated gold washer.
It was a bright, dry, and sunny morning, and I could see my breath. I woke up at seven to have a cup of jasmin tea and write the journal. The day would be pretty and the evening would be cold. In the morning we followed the creek Ritaoja to the pretty little lakes. The water is so clear that it appears turquoise gray in the shallow lakes. The surroundings are an undulating sandy forest. Many nights have been spent on the shores. I want to come back in the autumn and sit by the fire, watching the night fall.
The map shows strange little roads between the rivers Sotaoja and Palsinoja. They are gold miners' rover paths, and the bigger ones can be driven by campers. The first land claim we encountered was empty but exhibited an interesting automated gold washer. Then it was easy to follow the road on the sandy land. Our goal was to meet at least one miner and give them our litter. This came true in the very last downhill before we left the gold lands. He was a retired man who told us that single old men turn into talkers and talk to themselves if no one is there to listen.
Afterwards it is always easy to see good routes on the map. This time I spotted a good ford at Selperinoja some hundreds of meters from where we forded. It was only ankle deep. When we had to ford the small Kuusipäänoja and I started to remove my shoes, I remarked to Teemu: "When we are on the other side, a gold miner will appear from nowhere and say, why didn't you use the bridge 10 m upstream." Teemu went to explore and came back to tell me that 15 metres away there indeed were rocks on which we could hop over the stream.
I remembered Siliäselkä ("smooth back") as easy walking, but we kept ending up at marshland with largge tussocks. Some unknown birds kept us company and had a lot to talk.
We were heading for Siliänseljänlampi which, as seen on the map, looked like a tiny marsh lake between fells. Looking closer, it is surrounded by dense contours on every side. We arrived at the West end of the lake to find out that the shore was impassable. This meant a long detour through a rocky forest. There was a small stream flowing towards the lake, and along its gorge we found our destination.
According to what I had read, there is a good camp site at the East end of Siliänseljänlampi. It was idyllic but windy. We cooked dinner and set up the tarp the best we could. I went for an uphill run to warm up, only to find that the camp site was actually up there, on a flat shelf. Thus we moved the tarp two contours uphill. It was cold, but we would be sheltered from the wind blowing from the lake and cold air pouring downhill.
Teemu does not jump into Kulmakuru.
Food blog photo.
I woke up in the middle of the night when a man and a dog passed our tarp. The dog would have come to sniff, but the man whispered its name in a soothing manner: "Taro. Taro!" I woke up a little more and realised there was no man or dog, but reindeer are talking. I even saw some of them run right next to the tarp, and then fell asleep again.
The wind had turned in the night, and was not against the wall but straight into the wind tunnel. We were lucky to have the first fastening fail only during breakfast. I did a little laundry. The wind would dry the clothes quickly.
When I tried to boil water for the porridge, the gas stove refused to cooperate. Shaking the canister, I felt the heaviest gases, but the light ones had been burned away. I wondered about this on site, and continued back home. Butane boils at 0 degrees, and it certainly was not below zero. Other gases in the canister were isobutane (-12) and propane (-42). This misbehaviour was surely due to temperature, because the canister worked nicely when it was warmer.
I made yet another risk analysis while eating sandwiches instead of porridge. The weather was not getting warm according to the forecast. If the other gas canister (still unopened) would stop working, we would not have warm food. My original plan was to climb the fell Tolospää on Friday, which would mean a small detour away from civilisation. Now I decided that it would be wiser to continue towards Saariselkä. There would be other fells, wilderness, and views.
The cold and the changes made me too grumpy, but Teemu was keeping up a good mood. First he hugged me and said that plans can't always be successful, and that we have made two hikes without trouble. During the walking he gave me a lecture about the game called Dungeon Cards. At some point I told him that it is actually the adult's responsibility to care for the kid's mood and not the other way around.
Having started the walking with almost all the clothes on, we gradually warmed up and removed clothing while walking the hills towards the gorge at Hirvas-Niilan Aitavaara ("The hill with a fence belonging to the Niila nicknamed the male adult reindeer"). There is a good view into the gorge from the northern edge. We stared at the gorge wall until it started to look like the photo on a jigsaw puzzle: repeated rock formations with some bushes that span only one puzzle piece. Thus a quick escape.
We found a secret wooden table and benches where to eat our lunch. The location will not be revealed here either. The oddest thing is that there were no paths to this place, and the creek was all too narrow for any type of boats. Would people come here through the forest to enjoy noodles and cup soup like we did?
Many hills and gorges have been named. Teemu was wondering why Harripään Rumakuru has a name but the previous bigger gorge has none, and also asking if this name is particularly attractive to tourists ("Ugly gorge of the grayling (fish) head"). Apparently we could have walked all the way through this gorge, but we just peeked inside. The bottom was large moss-covered rocks with moss-covered holes in between.
We climbed to the top of Harripää for a view towards the East, and Saariselkä tourist area. The Kaunispää ("Baeutiful head") fell was easy to recognise by the ugly buildings on top. Kulmakuru ("angle gorge") had us stop for a long sandwich pause. The gorge is at least 35 metres deep and makes a 90 degree angle. It was difficult to understand the dimensions on site, and impossible to present them in photos.
From here on it was easy to follow the marked skiing track. We marched to a day hut that has a bit of an identity crisis, being called by different names on maps and on the door. The map says "kota" (Lappish tipi shaped building) and Harrioja, and on the door it has diminished to Pikku-Harrioja ("Little Harrioja"). Anyway, there was a roof and walls, and inside a place to light a fire and warm up our bones before the night. The afternoon had brought t-shirt weather, and I even stopped carrying the gas canister under my jacket, but the night promised cold.
Backlit hikers.
The "Ugly gorge" turned out not to be very ugly.
It was Midsummer Day, and it is always cold in Finland at Midsummer. Our olive oil was solid on the bottom of the bottle and did not move. We were happy to have the new gas canister working. I lit a morning fire in the hut and made yummy warm sandwiches. I should make those more often, and also light fires more often.
Another name for Teemu's amusement: Vihaisen-Seppäsen maa ("Land of the angry Seppänen"). I tried to follow the skiing route while not walking on it: winter trails are often routed on marshland, but we wanted to walk on dry ground a bit higher up the hill. The skiing track would go over the Tolosjoki river, and we would ford it too. This river was wide but very shallow, fordable anywhere. The water was however colder than in the previous rivers. I just hurried away and left Teemu to survive by himself.
Our map scale was 1:50000. Many paths are not marked. I had been wise enough to load offline maps for the hike, and the electronic map revealed a good path that would lead us to the Laanila gold trail, a gold themed forest walk. We now covered about half of it, and should definitely come back for the rest some day.
The Kuivakuru gorge ("Dry gorge") had been dried by digging a ditch 200 m long. Some geologist had predicted that there would be a lot of gold there, but the outcome was poor. At another place there was a vertical tunnel 16 m deep and some horizontal ones following it: no gold. Maybe all the sites with gold are still actively used and thus not made into museums. The gold route had interesting signs, but almost as interesting was to spot rusty machine parts and hut ruins.
We headed to a cafe in Laanila, and took a shortcut along a power line. The skiing track should meet us, but somehow we managed to miss the crossing and walked an extra kilometre on a snowmobile track. Finally the cafe was found, and it was open and served those berry-rich pies that I remembered from skiing holidays.
Today we hit the right edge of our map, but the rest of the hike we would be on very well marked skiing routes. A couple of years ago I was here in the winter. It was funny how there was a sturdy bridge over all small creeks, but it is obvious when you see how big the skiing track machines are. Some summer routes were narrower, and there we went over one bushy hill. Small butterflies were resting on the path.
I had decided in advance that we would not go to the Urho Kekkonen national park to collect a stomach flu, and there even was an official recommendation of no overnight trips to UKK. We acted agains both the promise and the recommendation, and camped the night around the Rumakuru day hut. A list of places with noro had been published, and they were practically all over the park, though not Rumakuru. Anyway, we did not enter the hut.
Our evening company was a big Teemu with a small backpack. He was using a tarp 1.5 m by 3 m, and a 0.5 l kettle. I was wondering what gear to choose if I walked alone. It was nice to discuss our findings in the area of hiking and especially light backpacking. At least I got several ideas.
Snowy gorges.
The morning gave us liquid oil and a flying wasp, in other words, it was warm. The big Teemu had seen a fox and the common tourist attraction bird siberian jay. Peculiarly, we had not seen any jays during the whole journey.
There was a shortcut to the hotel Kiilopää over the Ahopää hill, but Teemu wanted to walk a bit more so that the day could be called a hiking day. At Luulampi we read about stone age settlements. There was a fence marking where not to go or camp. Nice sandy hills would attract hikers just like they did the stone age people.
My Achilles tendon decided to start complaining in the very last uphill on Kiilopää. Wanting to avoid damage, I loaded all the heavier stuff in Teemu's backpack, and used the poles to take lighter steps downhill. The tendon ended up being a little sore, but stretching and massage and exercises by Siiri will fix it.
The return tickets were bought for Monday, because I had wished to avoid hurry and wash myself before the trip. We had to kill one day and night at the hotel, mainly by eating and waiting for the next meal. I had a sauna, but did not dip into the ice-cold creek. My excuse was that I did not have a swimsuit. Originally I had planned to climb the Kiilopää hill, and the next time we will unless it manages to escape.
People were still starting hikes to the UKK park regardless of the diseases. People had really big backpacks. One young man walked to the hotel and told us that he had left 13 days ago and walked to the border. He was completely oblivious of the stomach flu until he met some men on rovers who delivered the news. On the bus there was a couple who had spent a week at Muotkatunturi. An older man at Rovaniemi railway station said he had been two weeks in Vätsäri. Nature travels did wonders on all of us.
Kulmakuru.
Words Tiiti Kellomäki, photos mainly Tiiti Kellomäki 2025. Back to the hiking pages (in Finnish)