Koli National Park

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Trip start
July 3, 2024
Koli National Park Taru Viero
Day 1
July 3, 2024 in Finland ⋅ 🌧 17 °C
Here I go again. The weather is like that day in Levanger Norway pitching the tent in heavy rain. 😄
My plan is to hike the route around Herajärvi Lake in and around the Koli National Park. Both north and south part of the route. It's a bit over 60 kilometres and described as a demanding route because it's basically constant ascent and descent on a path full of tree roots and rocks. I've planned 4 full days for this route, but still a bit nervous how heavy it's actually going to be.
I arrived to Koli village in early evening and hiked just few kilometres to the first possible tent place. The ascent started immediately from the village.
There's nobody else on this tent place. Just me and the cows. Surprising as Koli National Park is among I think top 5 National Parks visited by people and there are not many tent places near these iconic peaks and national landscape from which many paintings have been made, and many composers have got inspiration.Read more
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Koli National Park Taru Viero
Day 2
July 4, 2024 in Finland ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C
The day was easier than anticipated. Not going to say it was easy climbing up and down constantly, but the climbs didn't finish me completely and now in the evening I feel like I haven't done anything at all. Clearly the nearly 600 km of St. Olavsleden and especially the Norwegian section has improved my stamina.
It was a beautiful hike. The peaks, of course, but also the trail away from those famous peaks. It's easy to see why so many different artists got their inspiration from here, and why so many paintings and poems have been done of this landscape.
It's also much quieter than I anticipated. I was mentally preparing to go, basically in a queue, but there were not many hikers around. Most also are going this route counterclockwise and doing a shorter 30 km route. I'm going clockwise and 60 km.
Tomorrow it's going to rain a lot. Have to be really careful, because the path full of rocks and tree roots will turn very slippery. I plan to reach the unlocked wilderness cabin at Ahvenlampi. Probably not going to sleep in the cabin, because those are more or less full of mosquitos, of which there are a lot! But I'll get to dry my gear in the cabin and put the tent up next to the cabin.Read more
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Koli National Park Taru Viero
Day 3
July 5, 2024 in Finland ⋅ 🌧 19 °C
Decided to wait till noon when the rain should start dying down. It just rains so much currently that on this path, it doesn't feel safe heading out. The path will be so slippery and heavy rain will distract my attention too much from being careful with my steps.
So I'll do a late hike, till evening basically, which is so hard for me as I'm a slave of my habits. Early start, early camp and a nap. 😄
In the end, the weather forecast changed quickly and two out of three forecasts were saying no rain until noon for a few hours. Foreca was still promising crazy weather with thunderstorms, but I believed the majority and headed out after 9 am.
The majority was right, and it rained heavily for an hour or so at noon. Rain combined with the only rope fording place this south as usually these are found in Lapland still made sure I was soaking wet. The thing is that I've seen people crossing the Herajoki River in just ankle deep water, but now that I forded the river the water was to my waist! Any deeper than that and I would be swimming across. 😄
It was a heavy day. Really heavy. Up and down I went for about 20 km. I reached the unlocked wilderness cabin of Ahvenlampi around 6 pm after only seeing one other hiker on the trail.
The cabin is really nice and clean. It even has a solar panel that you can use to charge your phone! Also, the outhouse is so clean and stacked with toilet paper. I'll keep this in mind for any winter excursions.Read more
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Koli National Park Taru Viero
Day 4
July 6, 2024 in Finland ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C
According to the trail info, the west side of the trail should be the heaviest, but for me, this day wasn't as hard as yesterday's south section of the trail. Sure there's more massive peaks in the west side, but the south side had numerous smaller peaks, and I was really finished yesterday.
Of course today wasn't easy either, and it's a slow-going there with average speed of about 2.5 km/h or even less. Some people seemed quite oblivious to how demanding and slow-going the route is. I took shelter from a thunderstorm in a wilderness cabin with two men and an 11 or 12-year-old boy. It was already 5 pm, and they had come from Ukko-Koli, climbed the highest peaks, done closer to 9 km, and we're still planning to reach Kiviniemi 11 km away. It took me almost five hours to cover that 11 km! I don't think their plan was feasible, especially with a young boy with them. But I wished them luck after the storm passed and went on my way.
Ukko-Koli and the end of the trail is just five kilometres away. I'll hike there tomorrow, eat, drink and relax at the nature centre and then on Monday morning I'll get a bus to Joensuu and then a train to Helsinki.
It's time to come home. I'm out of mosquito repellent! 😄Read more
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Koli National Park Taru Viero
Day 5
July 7, 2024 in Finland ⋅ 🌬 20 °C
A short hike back to the tent site, from which I started on Thursday morning. Of course, even when short, there was still a lot of climbing to get back to the Ukko-Koli and the nature centre.
It was a rough 60 kilometres. All the warnings about how demanding the route is are well-earned. I would think this is the most demanding hiking route in Finland in the under 100 km category. I will forever remember some of those climbs up and coming down almost vertically. Without my trekking poles, I don't know how I would have managed.Read more
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Trip end
July 7, 2024

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5