Treklife stories in English

Hunting of colourful sceneries

On the first half of the September 2014 I made a short six day hiking trip in Saariselkä with my son Jukka. We began our journey from Aittajärvi, where we counted 25 cars that belonged to other hikers who were probably inspired by the “autumn colours”. From the beginning the weather was dry and sometimes even sunny, but there were lots of vapour in the air, which blurred the outlines and reduced vision when looking far away. First four days went in these conditions. The picture below, which was taken on the first morning in Suomujoki from the strait of the lake Kotajärvi and Suomujärvi, shows well the weather.

My son was testing his new camera and he is responsible for the pictures included here. The foggy weather reduced the quality of some landscape photos and the autumn colours didn´t do justice for themselves. Although in close-up photos like in this picture taken from the falls of Maalpurinoja, the quality is decent. The moss covering the rocks has already got some amazing colours.

Weather changed in the night before the fifth day. Fog was wiped away and the sky became clear. We had been sleeping near Hammaskuru´s cabin and we were thinking about continuing from there to Muorravaarakan ruoktu and through the Pirunportti, name means “the gate of devil”, to the gorge of Ukselma. On the photo below we are climbing towards the Keinopää and Pirttikallionvaara and looking at were we came. On the background rises the mountain of Vuomapää.

Then we wandered over the valley of river Anteri towards the gorge Akanhärkä.

The view from the gorge of Akanhärkä was great towards the ridges of Ukselma and Sollanpää.

Then we descended to the south-end of the Muorravaarakka- valley and had a little break and a snack on the campfire next to the riverside.

The journey continued smoothly past Muorravaarakan ruoktu´s cabin towards the side of Ukselma and Pirunportti.

On the west side of the Pirunportti opened the gorge Ukselma, where the evening sun started gilding slopes.

When we arrived to the mouth of gorge Ukselma, it was already a late night. Sky was foreshadowing cold night and in the morning our tent was covered in frostworks. Whilst re were making our way towards the cabin Sarvioja, which was couple of kilometers away, the ground was still frosted.

We climbed from the behind of Sudenpesä to Kaarnepää. There was gloving gold and traces of purple in the direction were we had come from.

We continued over the Kaarnepää towards the Maantiekuru and Aittajärvi. On the top of the Kaarnepää the view of waves of round blue mountain peaks was greeting us. Soon we were back at Aittajärvi. The loot was also good. Jukka had taken over 600 photos and I have 35 minutes of video diary.

Again one successful hiking trip down. Besides the photos I think we gathered a lot of physical as well as mental capital.

Heikki Yrjänäinen