Every year, my scout troop (Katajannokan Karhunkaatajat) usually has one or two members who plan a hiking trip in the fall. This year we decided on going to Koli national park for the shorter Herajärvikierros which was about a 30km hike. The terrain was not insanely difficult but still proved a challenge due to much of the hike consisting of going up and down hill.
Because of the hilly nature of the hike, we did get to see some amazing views, some of which I’ve included on the left. It being autumn meant that the leaves in the decidious trees had turned yellow/orange, while the coniferous trees stayed their usual greens. The foliage created a charming autumnul view that was 100% worth the steep uphill climb that usually preceeded it.
The weather was also the best we could’ve hoped for. It was sunny and the slight chill in the air cooled me down after the heat of hiking. There was a spot of rain during our third night which slightly dampened the mood (some of our gear got wet and we thought it was going to rain the following day), but thankfully it didn’t end up raining after that night.
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Since the train ride to Koli is four hours from Helsinki, we decided to start our treck on Friday the 11th so we didn’t need to spend our entire autumn break on this hike. We arrived in Joensuu (a city near Koli) around 10:30PM and arrived at the start of the trail at around 11PM-12AM via taxi. After that, in the dead of night, we hiked 2-3km to our first sleeping area called Ikolanaho – a very small cabin that had two bunk beds – where 14 of us crammed ourselves in (and one person slept in a hammock outside). We only got around 4 hours of sleep this night (7AM wake up), but I felt surprisingly refreshed that morning and ready to face the day head-on. From there we hiked about 15km on the 2nd day, 10km on the 3rd, 7km on the 4th, and the last few kilometers on the 5th day of teh hike. During these days we got to enjoy beatiful scenery, fresh air, and the company of our 15-person group.
Some challenges we faced along the way were rationing water (not every stop had a place we could fill our water bottles), finding a place to set up camp (on the 14th we arrived at the planned camping location to find out that we weren’t allowed to set up there and had to hike an additional 1-2km to the next stop), and one of our members got really sick meaning some people had to adjust their pace.
Overall the trip was extremely well planned and I enjoyed it a lot. My food group (me and 3 others who planned and carried the foods for the four of us during this trip) was absolutely amazing and we prepared some banger meals like shrimp-spinach pasta, bacon and onion soup, spinach pancakes, and a different type of porridge for every breakfast.
Learning outcomes: Challenges & skills, Commitment & Perserverance
I believe I (and honestly the whole hiking group) demonstrated these two learning outcomes because although we had some challenges along the way, we pressed on and always kept a positive atitude. Even when we had to climb what are used as skiing slopes with 13kg backpacks, no one complained and we just paced ourselves so we didn’t exert all our energy at the beginning of the climb.
I also believe this trip allowed me to use and grow in my orienteering skills. On the 14th, we arrived at the sleeping place with very little water left. Thus, me and two other scouts took our groups map and went on a trip to get the whole group enough water for that night and the next morning (about 16L). For this we had to read the map and did our best to get to the closest place we could get water. We went the wrong way for a while as we were returning to the camp site but noticed soon after and were able to correct our course without too much hassle.
Aino K. – Hiiret
