Autumn in Finland

A few weeks ago I made a short trip to Evo national park on Hämeenlinna municipality. The place is about 1h 30min by car from Tampere, and there are some bus connections from Hämeenlinna, Padasjoki and occasional service from Helsinki according to Finnish web page. If you make your way to Padasjoki, you can also take a taxi to a place where the hiking routes begin.

Courtesy of "Finnish Forest Council" Metsähallitus/www-luontoon.fi

The reason was, that I took a course on experience pedagogy based on Kurt Hahn ideas and the course itself was organized by Outward Bound Finland. It was a great way to learn something new about group leading as well as experience education and update my outdoor skills in the colorful Finnish autumn forest. We made our food outside for 4 days, slept out in a tent and finally also had steamy sauna in beautiful setting.

There are several places to sleep if you do not want to take your tent, but then you must pay a fee and collect the keys from Evokeskus. The same place gets you equipped with maps. There are several trails, easy walking. Along the trails there are trash bins, outdoor toilets and some wells for fresh water. There are some springs as well, but you have to boil the water before use, the same if you take water from the lakes. This time there was also a lot of fresh mushroom that we ate with pleasure. Not all mushroom are eatable, make sure you know what you eat! You might encounter some animals on the way, birds and owls are the most likely companions on the way. Also beavers and moose are sighted. The national park is the home for Eurasian lynx (not seen too often, but you might see paw marks during the winter) and the rare Siberian flying squirrel.

We were lucky to have wonderful weather during our stay, as you can see from the pictures.
Enjoy the peek to the Finnish forest!

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