Last tuesday, during an extremely boring morning coffee break, me and my co-worker decided that we'll go on a day hike on saturday; no matter the weather. So, yesterday at 9 am we packed up, took my dog with us, and headed to the woods. We ended up walking around a swamp in 10-15 inch deep wet snow, climbing over half-a-dozen hills in pouring rain (water, snow, and everything in between). The temperature was around +2C (35F).
So, needless to say; we had a lot of fun
First, we walked about two kilometers on a forrest road. It was surprisingly hard, since there was a lot of really heavy snow on the road. From there, we went to an even smaller road, which we followed maybe one km (1 km = 0,6 miles).
(my friend climbing up a hill)
From there, it was up and down the rocky hills. A hiking staff wasn't just a convenience; it was a necessity. The ground was really uneven, and since I could't see where I was stepping due to the snow, without the staff I would have fallen many times.
(here's me once again packing my rain poncho)
About every ten minutes, it started to rain heavily, so we had to keep packing and unpacking our rain ponchos.
Here's a nice pic of the swamp, taken from one of the hills surrounding it. Crossing that during winter time would be nearly impossible.
A strange rock formation.
A strange looking pine tree.
As we were taking a short break every now and then, my dog kept dragging sticks from the forrest, and trying to convince us, that since we had stopped, we might as well play fetch-the-stick with her. She must've ran three times the distance we did, but never showed a sign of fatigue
The trip prooved to be a lot harder than we originally thought. We had a decent amount of gear with us, so we could have spent the night in the woods if we had to. The first couple of kilometers from the end of the forrest road to the highest of the hills, took us about 3,5 hours to complete! After that, the rest of the rout went trough some lower grounds, which were a lot wetter, but also a lot more even than the beginning of the rout. So, the last ~3 kilometers took us only a little over hour to walk.
Ok, I know what some of you might be thinking right now... "no knives?". So, here is one for the BF:
(The Ranger Puukko by J.P. Peltonen)
So, needless to say; we had a lot of fun
First, we walked about two kilometers on a forrest road. It was surprisingly hard, since there was a lot of really heavy snow on the road. From there, we went to an even smaller road, which we followed maybe one km (1 km = 0,6 miles).
(my friend climbing up a hill)
From there, it was up and down the rocky hills. A hiking staff wasn't just a convenience; it was a necessity. The ground was really uneven, and since I could't see where I was stepping due to the snow, without the staff I would have fallen many times.
(here's me once again packing my rain poncho)
About every ten minutes, it started to rain heavily, so we had to keep packing and unpacking our rain ponchos.
Here's a nice pic of the swamp, taken from one of the hills surrounding it. Crossing that during winter time would be nearly impossible.
A strange rock formation.
A strange looking pine tree.
As we were taking a short break every now and then, my dog kept dragging sticks from the forrest, and trying to convince us, that since we had stopped, we might as well play fetch-the-stick with her. She must've ran three times the distance we did, but never showed a sign of fatigue
The trip prooved to be a lot harder than we originally thought. We had a decent amount of gear with us, so we could have spent the night in the woods if we had to. The first couple of kilometers from the end of the forrest road to the highest of the hills, took us about 3,5 hours to complete! After that, the rest of the rout went trough some lower grounds, which were a lot wetter, but also a lot more even than the beginning of the rout. So, the last ~3 kilometers took us only a little over hour to walk.
Ok, I know what some of you might be thinking right now... "no knives?". So, here is one for the BF:
(The Ranger Puukko by J.P. Peltonen)
(Finns = great rifle shooters and knifefighters) 
