Got a call in the beginning of the week and my friend asked me to go Evo Hiking area for an overnighter. Sure, why not! Haven’t been there before.

Evo has been inhabited since the 1300s, but there is very little information available about the early days. In the 1800s, when the general parcelling out of land was carried out in Finland, the forests of Evo became surplus land of the state, and they were logged without pity for tar burning and to hew planks. Slash-and-burn agriculture was also common.

In 1856, the imperial senate made a decision to establish Evo crown park to conserve the forests. Two years later, 1858, it was decided to start teaching of forestry. The first forestry institute in Finland was set up in Evo in 1862. In the beginning foresters, then forest technicians, and nowadays forestry engineers graduate from Evo.

When i looked the map, one thing caught my attention. Even there is a lot of trails around Evo, you can drive next to these camping places or nearby. There is rented cabins, fireplaces, lean-to’s and camping area for caravans.
Map here : http://julkaisut.metsa.fi/assets/pdf/lp/Esitteet/evoeng.pdf

We had a plan for driving one place and walk one of the nature trails (3km) first without our backpacks. But friend wanted to show one of his favorite places, so we drove there first.

Name of the place was a bit funny to me, Valkea Mustajärvi, literally White Blacklake. Beautiful views and beautiful area. This place has a lean-to, toilet, and woodshed. And can drive next to it. Sometimes the gate might be closed, but that is only 200 meters from lean-to.
Opposite site this small lake has an fireplace and toilet. So many place nearby, i feel it could be easy to spend few days here, without walking long distances.

So we head on, roads were quite ok to drive, but had some soft spots. Well, luckily we didn’t get stuck to any of those muddy places.

We went to check one of our possible overnight places, this was called Vaarinkorpi (Grandpa’s Wilderness) which has a lean’to, toilet and woodshed.
One dayhiker was enjoying lunch there and we sat and chat for sometime before he left. He had been walking 15km already. Finns tend to be quiet and might feel a bit unfriendly sometimes, but not in the forest.

This place had a bit different way to make firewood. This is called Ilveskirves (LynxAxe). We tried and it was really easy to chop logs! Most likely this option is common here, because of some people stealing the axes…shame on them.

Even this place had some difficulties to find a place for our hammocks, there was a place nearby. One thing was, that we had to cross this swampy and wet area, i didn’t have my rubberboots with me. Well, this wasn’t a problem actually…
So we going to check the other place nearby, which was Sorsakolu (Duck boulder field).

This place looked great, i really liked the lean-to and the big rock facing it. There was some another dayhikers with the kids, but they left soon. During the evening, quite a many people drop by here. We heard that this is probably the most popular place here.

I had my Amok with me and my friend used his DD Ultralight set. Quite a difference.

I saw one guy coming towards us and suddenly he asked if i am Hämis (my nickname). He regocnized me from finnish hammock group from facebook! Ha, funny how he happened to be here too! We had a great chat with him during to evening. He was cursing a bit, because he didn’t have his hammock with him.

Sorsakolu itself was a great place to stay over night. Guy who came later had a dog with him and i played with it whole evening. Owner was quite happy, because dog slept whole night peacefully and so was he too.

My friend had his new packraft with him and wanted to try it here. Small and light, only 3kg! I am a heavy guy (130kg/286lb) so this can carry 140kg tops. I seriously need to get my weight down dammit.

Nothing much to tell about rest of the evening or night. We enjoyed and had a good laugh.

Slept quite well this night and woke up around 8am. Took some photos for the Amok review which i promised to write.

Weather forecast said that it will be raining heavily during the night and next day, but morning was beautiful. So i enjoyed sunrise in my hammock, was warm and cozy.

Great small adventure again, thank you my friend. More to come, stay tuned.