It was a long time since i was hanging somewhere. Mainly two reasons for that, one is my sleep apnea.

I just can’t sleep well. Could say that i fear for falling in sleep, because of snoring and not breathing.

Other reason is my achilles tendon, which have been painful time to time. Allthou my trips haven’t been long what comes for hiking, still this frustrates me.

But i had a solution for some trips, that i will tell a bit later in this story…some might guess already.

Anyway, we started to plan this trip quite early, 2 months before. Asked my friends Lev and Niko, if they wanted to join for this trip. Wanted canoeing to Kelvenne or Hietasaari.

Oneproblem was the canoa, since Levs sister and her husband would join us too. So we would need three canoes. I had one and Lev had one too. So options were that i bring another with trailer or someone is renting one from Padasjoki. Niko wanted to do that.

But then week before trip, seem that where wuold be heavy winds at the Päijänne. So plans changed that since Levs sister and her husband didn’t have any experience from canoe, they would use the boat taxi. It was a bit pricy, but after all, they would get there safely. Me and Niko will use the canoe.

But couple of days before, Niko called and told me that he got his fathers boat for loan. So that solved all the problems.

Me and Niko started on friday, others came in next day. Niko came to the Padasjoki pier with the boat. Our plan was to spend a day in the Päijänne, log some geocaches and finally check Kelvenne and Hietasaari. We didn’t know if there is enough firewood both places.

First we drove to the Hietasaari. I haven’t been here but it looked really nice place. Also great places for hammocks. And here the woodshed was half full. Lookin’ good.

It was a surprise to see Great Crested Grebes so near us and there was a lot of them!  usually these avoid people, but these hang in the beach, only 2 meters away.  Possibly people have been feeding them (we saw that later) so they are not so scared.

Next place was a small rocky island called Linnasaarentakut. Pier was a quite high, and since it was so windy, we had to be careful.

Got the boat safely attached to the pier and went for a walk. There was a one geocache in this island, so found it fast.

Also we found a lean-to, which seemed to be new. Good to know, maybe we come here someday for a hang.

Niko wanted to show me a place where they spend a night some time ago. That was Vähä Paatsalo. That looked cool, but there wasn’t any place for fire. And it’s forbidden to make fires without landowners permission.

So we drove to check one geocache, but our boat was too big for that place. We didn’t want to take a risk.

Later we arrived to Kelvenne Isohieta beach. But there was a empty woodshed. Also the water was quite low, so we had some trouble to get our boat off from the beach.

It was a easy decision then, Hietasaari will be our place for the weekend. And seems it wasn’t so popular as the Kelvenne’s Isohieta.

Sun was going down when we got everything settled. Time to make some food too, i was starving.

Cozy evening and good food. I noticed that niko had a new headlamp. Small and light Nitecore NU25, which i also ordered later. The redlight function and light settings were great.

And what was the thing i mentioned? Here it is :

62 mAh car battery and adapter for my ResMed device. Dutchware has small gap in the hammock end, so i got wire through it and device had a place from peakshelf. I slept 8 hours well. Next night was a same too. I was a happy man.

Breakfast time and then it was time to drive to the Padasjoki. We got plenty of time for breakfast. Grebes were in the beach too, seems they spend a night nearby.

We bought some icecream at the pier and carried all the stuff from Lev’s car to the boat. Maria and David was a bit surprised, because they thought that we are going to some place by car. And staying some camping area.

Spend a day with them, teaching them about hammocks and help them setting them. Later we had a lunch, i had box full of Sea The Summit foods. So we had a tasting from all of them. Everybody got full bellies!

Later in the evening, Lev made us lot’s of good food as always. He just loves cooking. Well, what can we do, we just enjoyed.

I didn’t take photos at all, only this one when we were heading back. David was really happy about this trip, since he was amazed about sleeping in th ”wild” not in the camping areas like they have to do in UK. So definately, they will be here again next year.

It was a nice trip again, and i will be here this year too. Spending a night of course in my hammock.

 

Cheers and thanks!