Il Dolce Far Niente: Hiking on Komio Nature Reserve, Southern Finland

November 2011

After having a flu over eight weeks, a doctor finally gave permission to start outdoor activities. Slow start only, was advice. Decided to have a day hike somewhere near of Helsinki, a max of one hour by car.

Browsed internet and found some candidates. 10 mins 'research' and winner was selected, Komio Nature Reserve, some 50km north from Helsinki (somewhere between cities of Karkkila and Riihimaki). Never been there before, not even heard of it.

In the morning, made some sandwiches and prepared some coffee into a thermo bottle. Picked other stuff, camera, water etc. and off I went.

Weather was cloudy, some wind and temperature stayed at about +8C. Pretty good weather for being early November in southern Finland.

There were two ready made paths, one 3.5km long and another one 6.5km long. Decided to circle both of them. Both paths had many information signs along the routes. Well made from local people!

The area was full of steep ridges. Path circled them up and down, and I was getting wet soon after the start. There were some small lakes and ponds, too. And of course mires (bogs), which were not opened for public (except a short route that the longer path shortly visited). All in all, one felt to be in the forest.

Thanks to nature there, I stopped for taking photos often. Wanted to see some birds, but they didn't show up. Terrain looked very good for mountain biking.

At this time of the year, most animals were either gone south or otherwise kept a lower profile. Well, maybe next time then.

Hiked route (View Larger Map):