Summing Up My Outdoor Year 2012

December 2012

The year 2012 started fresh and green.  Did few day hikes on Nuuksio National Park:

On a cold Sunday saw sea smoke coming, the Baltic of Finland was about to freeze soon:

Soon in January we got lots of snow in the Southern Finland.  Couldn't imagine proper winter without snow. Spent time on cross country skis and on snowshoes:

The whole year was shadowed by too many injuries. The first one, a pain on heel, interrupted my cross country skiing and snowshoeing season. February I spent on a Gym, mostly on cycling with a stationary bicycle.

Visited the Korkeasaari Zoo in Helsinki in early March and met an Owl:

In mid March took a city break at Amsterdam. Did lots of cycling there. Interesting place:

End of March did a two day hiking trip to Nuuksio National Park, to test a Bivy Bag for the very first time. Positive experience:

At Easter time, there was some Spring feeling in the air:

April started to be busy time at outdoors; started a bicycle commuting to work, a sea kayaking season. Rivers got rid of ice, allowing paddlers to enjoy watery rapids:

Early May did a two days hiking trip to Liesjärvi National Park. Lakes and forest, nice place:

May was filled with cycling, paddling, running and orienteering. Such a busy month.

Did also lots was birdwatching, as well as observing nature in general. Nice places visited were Karkali and Uutela Nature Reserve areas:

Bought a new bicycle for commuting. It inspired even more cycling, which took quite a slice of spare time.

In June did some paddling trips, one to Lill Skorvan island on Kirkkonummi:

Orienteering has been one of most favourites, Jukolan Viesti preseting its glory:

Made the 2nd paddling trip to a brand new Selkämeri National Park in June. Such nice remote islands, a great place for paddling:

Midsummer time everything gets in bloom. It's also a busy time for animals:

In early July, did some hiking trips in Switzerland (blog posts still to come!):

Back in Finland, did a combined, two days, paddling and hiking trip to Repovesi National Park. Again, magnificent place:

Cycling stole lots of my spare time from paddling. A cycling trip to the city of Porvoo was nice, but then BANG, fell off the bike and hurt my wrist (which later proved to be a broken bone):

Hand hurt a lot, but the highlight of the whole year was already in sight, 9 days paddling trip to Gulf of Finland National Park.  Did the trip even it hurt quite a lot. That's not all, fell down during the trip and got a broken rib. Ibuprofein saved the trip.

Recovering from all, paddling had to wait. Filled spare time by cycling and birdwatching.

Autumn had arrived. Birds were migrating, heading towards south. Autumn foliage brought awesome colours in nature.

Finally, did some paddling trips, one to Torra Lövö island:

Finished paddling season earlier than usual. Again, cycling stole most of the time.  Was a bit lazy, so day hikes on weekends was about enough, like the one to Luukki:

In early December visited Utö island again. Such a great place, actually the whole archipelago is quite special and unique:

In December we got lots of snow, I mean a lot. White Christmas filled the land:

Now when writing this on New Year's Eve, temperature stays above zero centigrades, outdoor activities have to wait.


Some statistics about my outdoor year 2012:

• Did altogether about 5200 km, from where
• 3700 km of cycling
• 600 km of paddling
• 300 km of running/orienteering
• 600 km of hiking/walking/snowshoeing

The best photo I took during 2012? Although taken on artificial conditions (the zoo), I'll pick up this one (all of them in Picasa):

Happy New Year !

Revisit Bothnian Sea National Park

June 2012

Spent the midsummer weekend on west coast. Had an opportunity to make a quick revisit Bothnian Sea National Park.

The park is about 150km long and some kilometers wide stripe on (south) west coast, few km's off the coast. The park was established a year ago.

I paddled only on a small area on it, the area somewhere between cities of Pori and Rauma.

Weather was fine, low 4m/s north west wind (which was predicted to rise up to 7-8ms/s in the afternoon and it did so) and clear blue sky with lots of sunshine. Temperature stayed under +15C.  All in all, fine conditions for paddling.

Last year spotted an interesting area south of Sappi Lighthouse. The area contained lots of small rocky and stony islands, with few old fishing huts on them. Some of the islands contained trees and bushes. Wanted to circle that area again.

Some of the islands belonged to a nature reserve area, too. Wide variety of birds inhabited most of the islands. Amazingly saw some sheep on a remote island, too. Nice!   Some information told me there might be seals lying on small rocky islands, which raised my interest, too. Didn't see them, maybe next time.

First few kilometers in the archipelago were full of summer cottages. People had come to their cottages to enjoy the longest days of summer. When islands ended, started to cross a bit larger peninsula. Waves were small and side-head wind didn't bother too much.

After reaching the north-most islands decided to turn back. There were two islands with huge amount of Great Cormorants on them. Never seen so many of them in one place.

Sheep in one of islands cheered me. They were so curious about visitor. Didn't want to land and disturb their life so a couple of photos from the kayak was enough. Wasn't able to capture their smile, just a curious look.

Found a very small flat and low stony island and parked there for a lunch break. It didn't have any birds nest, therefore I was able to stay there quite alone.

After lunch break continued paddling south, circling islands from west side.  When the wind started to raise, decided to turn back. Tail and side wind was welcomed. More boats were now on waters.

Wasn't so keen on large islands near the coast which were absolutely full of summer cottages, one next to each other with practically so free space between them. However, those remote islands were absolutely nice and worth seeing again. Although landing on most of them was prohibited until birds nesting was about to finish, still paddling around this region satisfied me.

Midsummer weekend was in full speed. It was about time to return and get sauna warmed.

GPS recorded route about 32km,  paddled anti-clock wise (view a larger map): 

Some photos along the route

Säppi Lighthouse in about 5km distance

Lots of parking space but quite demanding

Typical shore of an island

A fishing hut

Closed

Much better parking lot

Wildlife

A typical scene

Stripes

A place for lunch

Simple food tasted awfully good there

Sea-Buckthorn grew on many islands there

Someone's landed

Didn't know their name but looked nice

Holy Ghost

A Landlord

Synchronous flying

Sounded like a rubber duck

A Great Cormorant

Many, many Great Cormorants, and some more

A pair of Common Eiders

A nest of a Common Eider

Terns

A Herring Gull (?)

There were loooots of Common Eiders there

Alone

Heading north

Heard about stories of 'a fish on a dry land' but never seen it before

Follow-the-plane plan

Curious and pretty they were