My two part excursion started, when I was walking through Kypärämäki area one day. I knew some of the paths that cross through these woods and decided to take a shortcut, as I had my camera with me that day.

The starting point for this was at the end of the Koivukatu street (62°14’12.8″N 25°42’06.5″E).

At the end of the road one can find an old information board, that still has very faded post about the path.

I drew on top of the picture the route I took. The X is the starting point and the path is kinda P – shaped, doing a loop and then coming almost back to the starting point and going one way and coming back that same route.

The red dot is the Rihlaperä Observatory that is operated by local organization called Sirius. During the darker months of autumn and winter they arrange open events for people to come and learn about stars and astronomy. The Sirius also has two other observatories near by with telescopes and radio telescopes. They also maintain two all-sky aurora borealis cameras, one in Nyrölä and one in Hankasalmi, that broadcast images to the Auroras Now! service provided by the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

Back to the earth and to the path, that starts from the old info sign, up to the right uphill, right next of the last house of the Koivukatu street.

The path is very obvious and well traveled and one should be able to follow the yellow dots painted on the trees along the way.

Thou there are quite many paths crossing there and here in this area, one should still not get lost, as the total area is about 300 meters by 200 meters, surrounded by houses and roads.

As with about all other nature paths, one will find these info stands scattered along the path. They tell you about the trees, birds, plants, wot-not, but sadly they are almost always only in Finnish.

As it is the end of May, the last month of spring, the trees are already making new leaves and everything is so green after the gray time of the early spring.

Little furry buzzers aka bumblebees have also woken and working. Those are the nice ones that do you no harm, nothing like the bit more aggressive wasps that are quite common in here also.

About a month later the mosquitoes and deer flies will come and make one’s life bit more miserable in the woods, but till then feel free to roam around and enjoy.

Sadly some vandalism occurs always and some signs just suffer the elements for too long. As with this path, this looks like it’s not maintained by the city any longer and one can’t find any info about this path from the city’s web site.

After a steep down hill one should arrive to a new sign. The Ahomansikka aka Wild Strawberry sign is your cue, if you want to take the detour to the observatory. Sadly tagged and written over, but this was about the only one vandalized this way.

This is the way towards the observatory, about a 50 meters or so walk. The ahomansikka sign is behind now in a T shaped crossing.

After a short walk one should see the observatory behind the trees.

There were also three squirrels running around and one of them was kind enough to pose for few shots. Notice the hint of gray still left from the winter fur.

A curious one this one was.

The observatory was the point where I went on my way, but I returned two days later. This time I approached the observatory from the Savelankatu street below and walked up that rocky hill. The observatory is visible up there, but almost same color as the sky, so zoom in for a closer look.

From the Rihlaperä street, opposite side as the previous picture, the view is about this.

The observatory is quite old, build in the beginning of the 1960 and officially opened in 1963. The city was smaller back then and after that have grown over and around the observatory, that then was at the edge of the city and now clearly with in it.

Thou old, it is still operational and has remote computer controls for it’s telescope and the observatory is open to public on dark autumn and winter nights. For more info, head to the Sirius website.

As the summer is almost here, the spruces are making new beers.

Next to the path back towards the nature path, stands an old birch.

Saw some of the same squirrels from two days ago.

Some tinder fungus on a birch trunk.

And there’s our ahomansikka sign. To the left is where one came from and to the right is to where the nature path continues.

This way, just follow the yellow dots again.

 

More info, this time about the x-mas tree aka spruce.

The loop is completed and one should see the starting point from here and some of the houses at the end of the Koivukatu road.

From here the path goes down and follows the Koivukatu street above and the Savelankatu street below, leaving about 50 to 100 meters of forest in between.

Wood sorrel is common and plenty this time around in forests. It has a strong taste and can be used as spice for cooking, thou in decent quantities, as it is mildly poisonous in large quantities.

Old spruce. The yellow dot painted on it is about the size of an adult human palm.

Some wild blackcurrant that has escaped from the yards of people living near by. The blackcurrant berry bush is quite common to grow in your own garden around here, as are white and red currant.

The black and red ones make excellent juice, alone and mixed, during the summer months.

Blackcurrant flowers forming.

Some info about the herb-paris the “wolf’s berry” that is poisonous.

Alder is also a common tree here in the middle parts of Finland.

Lehto-orvokki.

The last sign, that I found, tells us about the lily of the valley, a national flower of Finland. Beautiful and poisonous, just about to bloom.

Kielo aka lily of the valley is plentiful in these forests.

A sign pointing back to where one came from.

The path is about one kilometer long to walk, including the detour to the observatory. Should take less than an hour to walk around.

Also the area is quite compact and surrounded by houses and roads, so it is really safe and easy place to get to know a bit of finnish forests and the life within one.