“Lapland of the South” – “Lake Inari of the South” …that is what they call this place.
Pukala recreational forest (sadly only in finnish) is government owned land and has a nice possibilities for camping and hiking.
Located about 12 km from the town of Orivesi, the place is quite easily reachable by car, bike or even by foot. That’s about an hour car ride from Tampere or about hour and a half from Jyväskylä.
From Orivesi take road 58 towards north, Mänttä – Keuruu and after about one kilometer turn west to road number 3381 Enokunnantie. After some seven kilometers you’ll see the first sings pointing towards Pukala.
The old bridge is a good land mark, the blue sign is at the opposite side of the main road, pointing towards this direction.
Purple dots show the way driven with a car, blue dots for walking from the parking place.
As one can see, there are several parking places and trails to choose from, depending if one wants to hike longer or shorter route.
The road is well kept and easy to drive.
First parking place at Juurakko. From here one follows Metsisianpolku road towards Siitinjärvi (penis lake) and Pukala.
Next crossing take Valkealahdentie towards Pukala or follow Metsisianpolku to Siitinjärvi trails and kota. There’s also fresh water spring well in Siitinjärvi site.
Next crossing offers one a chance to keep on the Valkealahdentie and end up to a boat lauch area, if one happens to have a boat on a trailer with them.
Roninmaa road towards the Pukala.
Road to the last parking place is a bit narrow, so drive carefully and find a safe place to pass oncoming vehicles if needed.
From the parking place starts the trail to the laavu.
(From here on I apologize my fail: camera’s focus was off big time during the trail hike and didn’t notice it until I arrived to the next trail crossing.)
The route is clearly marked with blue marks.
And also well travelled, so basicly no chance to get lost in the woods.
By the lake Pukala the trail meets another trail and follows the lake shore to the laavu.
Fallen dead tree in water and the laavu visible behind the small bay.
Roninmaa laavu and a firepit in front of it. – Always check www.fmi.fi/varoitukset (finnish institute of meteorology) is there’s forest fire or grass fire warning issued into your area before making open fire. Also if you’re camping on a private land, you also always need the land owner’s permission to start open fire. – Use of trangia or portable gas burner is allowed during forest or grass fire warning, but in Finland hobo stove style stick burners count as open fire.
From the laavu leads a bridge to a small island where I made my camp.
Plenty of sturdy pine trees on the island to tie one’s hammock.
Also set up my canvas tarp to shelter me from the rising sun, as the sun did rise about 04 AM.
I did woke up around 04 in the morning to see the sun rise and listen the nature wake up around me.
Still some fog above the lake, as the air was colder than the water.
Towards different direction from the island.
Small islet, surrounded by fog, in the light of the rising sun.
Sun rises, fog disappears…
Also the birds wake up and wander about.
The place was beautiful during the late evening and even more around the time of sun rise. And thou the Pukala is very popular place, people mainly come there for a day trip. The time I arriced there were two tents and I think four people at the laavu. On the island was two boys camping and one couple spent the night till sun rise on their hammocks. So some traffic, but quite nice and peaceful night and morning.
Around or after 10 or so people started to wander in to the Pukala site. Couple families with kids, two older couples on a day trip and so on. Around midday when I was leaving, I think there were more than 20 people on the island and the laavu and few more people walked upon me, on their way to the laavu and the lake when I made my way back to the car.
Summa summarum: a very nice trip. Slept well, cooked some bacon, saw the sun rise, took a swim and enjoyed my time in the woods under the open sky. Day temperatures were near +30°C, night time dropped below +15°C, but didn’t really need even an under quilt, thou slept in my merino wool layer in a sleeping bag.
Let’s see if I can make it there again some day.
Hiidenkorpi 