My second national park to visit was the Leivonmäki national park.

This time instead of biking I decided to try out canoeing. From the Internet I found a nice local retired couple who rent canoes and struck a deal for a day. The canoe was waiting for me (with a paddle and a life west) at the Harjunlahti boat launch and got onto waters without hassle.

As it’s been years since I was last time canoeing or kayaking, I planned an short easy route to paddle, from Harjunlahti to Joutsniemi laavu and Lintuniemi kota/laavu. Total distance about 5 km.

Paddling on a calm lake was easy and nice experience. I was a bit afraid of how my shoulders and upper back will handle this kind of exercise, but survived without complications and painkillers.

The first stop was the Joutsniemi laavu and tent area.

There were few other people and some hikers passed by, but quite peaceful atmosphere.

Shed with firewood and an outhouse. The national parks in Finland are well kept and offer services and conveniences even to a more demanding camper.

Some hammocks of other hikers and travelers and even more fire wood stacked and waiting for the hikers and winter. And no, basically no mosquitoes, as this is very dry sand ridge area. Mosquitoes like more moist forest areas.

Map of the Leivonmäki national park on the wall of the shed.

A view from the Joutsniemi site to the open lake. Long narrow cape ridge on the left and the two small islands in front left (not the big ones in the middle), that I paddled around when coming to this site.

I realized later that I was too excited about the whole canoeing and didn’t really take many pictures, not a single one from the Lintuniemi site, as my camera was in my backpack, hidden from the water and splashes that occurred when one changes sides while paddling.

As there was a possibility of a thunder and rain and heard couple times the thunder, so stayed near the shorelines and didn’t test my limits, as didn’t have decent rain gear with me, nor covers for my backpack, etc.

In total this was about 4 hour trip and definitely a nice experience and I will try kayaking also soon as possible.

Till next time…