There are numerous laavus in Finland. It’s quite easy to build and offers a nice place to cook food and some shelter to sleep in. Many laavus in Finland are up-kept by locals or the town or even the Metsähallitus.

This time I looked some maps and picked two laavus near the city of Jyväskylä and drove over to those locations to see what they had to offer.

The second location was the Hangasjärvi laavu and lodge in Tikkala.

Drove some dirt roads around Saukkola, Vesanka and Tikkala, about some 25 km from the city of Jyväskylä.

Finland is full of small dirt roads on the country sides. No need to wander too far from any town. The pavement ends soon and the dirt roads begin. Might have something to do with why there are some many talented rally drivers from Finland or might not. But in any case there are countless kilometers of dirt roads to drive around in this country.

The weather was quite nice, not much of a wind and not too much of a wet snow from the sky either.

Cozy little shop in the Tikkala village with old school fuel pumps and tanks.

A screen cap from the Jyväskylä city map service.

The location: Hangasjärvi lodge [link in fin only].

Quick ‘n dirty translation from the site above:

Hangasjärvi’s hiking cottage is located in the northern village of Tikkala in Korpilahti, about half an hour’s drive from Jyväskylä. In the 1980s, the outdoor area was established as part of the regional trail of Central Finland, one of its resting places. The apartment and sauna were designed by renowned log construction architect Risto Vuolle-Apiala, using Norwegian log cottages as a model for the apartment. The apartment was completed in 1982 and the sauna a couple of years later. The provincial trail could be hiked along marked hiking trails from southern Central Finland to northern Central Finland. There were country houses and lodges, Hangasjärvi one of them, as places to stay along the way.

A map of the outdoors area next to the lodge. As the weather wasn’t that nice I skipped the trail going up to the “mill mountain” (Myllyvuori). Maybe some another day the weather will be more encouraging for a small forest hike. — There’s also a swimming spot (uimaranta) at the other end of the trail, tho one can also have a swim at the Hangasjärvi also.

Arriving to the Hangasjärvi site.

Trash bins and the cooking shelter by the lake at the other side of the small bridge.

The lodge itself is on a small hill and the cooking shelter, laavu and the sauna down by the lake.

Also a map at the lodge with some info about the EU-funding the place has received.

Nice clean out houses.

Stairs down to the sauna and the lake.

Sauna from the front. This can be rented for private use from the page linked above.

Almost all the ice has melted, but the branches on the ice tell that there has probably been an ice hole for taking a dip in the lake during the winter time.

A sign saying “welcome” and “reserved / private” at the other side for convenient way to inform visitors to stay away from the sauna when someone has rented it for private use. Similar sign was on the road up to the lodge, as the lodge can also be rented for private use.

Laavu and a decent fire pit next to the cooking shelter.

And the cooking shelter with a large fire pit and some firewood. The laavu is about 20 meters to the right from this.

A river’ish stream from the lake towards the forest. Lots of water flowing now as all the snow is melting.

A panorama shot from the cooking shelter. The bridge from the picture above is visible on the right side of the pic.

An old collection of sings with distances to nearby Towns and at the bottom a sign towards a spring from where one might be able to get some fresh drinkable water, tho I didn’t check that place out.

This would be a nice place to visit during the summer, walk some trails, swim and cook some food on the fire. Sadly this time it was still quite cold and wet so skipped the forest trails.

Should definitely come back later again to see the mill mountain trails. Could be a nice distance to cycle from the city and maybe to spend a night also.