Did a small kayaking expedition to the waters of the Repovesi National Park.

I started south of the Kapiavesi, from a lake Tihvetjärvi and paddled few km to the Maakijä camping site in where I spent the first night in a tent.

Next morning I packed my stuff and paddled first about 1.5 km to the Lapinsalmi shore and walked to the RepoTassu kiosk for a second breakfast, as every hobbit does.

Day was quite warm and weather nice. There were some wind, but the lakes are so small in Repovesi area that I only noticed the wind in couple places.

My master plan and elaborate ruse was to paddle from Määkijä to Karhulahti, via Lapinsalmi and from there to the end of the Kuutinlahti, and from there back to the Määkijä. All this while recording a 360 video from the adventure.

But like all plains, this one neither did not stand the real life test and execution. – Last time I fumbled cause I didn’t prepare for the high waves. – This time I took a wrong sd-card with me, so I only had like a hour of recording time in that card. – And like every pro, I DID NOT take a spare card with me.

…kinda frustrating costs to pay to learn from the mistakes, but that’s life. It hurts, but one learns.

!! Click to watch in YouTube or in YouTube app for full 360 experience !!

So the video covers the trip from Määkijä to the Karhulahti, and from there about half way to the Kuutinlahti.

I had rigged a flat tripod and a selfie stick on the back deck of the kayak and the old 360 camera sits on top of that pole, looking over me and around.

Especially the first evening was beautiful. No wind, nice sunset and the full moon rising to the almost cloudless sky.

There were about ten tents in the Määkijä camping site, so still a quite good amount of people out there, even tho the summer vacations were over and the schools had started already.

So the following morning I left for the main tourney around the national park.

At first I did not take that much pictures, as I thought that the 360 camera will do it’s thing.

But after the camera failed me, I picked out my phone to take some pics.

I took a break at the Kuutinlahti camping site and had some chat with a high school group leaders that were on a one night hike, now heading to the Lapinsalmi. – There were also some other people around and a small group of young scouts doing their first overnight hike with pack leaders.

I was not very happy about the fact that I failed the sd-card, so I didn’t take that much pictures on my way back. I kinda feel that I need to go back and do this trip again, to record the whole loop one day.

As this was also a part of my project to test my gear and to see what I really need and won’t need, here’s the after shot. – Couple smaller waterproof bags for food and clothes. The bigger one for my sleeping bag. A tent next to the tripod and camera. Some self-rescue gear, including a pump, paddle float, towline, and a deck bag for drink and snacks and for some random gear like a map in a waterproof pouch, a compass, a monocular and a handheld anemometer.

The round-trip itself in the Repovesi was about 13 km. Add to that some couple km for each day for the trip south to the Tihvetjärvi and you had maybe some 20 km total distance paddled.

In general the trip was a success. I was testing out my tent and camping gear with the kayak and they all seemed to work and fit into the kayak without any problems. – Also I got to sleep one night in my small tent that I was planning to take with me into the Lapland wilderness area hike a week later. – I prefer a hammock over a tent in spring, summer and autumn, but in the wilderness areas I was going above the treeline, so there would not be any trees to setup the hammock.

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