Day 6: Saariselkä to Kiilopää

Today was the day I was moving locations, from the centre of Saariselkä to nearby Kiilopää. Tim and I have visited Kiilopää a couple of times and done some amazing snowshoeing there. In winter there is a ski bus which runs from Saariselkä to Kiilopää in the morning, returning in the late afternoon. The ski bus - unsurprisingly - doesn't run in summer, and the schedule of the normal bus wasn't very helpful, so I'd decided a while ago that the best option would be to walk.

I couldn't check in at Kiilopää until 3pm, so I had a relatively relaxed start to the morning. As I was packing up my final bits and pieces ready to check out in Saariselkä, I heard something outside my door. I figured it might be the cleaner arriving or something like that. When I opened the door I found...

...there had been an actual reindeer walking across my porch  He didn't seem bothered at all by my presence; just wandered off.

It felt like there had been a lot of rain overnight but the sky looked brighter again today. As I set off I had a view up towards the top of Kaunispää, where I had been yesterday.

I walked to the national park entrance and started walking towards Kiilopää.

Before long I came to a rather strange structure.

No idea what it was supposed to be!

The trail was nice and wide and easy to walk on. 

In winter it's an illuminated ski run. And although it felt like the middle of nowhere, every so often there were little bill boards advertising outdoor gear shops in Saariselkä; I guess aimed at catching the attention of the skiers.

At one point I even passed what appeared to be a bar by the side of the ski run  

Before too long I'd reached a little village called Laanila, which Tim and I often walk to in the winter. I found the sign for the winter walking route we're normally on.

In winter the ski run meets the walking trail at this point.

I realised I'd been standing in the exact same spot in January...

...and remarked on the sign, which was warning people not to walk on the ski run!

As I made my way through Laanila I found a little lake...

...and then crossed over a small stream.

I'd made enough progress now for the bill boards to be advertising the cafe at Kiilopää rather than shops in Saariselkä.

The path had been mainly flat until this point, but began to go uphill slightly.

I passed a sign indicating a dogsled track...

...and then found a bench for lunch.

Time to set off again!

After lunch the path became a bit rockier.

The plus side of this was that there didn't seem to be quite as many mountain-bikers on this stretch.

At one point I heard something behind me which didn't sound quite like a bike. I turned round to check and found it was a reindeer  

The path now began to climb more steeply uphill.

Soon I was more or less above the trees and had a view out across the endless forests.

It was quite rocky up here, but very pretty.

I realised I could see the summit of Kaunispää where I was yesterday. You should just be able to make out the white weather station tower on the hill in the photo below.

It felt like I'd walked quite a long way at this point...

...but there was still further to go.

Eventually I reached the top of whatever hill I'd unexpectedly been climbing.

From here the trail led downwards towards Kiilopää.

I soon caught sight of a hill which looked very familiar.

This is the Kiilopää fell, which Tim and I snowshoed to the top of in January.

Here's the fell in January...

...and here's us looking very, very cold on the top.

Luckily it was considerably warmer than that today!

I could see the settlement of Kiilopää in the distance by this point, but I soon came to an obstacle on the trail.

I wasn't sure what this was to start with, then realised it was a gate in the reindeer fence. I guess humans can walk through this and reindeer can't?

I walked through it anyway and was soon walking out of the Kiilopää national park gate...

...and towards the main building.

There's a sort of youth hostel complex here with hotel rooms, cabins, a restaurant and an equipment rental store. I am staying in one of the cabins, which turned out to be a 10-minute walk up the road.

It's really lovely inside. I've got a kitchen-dining area...

...plus separate bedroom. Although, being Finland, the first thing I had to do was make my own bed  

While I unpacked and settled in, it began raining torrentially outside. Once it began to ease off a bit, I walked back to the main building in search of dinner. I saw a beautiful rainbow on the way.

Dinner was, erm, interesting. I didn't think you could go far wrong with pizza, but ham, blue cheese and peaches is not my favourite combination!

The restaurant was very quiet compared to how busy it normally is with skiers in winter, so it was quite a peaceful dinner until a guy ran in shouting in English that the men's sauna was on fire. Quite a commotion followed! Unfortunately all in Finnish, so I don't know what happened, but several people went running out to investigate. There was no visible sign of a fire anywhere once I'd finished eating!

I went back to the cabin to make a start on the blog. Unfortunately, I'm so far away from the main building that the WiFi doesn't seem to work, so it's been a bit of a slow process with data today.