Day 7: Poropolku and Kiirunapolku

The forecast for Wednesday was not good and when I woke up this morning it was indeed rather wet and misty.

I had a damp walk down to the main building to investigate the breakfast buffet. It's €15 a day for breakfast and there was an awful lot of very dry-looking rye bread to avoid.

After I'd got as much value for money from my breakfast as I could, I went to explore the outdoor rental shop as I wanted to rent another pair of walking poles. I was told I could rent them for four days for €18, which seemed like excellent value in comparison to breakfast. The catch was that in order to rent them I needed to show ID and I'd left my passport back in my cabin. So I walked back there, picked up my passport, walked back to the main building, successfully rented the poles this time and walked back to the cabin again to pick up the rest of my stuff.

All this going backwards and forwards meant that by the time I got to the national park entrance to actually start my hike, I'd already racked up 4,500 steps  

For contrast, here is the national park gate in winter.

Given that the weather seemed to be constantly on the verge of raining, I was just going to stick with a short walk today; one which Tim and I have done on snowshoes in the winter. The starting point of the of trail looks very different in summer...

...compared to winter, when it's a ski run that you have to sort of edge down the side of, trying not to ruin the ski tracks with your snowshoes!

This trail is called Poropolku (the reindeer trail) and is essentially a signposted nature trail, with info boards giving you facts about reindeer at regular intervals.

It was a really misty day and I couldn't see very far in front of me at all as I set off along the route.

The trees were very atmospheric in the mist though.

This info board was telling me about "blood-sucking insects", which thankfully seemed to be absent today. Maybe they weren't fans of the weather.

Soon the path came to a bridge across a stream.

I remembered this one from January!

And then before I knew it I was at the reindeer fence.

At this point I was very glad to have been here before and know how the gate worked, otherwise I'd have been quite confused. You have to move the logs, walk through and then replace them.

Beyond the reindeer fence, the trail became rockier and began to climb uphill.

It was so much easier going uphill without the snow though, so I made it to the top of the hill quicker than I expected.

It definitely took longer to get to the top in January.

The first time I came here in January 2024, it was a really clear day and the views from up here were spectacular.

Today, they were not  

Never mind, at least it wasn't really raining! I started following the path back downhill.

The return route was quite rocky, something I'd never have guessed when the path was hidden under snow.

I came to a signpost I recognised.

When Tim and I first did the walk in 2024, there was so much snow that despite the markers we lost the route at one point and were really relieved to find this signpost. Look how low the sign is on the ground (and therefore how deep the snow must have been!) compared to how it looks in summer!

The path was definitely a lot muddier in summer!

It was nice to see the landscape in a different season though, even if the weather wasn't perfect today.

Soon I was climbing back through the reindeer fence...

...and was nearly back at Kiilopää. When I'd arrived yesterday afternoon I'd been confused by these pieces of bright green artificial grass which seemed to be dotted around the trails.

I found out from the signs today that they're for frisbee golf. Though I'm not 100% clear what frisbee golf is!

Ironically, I'd walked the entire reindeer trail without seeing a single reindeer. Then, as I was just strolling back up the road towards my cabin... guess what I spotted!

They really are everywhere except on the reindeer trail!

The weather took a turn for the worse at this point with more rain and thunder so I spent a bit of time inside. Later in the afternoon it began to look positively sunny, so I ventured out for a second hike.

The sky above the national park entrance was definitely looking a lot bluer than it was this morning.

The walk I was planning to do this time was following a path called Kiirunapolku. 

The path climbs to the top of Kiilopää fell, which at 546m is the highest hill around Saariselkä.

Tim and I had snowshoed to the top back in January and it had been bitterly cold. Definitely warmer today!

I was doing the walk in the opposite direction to the way Tim and I had in January, so climbing up the bit of the hill that we'd descended.

The route is marked with these bright pink-topped poles, which I remember us trying to pick out in the snow.

I had found some of the slopes we had to climb down incredibly steep and icy back in January and hadn't enjoyed a couple of parts of the descent at all. In what is turning out to be a theme for this trip, it turned out that that was because... in summer they are staircases!

Climbing upwards was tiring but the views were amazing. In this photo you can just make out the main road, cutting through the forest.

I stopped for a breather after a particularly steep section and realised that the views might not be there for long, though.

The top of the fell was starting to look a bit cloudy...

...and everywhere was getting cloudier by the minute.

Soon I could barely see the man who had been climbing up slightly behind me!

Eventually I made it to the top.

But there really wasn't much of a view by this point  

Here's me and Tim in more or less the same spot in January

Now I just had to loop round and back down to Kiilopää. The sun was trying to poke through the clouds at times...

...but the visibility wasn't great, so I was glad of the bright pink marker poles to follow.

The route down wasn't quite as steep as the way up, coming down more gently along the side of the reindeer fence.

It had been bitterly cold climbing uphill alongside this fence in January though.

And it is actually quite a long climb. If you look at this winter picture below, you can see the line of the reindeer fence going up the hill on the left hand side. The path follows the fence, then turns towards the top of the fell.

As I got close to the bottom, the sun was starting to shine a bit more.

And then the final remaining obstacle was to cross this stream (which I have no recollection of from winter!), before enjoying some chicken and fries in the youth hostel restaurant  

The forecast looks like the weather is (hopefully!) going to be a bit brighter tomorrow, but it's been fun to see Kiilopää in different weather today.