TnT's Workout Blog

Eventually we hit the nice rolling hills of Suvisaari, a collection of islands belonging to Espoo. The road was in excellant condition and the traffic consisted mostly of bicyclists. The scenery was the usual one sees in this country both by the sea and inland by lakes: broken shoreline with a lot of tiny islands, small sheltered bays, sandy beaches and cliffs, willow dominating the vegetation. The weather favored us as well. Despite some darkish clouds lurking around the corner, the sky above us stayed mostly blue and we got abundant sunshine. It was a great setting for Midsummer.

We stopped at Nuuksio school for a quick lunch, pasta salad and banana, and later at the National Park Guide Hut for a coffee. The guide herself was really friendly and helpful, and probably bored, too, despite thee park being pretty crowded. The park has good trail maps and a lot of signposts, so it is hard to get lost.

Our final stop was at Salmi campground. We had traditional Finnish macaroni and sausage casserole at the cafeteria.

We have a wild fire warning covering most of western and mid-section of the country, but surprisingly not the park even if it is really dry everywhere. We don't have the same system as in the States where the forest fire danger rating system tells if the danger is low, moderate, high, very high, or extreme, but here the warning is either on or off.

Later in the afternoon we visited the Rhododendron park nearby with my mom who's staying with us for a few days. The best blossom had passed already, but there were still some nice hues of orange and pink left. And some tiny tiny squirrels.