The weather forecast predicted a clear sky, and there was also a promising northern lights forecast. Thus, with Heidi we decided to cycle to Pöyrisjärvi, and spent Friday night at the open wilderness hut.
Friday Night
Friday after work we decided to take our bikes and cycle from Näkkälä to Pöyrisjärvi. We wanted to take advantage of the promising forecasts and practice some night photography. As we only left Näkkälä around sunset, the last few Kilometers we had to cycle through the dark. Fortunately we know the route quite well. This includes that we knew there was a pond to ford, shortly before reaching the open wilderness hut. What is usually not a big deal, turned out get us really cold feet. The ca. 30 meters of water we had to cross had lots of drifting ice on top. No surprise, as there was already snow in higher places along the trail. When arriving at the open wilderness hut, the thermometer showed -5 ° Celsius. Fortunately some other hikers were at the open wilderness hut, and we were able to warm up our feet quickly, after the cold fording.
Some Weak Northern Lights
While the weather forecast proofed to be accurate, there were no strong northern lights to be observed. We nonetheless enjoyed the scenery, while preparing our dinner over an open fire just outside the hut.
The next morning was a bit cloudy as well, but the sky cleared up again during the day. Thanks to the cold night it was quite easy to cross some frozen swamps on the next day. Most of the smaller lakes and some rivers were also ice covered already. As we decided to take a bit different route on the way back, we did not have to ford the pond again. Instead, we kept our feet dry while cycling through sandy areas north of the main trail. All in all, we spent a really lovely Friday night at the lake Pöyrisjärvi.
