Finland. Koli National Park

 At noon, we arrived at the free parking area in Koli National Park. After leaving our car for three days and packing our backpacks, we embarked on a 38-kilometer hike. From the rocky peaks of the park, a breathtaking panorama of Lake Pielinen unfolds, dotted with numerous islands... Map of the route...

  From the main park entrance, we ascended to the trailhead using a free funicular. By the way, entry to all Finnish national parks is free. The most stunning views unfold within the first two kilometers from the entrance, attracting many visitors to this part alone...   

  The rest of the trail is equally captivating.  

  Along the path, there's a mailbox with fresh press nearby, indicating a nearby estate...

  Sometimes the trail passes through boggy areas, with boardwalks laid across...

  Along the trail, there's an abundance of bilberries, which are large-sized and delicious...

  There's also quite a bit of wild raspberries...

   The paths along the route are diverse and well-maintained...

 In some places, there are informational boards explaining various features of the area...

  

  In the national park, there are specially equipped free camping spots with nearby composting toilets, a campfire area, and firewood. For our overnight stay, we settled near Lake Lakka's camping zone...

  In the morning, we continued our hike on a very interesting route... 

   To cross to the other side of the lake and continue on the trail, a cable ferry is used here...

   We encountered a traditional Finnish smoke sauna, which operates without a chimney...

  Also, for overnight stays, one can use these free shelters called "laavu"...

  Inside, there are sleeping places on both sides and a central area for a fire and cooking...

  There's an incredible variety of mushrooms. Walking along the trail, we could fill an entire backpack with porcini mushrooms in just half an hour. For tonight's dinner, we selected only young white mushrooms...

 Koli National Park is a realm of lakes, islands, pine forests, swamps, moss, stones, as well as berries and mushrooms. Well-organized trails and camping spots add even more comfort to exploring this realm...

  There's an observation platform with a box at the top where visitors leave their marks...

  At two in the afternoon, we arrived at a very steep cabin and, despite the early time for a break, decided to stay overnight...

  It was the perfect place to cook the mushrooms we gathered today. The cabin had everything we needed, including a frying pan and olive oil... 

  As always, there was a campfire area nearby, along with a male and female composting toilet...

  There was also a shed with firewood, an axe, and a saw...

  In the morning, we had just eight kilometers left to walk back to the car along incredibly beautiful and interesting trails... 

 Ants caught our attention throughout our journey, with entire ant metropolises along the way, some reaching heights of up to two meters...  

  The last three kilometers followed the same trail as the start of the route, and we once again enjoyed views of Lake Pielinen... 

 We just had to reach the parking lot and move closer to the lake to kayak to one of the islands with the intriguing name - Iso Korppi, which translates to "Big Raven" (highlighted in red in the photo). We planned to spend our next overnight stay on this island.