2016-06-11 63 29

Location

In Konttisenkangas, Juuka, Finland. The point lies in a forest with ongoing first thinning.

Participants

Tilley Mrs. Tilley Our daughter

Expedition

Parking spot of forest machines.

Me and my family were going to visit Pastori for the weekend. About halfway there, there was a hashpoint only 5 km to the side of our route. It was also quite near a forestry road (as is almost every spot in Finland), so it was a suitable spot to take a break and visit it.

With some pre-loaded maps on our computer, it was easy to navigate through the forest roads into the vicinity of the point. When approaching the point, there was some signs warning of ongoing forestry work and prohibiting groundless access. Luckily we had some grounds to visit the place, the Internet had sent us to visit a hashpoint there! In reality there was no danger, because the forest machine operators had also retired for the weekend.

The forest was difficult to traverse.

We parked our car to the turning circle about 150 meters from the point and proceeded into the forest. The forest was extremely difficult to traverse because of the ongoing forestry work. The feller-delimber had felled the trees here and there, but the forwarder hadn't picked them up yet. The forest floor was also very uneven with big rocks and deep holes between them. All was covered in thick moss to obscure view to those holes. In top of all that, rain showers had made every surface slippery. The terrain was so difficult I had to gave our daughter a piggyback despite her being very agile for her age.

Our group pose at the hashpoint.

After some hard trudging we reached the point, and also Mrs. Tilley managed to get there. The first group photo attempt was interrupted when the camera toppled from a top of a tree stump midst of self-timer count. For the second picture I had to place the camera on an even worse spot, and even the focus is on the wrong place. I didn't have the patience to set up a third picture, because the mosquitoes had found us.

Quickly we started retreating towards our vehicle, I was again carrying our daughter piggyback. Then, suddenly, some monster that had been hiding in the deep hole under a rock, attacked us! It scratched through my jeans and sunk it's claws into my knee. It must have been a velociraptor, because I couldn't even see, it was so fast! We managed to escape to our car and quickly sped on our way.