The book has three major sections:

1) Hiking skills in Finland

2) Nature and history

3) Hiking destinations

1) The first part includes everything from peculiarities in Finnish hiking culture (like Everyman’s Rights, clean drinking water, thousands of campfire sites and hundreds of open wilderness huts, and how we Finns tend to hike), to seasons, and what’s different in maps and coordinates and navigating in Finland, and what’s important about clothes and gear here up north, and so on. Main focus is in walking, but also canoeing and to smaller degree bicycle tours are discussed. Winter hiking (read skiing) is thoroughly discussed. Also Hiking with children is a long chapter.

2) In the second part I describe how the Ice Age formed Finnish bedrock, esker systems, giant’s kettles and so on. Also I tell what common animals and plants you can expect to see, and I try to give advice how to see rarer flowers, birds etc.

3) In the third part I have selected 16 top hiking destinations in Finland. Well, that is naturally a question of taste, but this is my selection. I have hiked comprehensively in every one of Finland’s 40 national parks, in every one of Finland’s 12 wilderness areas, and in hundreds of other very best hiking destinations in our country. These are the best ones I want to introduce for a guest from abroad. If you start to travel to Finland frequently, or live here, you will find hundreds of great destinations more.

Kartenausschnitt

Kartenbeispiel