Ice age trail
My mother and I went to a nature trail about ice age and stone age. It is located on the south coast of Lake Kuolimo west of Savitaipale. The trail shows the effect of the ice age on the geology of the area. There are also stone age habitation sites along the trail. We walked the entire trail save for the part called Pomperi trail. The trail has both forest paths and small gravel roads along the way.
The photos can be enlarged by clicking.
Published .
Photos
We meant to leave the car at Lepänkanto beach parking area, but the road surface was very uneven and we decided not to drive the whole way.
We left the car near a place where the trail crosses the road. From there we started walking the trail clockwise so that the beach would be close to the end of the trail.
Rosebay willowherb (Chamaenerion angustifolium) with light-coloured flowers.
Rajalamminsuo bog.
Slowworm (Anguis fragilis).
Rovastinoja peat hut has been built in stone age style from wood, peat and animal hides.
Several depressions marking stone age habitation sites have been found in the vicinity.
Behind the hut there was a camper packing up his belongings. He had stayed the night there. We couldn't talk with him because we didn't understand each other's language.
Common water-plantain (Alisma plantago-aquatica) grew at the mouth of Rovastinoja brook that connects Rajalampi pond to Lake Kuolimo.
The last photo was taken by my mother.
The reeds of Rajalampi pond reminded me of a tropical swamp. Too bad the sun was in front of me and the photo turned out pretty bad.
The trail continued along the shore of Lake Kuolimo and came to a place called Jyrkänmaanhiekka, which means ’sand of the steep ground’.
On the inland side there is steep ground and on the shore there is sand.
This is the sand. It was a lot coarser than your regular beach sand, and it felt nice to the touch.
There were also beautiful rocks and this piece of wood that looked like a bird's head.
Along the way there was this flat-looking pine tree that had apparently grown like that to withstand the weight caused by its direction of growing.
As we approached Lepänkanto beach, we got off the official trail and went to a path on the shore.
Big walls of soil had accumulated on the shore. We went to swim at a sandy beach that also had a clothes rack.
There was a tree that had cracked and fallen in the forest.
The only people at Lepänkanto beach were the owners of a motorhome. Here we only ate some food because we had already swum.
The trail continued from the beach to the car along an esker covered with pine trees. Between the trees we saw the outline of some structure and went to see it.
It turned out to be a firewood storage apparently built by the landowner in the middle of the forest. At this point there was a little shower of rain which we waited out while sitting in the storage.
On the way home we stopped in Valkeala in Pitkäsaari island of Lake Lappalanjärvi, because I had seen a sandy beach there on the map.
We only ate some food here as well. The only photo I took was this bad shot of an RC boat which someone was playing with at the beach.
