Scribbles and Bits

I came across this story via ”Finland Live.” This new trail winds for 35 km through the boreal forests of northern Finland and Norway.  A complete description of this trail and others can be found in English at ”Outdoors.fi”  www.luontoon.fi/news.asp?Section=5715&Item=17766  One fascinating aspect of hiking in Finland is ”everyman’s right,” which allows passage through all property and forests providing that one avoids the immediate property surrounding a private residence.

”The Piilola Trail, which connects the Vätsäri Wilderness Area in Finland and the Øvre Pasvik National Park in Norway, was inaugurated on 16 June 2009 at its northern starting point of Sortbrysttjern in Norway. An opening hike began at the same time, ending on 18 June at the end of Kessintie Road and the village of Nellim, where the closing ceremony of the hike was held. Some two dozen hiking and nature lovers from Norway and Finland took part in the opening hike. The Piilola Trail is the result of cooperation between the parties to the Pasvik-Inari Trilateral Park: Finland, Norway and Russia.”

My folks were born in the Western, coastal area of Finland where our family had lived since the 1500s. I am a first generation Canadian. I continue to learn about Finland’s history and culture in order to understand what my parents experienced, and also endured, particularly in the Winter War of the late 30’s and early 40’s.

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Here’s some info on their hometown, Kronoby:

Kronoby in Swedish or Kruunupyy in Finnish is a municipality of Finland.

Kronoby is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Ostrobothnia region. The municipality has a population of 6,800 (2006) and covers an area of 751.66 km² of which 38.59 km² is water. The population density is 9.0 inhabitants per km².

The municipality is bilingual, with the majority speaking Swedish (84.8%) and the minority Finnish (14.3%).

We visited there in the 70’s. With the ferry ride to Sweden, the bus trip to Lapland, and the amazing hospitality of relatives in Kronoby and Helsinki, it remains a vivid and cherished memory to this day.