Linlo island & Helsinki Outdoors Meetup
I did it! Finally created Helsinki Outdoors group on Meetup.com. The first trip was to the Linlo island.
Linlo is a small recreational island, roughly 2 km long and 1-1,5 km wide. I thought it's too small for the whole-day hiking and also there is no public transport reaching it during weekend. This makes Linlo a perfect choice for a bike&hike trip.
I met another event participant, Steven, at Kirrkonummi train station. There are only 15 km from there to Linlo, mostly on quiet roads and with nice scenery around.
Linlo is full or fire shelters and some of them are gigantic, like this one. A place to gather 20 people, no less! :)
Most of the island is protected from the open sea by another islands. I was afraid that this will lead to the lack of the "real" sea views, but it's not the case. Most of the shores look like this however.
The nature is very varied for such a tiny piece of land!
Another fire shelter. Not big, but definitely well-designed.
We decided to eat the lunch outside as it was still relatively warm.
The island has many "fingers", some of which are connected by floating bridges.
This is something I've never seen before in a public place - a device for smoking fish. My father has a similar one in his yard and I understand how it works :)
There was almost no wind, which is a rare state in Southern Finland.
We tried to follow all shores and in spite of the small size of the island, it took us around 4 hours (!).
At some point event the sun flashed for 30 minutes, bringing a huge change in colors around.
Without the wind, it was very warm there and I even thought of swimming, but didn't dare this time.
After a great walk around the island, we cycled 20 km to Masala, where our ways diverged. The first meetup was over and I was full of energy for the another one, happening on the next day.
* * *
In the morning I was postponing the alarm clock for the third or fourth time (as usual). At some point I realized: "Damn it! I'm the organizer, I can't be late". I woke up, got ready very fast and rushed to the bus stop.
While thinking of Helsinki Outdoors Meetup, I wasn't sure that there will be any demand for it. Most of the meetups in Finland relate to some technical stuff, entrepreneurship or things like yoga. "Who needs any outdoor events here?", I kept contemplating. Finnish people don't gather in big groups and foreigners aren't perhaps fond of walking in cold or being bitten by mosquitoes in the summer. I underrated these folks! There are already 74 members and 11 of them enrolled to the first hiking event.
I led the group on the well-known path from Rinnekoti to Saaren Musta lake. "Well-known" means for me that I was there 2,5 times before :) That's already enough, right? I didn't think much about the direction and had opportunity to take pictures and talk to people.
There is something attractive to me when people get themselves voluntarily in a mess like this :) I like to be a member of such a party!
I'm so happy for these guys! As I learned, most of them couldn't go to the forest by themselves due to lack of navigation skills. What a pity! From the other point of view, this is a great opportunity to share my knowledge about the places around Helsinki. I spent quite many years taking to the forest people who didn't genuinely want it, so now I finally could be accompanied by people who wish exactly that.
Finnish autumn at its best.
If you live in Helsinki or around, take part in our future events or become an organizer! Everyone is warmly welcomed.
Linlo is a small recreational island, roughly 2 km long and 1-1,5 km wide. I thought it's too small for the whole-day hiking and also there is no public transport reaching it during weekend. This makes Linlo a perfect choice for a bike&hike trip.
I met another event participant, Steven, at Kirrkonummi train station. There are only 15 km from there to Linlo, mostly on quiet roads and with nice scenery around.
Linlo is full or fire shelters and some of them are gigantic, like this one. A place to gather 20 people, no less! :)
Most of the island is protected from the open sea by another islands. I was afraid that this will lead to the lack of the "real" sea views, but it's not the case. Most of the shores look like this however.
The nature is very varied for such a tiny piece of land!
Another fire shelter. Not big, but definitely well-designed.
We decided to eat the lunch outside as it was still relatively warm.
The island has many "fingers", some of which are connected by floating bridges.
This is something I've never seen before in a public place - a device for smoking fish. My father has a similar one in his yard and I understand how it works :)
There was almost no wind, which is a rare state in Southern Finland.
We tried to follow all shores and in spite of the small size of the island, it took us around 4 hours (!).
At some point event the sun flashed for 30 minutes, bringing a huge change in colors around.
Without the wind, it was very warm there and I even thought of swimming, but didn't dare this time.
After a great walk around the island, we cycled 20 km to Masala, where our ways diverged. The first meetup was over and I was full of energy for the another one, happening on the next day.
* * *
In the morning I was postponing the alarm clock for the third or fourth time (as usual). At some point I realized: "Damn it! I'm the organizer, I can't be late". I woke up, got ready very fast and rushed to the bus stop.
While thinking of Helsinki Outdoors Meetup, I wasn't sure that there will be any demand for it. Most of the meetups in Finland relate to some technical stuff, entrepreneurship or things like yoga. "Who needs any outdoor events here?", I kept contemplating. Finnish people don't gather in big groups and foreigners aren't perhaps fond of walking in cold or being bitten by mosquitoes in the summer. I underrated these folks! There are already 74 members and 11 of them enrolled to the first hiking event.
I led the group on the well-known path from Rinnekoti to Saaren Musta lake. "Well-known" means for me that I was there 2,5 times before :) That's already enough, right? I didn't think much about the direction and had opportunity to take pictures and talk to people.
There is something attractive to me when people get themselves voluntarily in a mess like this :) I like to be a member of such a party!
I'm so happy for these guys! As I learned, most of them couldn't go to the forest by themselves due to lack of navigation skills. What a pity! From the other point of view, this is a great opportunity to share my knowledge about the places around Helsinki. I spent quite many years taking to the forest people who didn't genuinely want it, so now I finally could be accompanied by people who wish exactly that.
Finnish autumn at its best.
If you live in Helsinki or around, take part in our future events or become an organizer! Everyone is warmly welcomed.