Old-Growth Forests and Frozen Shores: A Christmas Walk in Liesjärvi National Park
The Christmas holidays, a grey sky, the lack of snow, and daylight lasting only a few short hours had wrapped Liesjärvi National Park in complete stillness when we arrived at the courtyard of the Korteniemi heritage farm on Christmas Day. The drive from Helsinki takes only about an hour and a half. We first walked the Ahonnokka nature trail and then decided to continue on to Pitkäkärki to add some length to our hike. Throughout the entire trip, we did not see another soul, and it felt as though the park, with its old forests and lake landscapes, was ours alone.
- Pitkäkärki on the map
- Route: 1.5–2 km / one way
- Campfire site: at the start of the trail, in the courtyard of Korteniemi
- Accessible: no
- Arrival by car: Korteniementie 270, Tammela
- Arrival by public transport: Liesjärvi National Park can be reached by buses running along Highway 2 between Vihti and Forssa. From the stop called Kyynärä, it is about a one-hour walk to Korteniemi, but only around 20 minutes to the rest of the park’s trail network (Kyynäränharju).
Liesjärvi National Park is home to a roughly five-kilometre circular route called the Pohjantikka Trail, which can be found on the park map and on luontoon.fi, but whose name I was unable to spot out in the terrain. Instead, the signposts in the courtyard of Korteniemi pointed towards “Pitkäkärki 1.5,” marked with blue trail markings. I had originally planned for us to walk the entire Pohjantikka Trail, but in the end we only went to Pitkäkärki and back. The Ahonnokka loop itself is just one kilometre long, but by adding the Pitkäkärki detour we gained a few extra kilometres of forest walking to our day.
The courtyard of the Korteniemi heritage farm was utterly silent, as was the campfire site by the shore. I couldn’t find a national park map either in the courtyard or in the parking area, but a cluster of signposts stood at the edge of the yard, and from there we plunged straight into the forest. Only afterwards did I learn that the map could have been found in a small hay barn next to the parking area.
Among the signposts, we also spotted names that were already familiar to us, even though we have visited this beautiful national park only rarely. A couple of winters ago, we explored Kyynäränharju and walked all the way to Savilahti. This time, those destinations would have been about four kilometres away in each direction, and we didn’t want to go that far—there simply wouldn’t have been enough daylight. We decided to do a loop at Pitkäkärki, where the trail splits near Perkonlahti bay: we would walk counterclockwise along the route leading close to the tip of the peninsula, fairly near the lakeshore, and return inland along a forest path. This loop is part of the Pohjantikka Trail, the southern section of which we would skip this time.
On Christmas Day, Hannes The Winter Storm had not yet begun to sweep across Finland, but we encountered the first fallen trees fairly soon after setting off. There was therefore some climbing over and ducking under along the way. For children—and for many adults too—this kind of terrain no doubt adds an appealing sense of adventure.
The terrain was wet, but the trail itself was mostly dry, and no water or mud made its way into our shoes. Boardwalks and small bridges led across the wettest sections.
We admired the forest rising around us, rich in trees of all ages, as well as fallen trunks in various stages of decay. Some looked as though they had fallen only very recently, while others had already been carefully blanketed by mosses and other small organisms beneath a soft green coat. Bracket fungi were everywhere I looked.
This forest has been allowed to grow and exist in peace for two centuries. Its floor was covered in beautiful moss, with fallen tree trunks—some of them truly massive—scattered here and there. Down at our level, the atmosphere in the forest was dim and comforting, as if the evils of the world were entirely absent. We stuck strictly to the marked trail to protect the surrounding nature from wear.
Although the trail runs largely close to the shore, it doesn’t really offer lake views, as the scenery remains mostly hidden behind the trees lining the water. As expected, side paths could occasionally be seen branching off from the main trail towards the shoreline, where people have ventured out to look at the lake. Around the tip of Pitkäkärki, the lake views opened up a little more, and we too stopped for a good while to gaze at the partially frozen, perfectly silent lake.
I crouched down on a shoreline rock to tap the surface of the ice, which had a thin layer of water on top. In places, holes were visible in the ice, with water moving beneath. We noticed a mink going about its business along the shore, popping up from under the ice through different holes, once even appearing right beneath our noses—before darting away across the ice as soon as it realised it had been spotted.
At the tip of Pitkäkärki, the remaining lake views were left behind as we continued the loop and began its inland section. While the first part of the hike had progressed quite slowly as we admired and photographed everything around us, our pace now quickened. Although the forest was still beautiful and rich in species, the complete absence of lake scenery made this section somewhat less engaging overall. In addition, daylight was beginning to fade, which also encouraged us to pick up the pace.
For a stretch of about ten metres, the path had turned into a frozen stream, but otherwise it was dry and easy to walk, with boardwalks once again covering the wettest spots. The forest hummed majestically around us, and we even came across a warning sign reminding us that trees may fall here at any time. Later, as Storm Hannes raged on, I remarked to my husband how fortunate it was that we were not in Liesjärvi then!
Near Perkonlahti, we reached a junction where the Pohjantikka Trail would have continued to the right, but we turned left towards the lakeshore. Before long, we were back on the familiar path from the beginning and making our way back to the courtyard of Korteniemi. In the final metres, a large fallen tree let out such a loud creak-like call that we both jumped—it felt as though the old forest itself was bidding us farewell and wishing us a Merry Christmas.
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