A Barefoot Walk on a Finnish Bog: Odd, Wonderful, and Safe With a Guide
The mid-morning sun is already shining at full strength, but the thermometer reads only about ten degrees of crisp warmth. The air drifting over the bog smells of autumn. The forest floor around us is blanketed in blueberry and bog bilberry shrubs turned red, and the pale lichen coat covering the rocks is cold and damp. Across the glowing red-gold bog, led by our wilderness and nature guide Joel, walks a group of people, bare-legged and ready. Smiles come easily.
“I love barefoot walking on a bog,” Joel tells me after the hike.
“Barefoot walking is odd enough on its own, and a bog as the setting makes it even odder.”
I’m chatting with my colleague Joel as he gathers the gear needed for pancake-making from the storeroom at The Finnish Nature Centre Haltia. The morning’s guided Barefoot Walk has just ended, and next up is roasting plättys (thin Finnish pancakes) and brewing campfire coffee over the fire.
I know exactly what Joel means when he praises the oddness of barefoot walking. I’m one of those people who might take my shoes off in the middle of the forest even in winter, just to feel nature under my soles. It grounds and calms me, energizes and refreshes me. I once even wrote a story about it.
Still, it’s easy to understand why the idea of heading into nature barefoot might feel unfamiliar to many, not to mention trudging across a bog with sphagnum moss squelching underfoot like some living creature. Luckily there are guides like Joel, who make this experience accessible even to people who might otherwise feel shy or even afraid of venturing into nature. According to Joel, the roughly ninety-minute Touch of the Forest experience suits anyone open to trying something new, and offers an interesting way to broaden your connection to nature, along with a wonderful pick-me-up even on the dreariest of conference days. No prior experience with nature or barefoot walking is needed to take part. You can book the experience by sending us an inquiry by email at [email protected].
Besides bogs, the walk can also take place on other kinds of terrain, such as rock outcrops and forest floor.
“It’s not unusual at all to hear that someone has never walked barefoot in nature in their entire life,” Joel says.
From doubt to lively legs
“Oh, okay, where exactly have we ended up” is a common first reaction when people learn that barefoot walking on a bog or in the forest is next on the program.
“People are out of their comfort zone, and that’s where the reaction comes from,” Joel explains.
“But once I explain the benefits of barefoot walking, people become more open to the idea, and their curiosity awakens.”
Among the benefits of barefoot walking, Joel mentions that airing out and rinsing the feet can help prevent chafing on long hikes, and that practiced over time, barefoot walking in nature improves muscle coordination, which in turn can help prevent falls. A single guided bog walk might not deliver the long-term benefits just yet, but it does leave your feet feeling good. It can also open a door that many people might not dare to walk through without a guide.
“The moment your feet are in the bog, the bog and its water can feel cold, your feet might tingle a little, or even go a bit numb,” Joel lists.
My own favorite is that exact moment when cold, natural water first squeezes up between tired toes. The softness of the bog makes the going heavy, the strength of your steps and body comes through, and it feels good. Your sense of balance also gets a serious workout, especially at the end, when you try to wrestle a sock and shoe back on while balancing on one foot.
“In shoes, everything always feels the same, but bare against nature, your feet start to feel alive. Your gait changes too: in shoes we step heel first, but barefoot the step shifts to the ball of the foot, which is more natural for the foot. And when your feet are finally dried off and you get to put on dry socks and dry shoes, that’s a truly good feeling,” Joel describes.
The whole group doesn’t have to walk on the bog either. Anyone who doesn’t want to can still broaden their connection to nature by padding barefoot through the forest or across the rocks instead. The guide reads the group’s mood, wishes, and any concerns right at the start of the walk.
A good guide puts fears to rest
Joel’s pancake-making crates are already bulging with ladles, plates, and coffee pots. It’s soon time for him to head off and start preparing the group’s pancake feast at Haltia’s hut.
He pauses for a moment to reflect on the fears people associate with bogs.
“A lot of us have been taught to fear bogs, maybe a bit more than we really need to,” he muses.
True enough. I myself am 38 years old, and my mother still insists I shouldn’t go out onto even a familiar bog without a life vest. We’ve all heard stories of people drowning, or being drowned, in the waterlogged sinkholes bogs can hide. Bogs are also famously eerie in their ability to preserve a body, sometimes remarkably intact and fresh-looking, for hundreds of years. And then there are the mythical creatures said to lurk in bogs? Yikes!
Joel points out that many Finnish bogs aren’t especially deep, and that even someone who stepped into a soft spot might well keep their head above water. With a bit of luck, at least. That’s little comfort, of course, if you happen to sink into a spot that’s deeper than average; the famous Torronsuo bog, for instance, reaches depths of over 12 meters in places. So the warnings aren’t idle, and this isn’t something to take lightly. But guided by Joel, I’d head onto an unfamiliar bog without a worry (and without a life vest), because I know that as a guide he knows the terrain and doesn’t take risks.
In that case, I could simply relax and enjoy the feeling of wet, soft, cold sphagnum moss drawing in around my bare feet.
It feels a lot, and I mean a lot, better than it sounds.
Joel recommends booking a bog walk, for example, to liven up a day of meetings (see Haltia’s meeting facilities), or as part of a Nuuksio day. He notes that the experience is at its best in warm, even hot, summer weather. This year’s peak season has already passed, so keep the tip in your back pocket and in the meantime, book your group something more autumnal, such as Wine in the Dark Woods, or the Mythical Forest guided walk, for which autumn’s energy and dusky light add the perfect touch.
You can book these experiences for your group by sending us an inquiry by email at [email protected].
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