Big Lake Energy: A Summer Evening on Liessaari Island’s Trails in Lohja
Liessaari Island rises straight out of Lake Lohjanjärvi, right in front of the town of Lohja. A footbridge leads onto the island, and waiting at the far end is a peaceful sandy beach lined with tall pines. The wooded island has a network of trails. There are also lean-to shelters available.
Liessaari, Lohja
- Location on the map
- Extensive trail network >7 km
- Campfire site: yes, lean-to shelters
- Accessible: no, uneven trail with quite a bit of elevation change
- Arriving by car: parking area at the end of Haikarinkatu street, just before the footbridge
- Arriving by public transport: nearest stop is Haikarinkatu, from which it’s 1.5 km to Liessaari
On summer evenings like this, you notice how the things we tend to think of as ordinary can refresh both body and, especially, mind with remarkable power. Simply having the sun still shining high in the sky after closing the laptop, with the chance to head out into nature, is reason enough for real happiness. In winter, when pitch darkness and sleet lashing sideways are often the reality by five in the afternoon, you can still get your health walk in along the nearby roads, but now, while there’s still plenty of light and beauty to go around, you find yourself craving a change of scenery. This time our choice was Liessaari in Lohja.
We left the car at the parking area at the end of Haikarinkatu street, right by the wooden bridge leading straight onto Liessaari. The view over the lake was a feast for the eyes right away: the sun glittered on gentle ripples, coots swam among the lily pads, and a few young people were fishing from the shore. The view stretched far out over the lake, and glimpsed between birch trunks, the scene was almost straight out of a national romantic painting.
There were a fair number of people around, though never enough to feel like a crowd. We sank into our own conversations and into taking in our surroundings. We set off counter-clockwise along the Health Nature Trail, which began as an inviting shoreline path threading between forest and water. We were now on the shaded side of the island, and the flow state that walking brings on kicked in almost immediately.
The town of Lohja, with its medieval church, rose up on the opposite shore.
I’d maybe been expecting a somewhat wider and more even path, but beneath our feet was a forest trail that kept narrowing, with quite a bit of elevation change too once we left the shoreline and headed toward the island’s interior. The sun filtered beautifully through the mixed forest, making the colours of late summer sparkle and glow wherever it landed.
It didn’t take long to notice that the routes shown on the basic map only account for a small fraction of the paths that actually exist out there. For now, though, we were still on the Health Nature Trail, whose markings weren’t especially easy to spot, and which in places shrank beneath our feet into a very small, almost imperceptible path. Clearly not the island’s most walked route — locals probably stick mainly to the wider paths. I made a mental note to do a tick check that evening.
Sticking with the Health Nature Trail paid off at this point, though, as it led us to a lovely area dotted with rocks and ferns, and to a view where the evening sun beautifully lit up a mossy wall behind a screen of ferns.
Even though we’d had the place entirely to ourselves for quite a while by now, right at the perfect moment a pair of hikers came striding past, and I was able to ask them for a little advice on how to reach the island’s western tip. They reassured us that we just needed to keep going, and that we’d soon come to a junction where a wider path continues west (with another branch leading back toward the footbridge). Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened, and after following this wider main trail west for about a kilometre, we found the lookout point.
Photos really don’t do the view justice, in my opinion — it’s worth seeing for yourself. The rocky bluff is fenced off, so you can take in the view safely, with nothing to worry about. I savoured the fragrant lake breeze on my skin, the gentleness of the summer evening, and the beauty of the moment. It’s an incredible privilege to get to experience moments like this in everyday life, or in life in general, and conscious gratitude only adds to the happiness of it.
We headed back the same way we’d come — there’s no alternative in this section, since the island narrows right down here, with cottages on either side of the path. As the island widened out around us again, we were back on the Health Nature Trail, which we now continued along from where we’d left it earlier. This half of the trail was completely different from the first: instead of drier, brighter forest, we now had damp, leafy woodland around us, the path was muddy in places, and hazel bushes formed shady, ticklish little archways over the route. This stretch, too, reminded me a bit of the Karkali nature reserve, which is also on the shore of Lake Lohjanjärvi, though it’s a considerably more awkward drive to get there.
A spruce below, riddled with little holes, caught my eye. What kind of creature makes something like that, I wonder?
Soon we were back at our starting point, and whereas at first we’d turned onto the trail on the shaded side of the island, now we walked across a swimming beach basking in sunshine. A few people sat on benches, and some were jumping off the jetty into the lake, squeezing every last bit out of summer. A now fully grown brood of ducklings was investigating the shallow shoreline.
Lohja residents really do have an incredibly fine nature spot right on their doorstep, there’s no other way to put it. The energy, wind, and scent of a big lake are something smaller bodies of water simply can’t offer. Liessaari also suits all kinds of uses: even though people were only out and about here and there, we still managed to encounter a cyclist, a dog walker, several walkers, a runner, swimmers, fishermen, and hikers with packs on their backs — probably on their way from the lean-to shelter. I’d absolutely recommend exploring Liessaari’s trails whenever you’re in the Lohja area.
On the way home we made a stop at the Lohja ABC service station (it’s a quarter-hour drive from Haikarinkatu), since the summer evening had stirred up a serious craving for ice cream during the hike.
Read next
A Snowy Day in Karkali Strict Nature Reserve in Lohja
Surprise Above the Highway: Karnaistenkorpi Forest enchants with Its Trails and Ponds in Lohja
Related Content
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!