Cabin Trip Feb 2012

FINALLY I had the full weekend off from work and we could go to the cabin in Kelujärvi. The only problem was that it had been snowing a lot in the beginning of the week, so I was wondering how tough it'd be to reach the cabin. FYI, the cabin was a few hundred metres away from the house and now that the house was empty, there was nobody clearing the path towards the cabin anymore.

We arrived there on Friday after work at around 4 pm and the temperature was -18'C.

See how thick the snow is if it's not cleared up?


Even before we started the journey there, R2 had trouble already getting some firewood for the cabin (mind you, there's no electricity in the cabin nor an indoor toilet). Look at the pile of snow covering the pile of firewood!


The sled in the above pic was used to carry our stuff with us. It was REALLY heavy 'coz we had to bring drinking water with us (there is no running tap in the cabin).

OK, now here we were starting our tough walk in the snow...notice the deep impressions of our footsteps in the snow.


In some parts, my leg went as deep as my knee. Granted, I'm only 145 cm, but it was really tough work to walk towards the cabin 'coz we had to really pull up our leg high to make each step.


Standing on top of the frozen lake...


ALMOST THERE!!! It went a bit uphill from there, so R2 had to rest a bit 'coz he had the tougher work with all the burden on his back plus he had to drag the sled. Notice that in the pic below, he was standing on top of a more frozen snow so that his feet didn't sink too deeply into the snow.


Anyway, the sky was GORGEOUS when we got there...lucky enough we could be there before sundown, so we could enjoy the glorious sky...







Another battle we had to win was to try to get water from the frozen lake. There was at least 30 cm of snow on top of the icy lake surface and then R2 had to try to make a hole. The ice itself was at least 30 cm thick, so it took a LONG time before we could get some water to heat up the sauna in the cabin (the sauna uses firewood). He almost gave up 'coz he had run out of strength (mind you he hadn't eaten anything yet at that time and it was already close to 5 pm). He shouted out, "HALLELUJAH!" when we finally got water HA HA HA HA HA...

After that we could finally eat and then went to sauna, listened to the radio, and went to sleep. On Saturday it was snowing lightly. It was -10'C but grainy weather. Lucky that we got to see the gorgeous sky on Friday!!!

Here's a pic of me posing in front of the cabin. The view behind me was the frozen lake. Notice how grainy and grey it is compared to the photos on Friday!


See what I mean? It was still quite a sight, though, to see the sun like that he he...


I also saw lots of hare's paw prints everywhere...here's a comparison between my boot and the hare's paw prints. My boot size is 39 (My original shoe size is actually 36, but for boots I always buy bigger sizes so that I can wear three pairs of socks in the depth of winter and still feel comfy wearing them).



All in all, it was a well-deserved, relaxing cabin trip. Would love to do it again later on! :-D