It’s been awhile when i had my last hang in the woods, so i asked from my friends if they wanted to join overnight. Few wanted to go and we agreed to spend it in the Seitseminen National Park.
Unfortunately, many cancelled few days before the trip, so i had to change a plan and decided to go to Vähä-Riutta lean-to, because Niko was the only one who was coming. Day before got a message, that Veltsu wanted to join too.
Vähä-Riutta double lean-to is part of the Birgitta Trail, and there is a Taivalpirtti cottage, which can be used only the local Suomen Latu association members.
Lean-to is open for everybody and there is also a toilet, woodshed and well. Lean-to itself is double, which means that it has 2 lean-to’s against each other. So it’s kind of a closed lean-to.
Saturday morning i picked up Veltsu and drove to Ideapark mall, where we waited Niko. Then we had about 5km drive to the parking place and over 1km walk (around 1 mile) to the lean-to. It was almost 2pm when we arrived, since Niko was a bit late. So we had only less than 2 hours before sun went down.
Since the weather was a bit windy and it was raining a bit, we used the double lean-to. First we set our hammocks nearby, then carry some wood and made a fire. Soon it was warm enough inside the lean-to.
Me and Niko had our WBB XLC’s and Veltsu had his TTTM double. Niko had Hammock Gear Incubator underquilt with UKHammocks topquilt, i had DD underblanket with Savotta Military bag. Veltsu used Exped 7 down pad with Haglöfs down sleeping bag.
We made a plenty of wood for the evening, and just in case if there will be any other hiker coming and spending a night. But we got the whole lean-to ourselfs, nobody came after us, possibly because of the weather.
There is not much to tell about rest of the day, we had a great time there. Me and Niko got the Morakniv Eldris neck knifes, so we test the ferrorods and knifes whole evening. Some photos under.
I was the first one who went to sleep. It was raining a bit of sleet then and it was windy. Luckily our place had enough cover, so the wind didn’t bother us at all.
Night went well, slept quite ok and it was warm. Savotta sleeping bag is quite big one and i could close the bag so well, that had no problems staying warm. Underblanket caused a small problem but manage to set it ok. And the 2QZQ underquilt protector is worth of money…. 🙂
Morning arrived and naturally it was a bit difficult to get up. Warm sleeping bag and outside cold -1c temps don’t give urge to open a bag….
tarp was covered with ice, rain turned to sleet and later to subfrozen rain, which covered the tarp. It was easy to clean thought.
It was a nice overnighter with friends. Good food, good company and new gear seems to be worth of money. It was nice to test them and learn some new skills too.
Car was quite frozen, but got the driver size lock working. Niko’s car barely started, so it was close that we all had to walk haha! Well, no worries, we manage to drive home safely.
Hopefully next trip will be a winter meeting!
Thanks for reading! Enjoy your hikes!
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