Week 9: Koli to Nurmes

July 8, 2003

The mosquitos suddenly showed up en masse just outside of Juuka. Thier companions were large horse-flies with orange eyes (parma), and they bite through clothing. At one point I had to put on all my rain gear and a mosquito hat just to be able to concentrate on walking and not on wacking bugs. By the time I made camp and got a smokey fire going, I was soaked from sweat as if it had been raining.

July 6
I met a Finnish farmer who had lived for 13 years in the Seattle region. He had been an engineer for Microsoft. He said “In America, nature is a place set aside. Someplace you go, but generally not where you live. The cities are, for the most part, ‘de-natured’. Nature has been removed. In Finland, the cities are not de-natured. Nature is just outside your door and all around you. Finns live in nature. Naturally, the consequences are different.

“Americans live in de-natured cities and homes and try to preserve nature “out there” because they dont have it at home. While Finns are much less apt to see the need for nature protection because they think its everywhere.

“In Finland, the environment suffers from this world view. In America, your spirit and humanity suffers.”

July 8
I’m nearly a week behind schedule. My first thought is that this whole thing may last longer than 16 weeks. But I still want to beat winter to the top of the country. I stayed in Nurmes for 3 days to shop, repair equipment and dry out. It has been raining for days and nearly everything is soaked through. Today the sun is out, but the wind is blowing and the air is cold. Tomorrow I go on to Saramo on the route to Kuhmo.

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