All this looks easy but really it is extraordinary

Tremanskärr

I went today for a walk in the forests at Meiko, and walked there for 3 hours 20 minutes, which was less than planned but enough for me. I walked along a circular route, starting from the parking lot near lake Meiko, going to lake Kotolampi, and from there to lake Mustjärvi.

Here I made the first change to my planned route, as there was too much snow in the valley east of the cliffs south of lake Mustlampi. I climbed back up on top of the cliff, to admire the view, and descended again down to the valley near lake Mustjärvi. I walked around lake Mustjärvi, and walked west from the west side of the lake along a stream which ends in an open swamp. Here there is a chain of swamps going to northwest direction, and I walked along the chain on the south side of the swamps.

I found a swamp with a little lake in the middle, and here I rested and ate picnic on the rocks warmed by the sun. There was a crane looking for lunch on the marsh, but so far away that my LX5 didn't have any hope of catching it in a photograph. I was feeling rather good, and ahead of schedule, so I decided to go further than I had planned, and thus I continued along the chain of swamps all the way to lake Tränuhals, which I have never before visited.

Here I decided to test my orienteering skills, walking across the forests of Dorgarn towards a path near lake Meiko. I set the map bearing to the compass, and selected along the direction of the travel arrow a landmark such as a tree or a rock, and walked there, and then selected a new landmark, walked there, etc.

At one spot I was climbing up a rocky hill and I almost stumbled on a tent erected there. Another tent was nearby. I didn't see anybody outside the tents, maybe they were exploring the nearby landscape.

When I got to the path I was aiming at I was abashed, as usually I tend to get a bit lost when walking in a forest. But this time, focusing on map reading and compass bearings, I got exactly where I was aiming at, a bend in the path, with a precision of 20 meters. Quite a surprise!

I was also ahead of schedule. I estimated that my walk would take less than three hours if I returned to the car via the path I was on. So, I decided to go south to lake Meiko, walk along the shore, and return to the parking lot from there. I was happily tired when I returned home.

I have 755 photographs waiting to be processed on the computer, but I'm too tired to do it right now. So here is a photograph taken on Saturday at Tremanskärr.

(Posting title is from the poem Pretty by Stevie Smith.)