| Distance | Average Speed | Max Speed |
|---|---|---|
| 31 km | 11.7 km/h | 51.2 km/h |
After a reasonable night at Janisvaara I was expecting that I would drive across the northern swamps once Timo had opened a trail. By 1000 there was no sign of Timo so I sent him a text asking what was happening. Unfortunately, I misunderstood the reply. Timo wanted to indicate that he would be along later to open the trails, but I understood him to be saying that he was unable to do so.
I therefore decided to use my initiative. I had previously observed that after returning from opening the snowmobile trail to the road crossing, Timo had turned left down the trail which would lead to Lohilampi eventually. I decided to follow this and then go down the Tilsa canyon.
This plan worked and I was soon over the Tilsa road. It was about time for lunch so the question was how best to get to Tilsa. The road had been swept again so perhaps that wasn’t the best plan. I therefore decided to try and go in the back way. On my last visit I managed to leave Tilsa by driving west along the side track and then turning north. Sadly, this turning wasn’t visible so I decided to try a different approach. On day three I drove east along the same track and turned north. So, this left a section of a few hundred metres between the two turnings which I hadn’t driven. All I had to do was drive onto the track where I left it on day three (which was easy to find) and then turn towards the kota along this un-driven section.
Unfortunately, it turned out that this central section had apparently not been driven at all during the entire winter. There was no discernable track and the snow was more than one metre deep. The dogs rapidly came to a halt so I had to lead them but I didn’t have any snow shoes as these are one thing that Timo hasn’t re-equipped himself with since the fire.
As anyone who has tried it will tell you, wading through waist deep snow is extremely tiring and by the time we finally reached the tracks from day five I was completely knackered.
The kennel's splendid new guest house
The Tilsa fireplace was completely covered with snow but since I didn’t have any sausages with me I decided not to bother lighting a fire.
After a quick lunch I left by the same route as day 5 and then headed towards the new forest road which was built just before my last visit and which I hadn’t driven. I found this easily and there were clear snowmobile tracks to follow. The road is surprisingly long and brought me out near the power line turning for Kylkeinen. My GPS was logging, so I can now add this to my maps. Of course, I haven’t driven the short section between where I joined and the Tilsa road but I’ll do that another year when the road hasn’t been swept.
I crossed the power lines and made my way back to the farm via Takasuo.