scricfinia | Hiking, trekking, backpacking in Finland. In depth.
In this twelve post series I've told about over one hundred wilderness huts, about their origins, and with map links. After this it's time to write about something else... But first welcome to see 15 more hut pics! 🙂
Many cozy and personal wilderness huts are built by hiking associations or such. See some examples.
In this post you'll find some more extraordinary origins for wilderness huts.
Imagine it's 19th century and you are living in the middle of forest. No road comes to your home, and there are no tractors or other oil-based helpers. Clearing a forest or a rich mire into a field is very hard work, and there is not much field area around your house. How do you feed your cows during winter? By reaping hay from bogs.
Water mill is a fascinating invention. There used to be thousands of water mills in Finland. Most of them are ruins now, but some are restored as sights, and some even serve as wilderness huts.
Imagine the life of a fire guard. Alone deep in the middle of backwoods, and with a great responsibility. What better place to imagine this than a wilderness hut that used to be a fire guard's cabin! In addition the scenery is superb.
Forests of Finland have been in use for a long time. In the era of two-man saws and axes there were hundreds of lumberjacks' cabins throughout Finnish woods. Some of them act as open wilderness huts nowadays.
Border guard is one of those professions where you work in the field, deep in the wilderness. In the old days patrol cabins were necessary, but not so much any more. So, many old patrol cabins are open wilderness huts now.
Have you ever dreamed of spending the Christmas in wilderness? I've spent two Christmas Eves in a wilderness hut, far away from nearest road, and I can recommend the experience! Wilderness huts that originally were reindeer herders' huts is the main topic this time, though.
Did you know there has been two gold rushes in Finnish Lapland? Gold digging with spade and pan is a peculiar kind of activity that has left many interesting huts and other monuments in those two areas.
Finnish Way of Hiking 