Topic: The Karkhunkierros

[charles binns]

The Karkhunkierros (Bear's Trail in English) is one of Finland's most popular hiking trails which stretches for 80km through the Oulanka National Park in Northern Finland.  The trail passes through pristine pine forest, along riverbanks and passing by a myriad of lakes giving the walker a taste of the vast northern wilderness.

The Oulanka National Park is home to wolves, bears, moose, elk, and lynx none of whom deigned to appear before the camera of a lone English hiker.  Even without the wildlife the trail reveals some beautiful landscapes and a tranquility not to be found near human habitation.

I walked the trail in August of this year, shortly before I was due to start work again and these photos are a record of that short trip.  Since then tranquility and wilderness are two concepts that are becoming a distant, if not fond, memory but I hope these images convey at least a fraction of the beauty to be found in Finland's forests.

Holga plus Portra for those that care about such things

[charles binns]

 Some more.

[Urban Hafner]

These are beautiful shots Charles! They remind me of my hike along the Kungsleden in Sweden (which isn't really surprising).

[Verian]

Lovely. The car and the hut are my favorites.

[Late Developer]

Fabulous set, Charles.  For me, it would be the boardwalk and the hut that I'd hang on my walls.

[rpmdrd]

that abandoned car is great. would have loved a shot at it too.

[imagesfrugales]

We frequently went to scandinavia for vacation, we were hiking, paddling, driving, but only one single time we met an elk early at 3 am on an abandoned road, and once we saw the trace of a bear in the sand near a river. 1 Lemming (yeehaw!), and of course tons of reindeers but no red-nosed Rudy :-(

The first of the images is my fav. Viva napapiiri.

Here's a shot my girlfriend did. I'm the one standing in the front.

[jojonas~]

great. now I'm even more homesick!

haha don't mind me, these shots are splendid the plastic lens desaturates the colour in a way that suit these shots really well -to my eyes atleast.

[johnha]

I really like the atmospheric look to these. Numbers 1, 3, 4, 5 & 7 are my favourites and these do give clues to the beauty, scale and remoteness of the location. Every wilderness seems to have a derelict car somewhere. Beautiful shots and a great essay to put them into perspective.

For some reason skies always look much better to me in medium format than smaller formats, these demonstrate that still holds true even with a plastic lens.