A short February overnighter with the kids.

The winter has been a roller coaster this far. We've had great winter weather interrupted by rain and too warm temperatures. Hence every opportunity has to be seized and this Friday was no exception. The weather forecast showed wintry weather with a night temperature around -10C and snowfall turning to slush and possibly even rain on Saturday afternoon. Since the kids have only been out a few nights wintertime, I thought it would be a good opportunity for a tent overnighter with them.


I decided to go to Marttila, since I know a nice tent spot there with a good view, and I hadn't been there for a few years. It would be slightly less than an hour of walking from the car to my tent spot.

There would have been enough snow for skis, though not the best pair, but it wasn't still too much for walking. On snow I prefer a pulk, unless the terrain is very hilly or the vegetation dense.

I immediately erected the tent upon arrival, and the kids started to occupy themselves while I started to prepare to promised pancakes.

My trusty old Primus Gravity MF still works great. I run it on canisters during the summer and liquid fuel during the winter. On liquid fuel it can't be adjusted to a really low simmer level, but otherwise it has been very reliable and has a low center of gravity, good power output and a nice wide flame. I've since bought a Primus Omnilite Ti with a silencer unit, which should be a really good stove, but it just doesn't work well on liquid fuel.

Pancakes are always appreciated.

After some reading we went to sleep.

Though the day is still quite short, we've gained two and a half hours of daylight since the winter solstice, which you can't avoid noticing. If you sleep a little longer, in this case to half past seven, you have some light for the morning chores.

The kids had to do with hot chocolate with their bacon sandwhiches, but I wanted coffee.

This tent spot is one of my favorite ones. It has a good view and is even better when the day is longer.

A nice mire.

We might have fit into the nearby shelter, but the place isn't as nice and the kids wanted the tent anyway.

Following a marked route.

Nice and wintry.

That's it. We packed our stuff into the car and I tried to start it. No success and I started to try to figure out an address or something to tell the service centre, which isn't so easy in the middle of the forest on a small forest road. Ten minutes passed and I tried to start the car again, this time successfully and the 45 minute drive home went quickly.