Resting in Kuhmo

I rented a cabin for two days in Kuhmo. It will take me that long to rest and dry out. The cabin is located near what is best described as a fake Karelian Village, kind of like a Karelian Disneyland enclosed in a stockade. Once in awhile, a hidden speaker lets out a loud wolf howl, which at first scared the crap out of me. It sounded as if wolves were attacking from all sides.

My view of the fake village is blocked by forests. My hill location is near a beautiful of lake, and in the spruce forest. At a forest service visitor's center I inquire about the road ahead. The ranger assures me that I will not be eaten by bears, though wolves, real ones, have been a problem the last couple of years. Wild reindeer herds have moved in from Russia, followed by the predators. The wolves have been attacking domestic dogs in the area.

Kuhmo is also the center of an internationally acclaimed Chamber Music Festival, which just concluded at about the time I was near drowning on my way here. My friends in Helsinki had told me about this festival and had urged me to try to arrive in time to catch a concert. But I slogged into town the last night of festival and I just couldn't muster the energy to ride the three miles back into town, let alone find dry clothes or scrounge something to eat. So the festival is over. Posters in town now advertise a monster truck show.

With chamber music now longer an option, I visit the Kalevala Center. Kuhmo was the base which Elias Lonnrot used in the 1820s and 1830s to venture into Russian Karelia to record the folk poems and songs that had been kept alive by village elders for generations. The result was a compilation of stories and poems that now comprise Finland's epic folk tale, The Kalevala, later celebrated by painters, who ventured here in 1890s, and Sibelius, who used stories of the Kalevala as a theme in some of his best music.

After a pleasant two days in Kuhmo, it is time to move on again, further north. It's another two days to Suomossalmi, described as a village. The forecast is not good, but I must continue moving. It may be awhile before you here from me again, as libraries are getting scarce.