18-Sep-2001 -- In Finnish Lapland the autumn was at its peak: beautiful colours
all around. The day was warm, blue skies, sunny, the perfect
time for hunting confluences. The present confluence is situated
about 110 km north of my office in Sodankyla, central Lapland.
60 km of the approach have to be made on dirt roads of partly bad
condition, large gravel and lots of pot holes. When starting the
trip, I believed the confluence to be "in the middle of nowhere", but
I was wrong.
There are many tens of rectangular areas of clear-cut
forest in that area. Finland gets money out of converting forest into
paper, so I guess that's why the trees had been cut. New spruces are
growing there and counting levels of branches I estimate the clear-cutting
to have happened about 15 years ago. Interestingly, the equal-sized
rectangular patches are separated by patches of similar size and shape
consisting of practically untouched forest.
The forests at these
latitudes are often low (no very tall trees) due to the load of snow in
winter and they are not very dense.
I saw plenty of reindeer during the
approach and also at the confluence; they are the semi-domestic European
version of the North American cariboo.
The photos show a general view of
the clear-cut patch of the confluence, which lies far at the back-right, near
tall yellow birch. Then there are four pics taken in directions north, east,
south, and west, directly standing on the confluence. Finally a pic of my GPS
receiver. I managed to get the display to 0'0", probably because of excellent
view of the sky, 12 satellites available with strong signal, and switched off