Pirttimäki Sunday bRUNch

My shadow on a rock wall.

Sunday was indeed a sunny day with a pleasant temperature about 10°C (50°F). While sipping my big bowl of morning coffee I decided to have a bRUNch around Pirttimäki, Espoo.

This type of trail is dry and fun to run.

I grabbed my backpack and sprinted 2.6K for the 8:08AM Espoo train and missed it by three seconds. That meant I had 30 minutes to perfect my route plan for the day while waiting for the next train.

I planned to run across this interesting area from right to left (West to East).

I would explore a bit around too beautiful lakes: Malmilampi and Sultingsträsk. Other than that, I was going to improvise.

First I ran from Espoo to Pirttimäki, but not the same route I've done before. I explored several new trails, boulders, hills and swamps along the way. My Achilles hurt a bit, so I took it easy.

This is probably close to the famous Sysikallio 100 course!

At Pirttimäki Cafe I enjoyed veggie soup with rolls around 12 noon. The place is always filled with outdoors folks. The service is great, they let me charge my iPhone while eating.
 

This is very wet and slow going trail.

When continuing towards Solvalla I ran around Lake Sultingsträsk (aka Sulalampi). It's a great place for camping and swimming in the summer. The lake is not big, but it's deep.

The Finnish landscape was shaped by Ice Age 10000 years ago.

In the afternoon it got warmer and I had to reduce clothing. I headed down into the cool shadows of Meerlampi brook valley. It was the highlight of my journey, as I've never been there before.

Oittaa Isosuo is a great swamp - too big so I turned away.

After 4PM it was time to call it a day. I took a bus and train back home. My Movescount showed about 26km (to save the battery I used Suunto Ambit with 10sec GPS interval - the real distance may be longer) with 430m ascent, plus a few km more for the trip to train/bus.

In the morning there were thin clouds in the sky.

I also found and logged 36 geocaches during my run, which explains why it took all day. Maybe it was better to be slow, as this was my last long run before Ecotrail Oslo 80km on Saturday.

Malmilampi.

Malmilampi.

Malmilampi boulders.

View to Malmilampi from the hill.

Malmilampi boulders.

Malmilampi boulders.

Lake Sultingsträsk panorama (click to enlarge). 

Pirttimäki boulders.

Pirttimäki boulders.

Pirttimäki boulders.

Lake Sultingsträsk.

Lake Sultingsträsk.

Sunny forest.

It was still quite wet in the wood as it has been a rainy spring.

One of the thousands of nice hills.

Meerlampi brook valley - a new place for me.