The Apple of the Wilderness

The man wakes up in noises, growling and restless movement of his dog fill the air. It is dark and cold, October in Finland has showed it´s strength and turned a fall to winter in one night. “What are you up to” asks a man from his dog while he gets out from sleeping bag, chills and the cold air hits him like a harpoon when he acts as he tries to wear an old army longsleeve before the coldness gets to him, “damn, im not fast enough, man thinks and makes a fuss.

During the night the temperature has fell down a lot, the scenery is covered with a frost. The man looks at the direction where the dog is growling at, but he cannot see through the light area of the camp fire. It is still total darkness even time is already 05 am. The dog, a Finnish Spitz already starts barking with anger in its voice, and a man thinks: “should I let him loose or what?” But the tracks of wolves in the ground yesterday make him change his mind. He knows that even if there is a bear, moose of something else the dog will manage. But he would not want his dog to get in touch with wolves.. Actually the wolf tracks we´re the reason a man changed his plans for yesterday. He bumped in the tracks 7 kilometers away from todays camp, just in the place where he wanted to make his camp for the night. In the borders of Salla Wilderness area and close to Russian border he changed his plans and walked 7 km more to get out of wolves territory, just because of the dog and its safety.

Man talks to his dog in relaxing sound while he dresses in a hurry, as soon as he gets his shoes on he starts walking to a direction that dog points. He is tensed when he walks into dark and unforgiving woods of north, “oh man, I should´ve took my gun” he thinks while he is grabbing the knife on his belt while the dog is barking in scared sound since he does not see his owner anymore. The man has started to have serious regrets and is about to turn around when the bushes turn alive, huge noise of flapping and breaking branches fills the air, while man scares and falls on his ass. He sees big checked out capercaillie flying through trees and towards a freedom with a fear of death in its mind. Man sits on frosty ground scared with hes eyes open and starts laughing with his mouth open. Man returns to his camp swearing at the capercaillie, lets his dog loose and starts cooking breakfast. The smell of coffee fills the air as he enjoys the silence of the wilderness.

The morning starts to have its first light when a man is drinking hes coffee from a wooden cup as the dog is nervously searching where to find that big bird that just woke them up. Man gathers his stuff to a back pack, but leaves the shelter intact, “you never know if I come back for some reason or some day”. A river next to his camp showed its prizes already in yesterday as he saw a big trout escaping when he was getting water to his evening coffee. “some day I will be here just for fishing”, he thought as he was making his way to south. Todays plan was to walk south for 5 kilometers, go across the same river he was camping next to and continue towards north for 10 kilometers to reach the cabin in the middle of the wilderness. Sauna in the cabin was tempting him, since he had been walking for five days in a row, without a good wash. Only freezing quick washes in the icy rivers we´re keeping him some what reminder of human.

Man walks calmly in the clean wilderness, stops every once in a while to wait for his dog to make a search. At some point of his walk, after few hours he hears sound of cracking branches and his dog starts “the singing”. While the dog barks he closes the area walking upwards to the hill, “why it is always in uphill side” he swears as he closes the sounds with sweat in his forehead and breathing heavily.. Soon he gets close enough to see the dog, there is an old river groove in high ground and dog is barking in that groove towards old spruce trees. Suddenly the growling and snuffle fills the air. Dog runs 20 meters away from the sound like a lightning, just to return back in 20 seconds. Dog is barking angrily, foam is coming from his mouth as he works moving rapidly all the time. Now there is a serious enemy for the dog, you can see it from the behavior and you can hear it, as the growling, snuffing and breaking trees sounds fill the wilderness. A man looks his bird caliber weapon, shakes his head with tense look in his eyes. “not with this one, I can not defeat this beast today” He thinks as he starts to back up, after 30 meters he starts to make sounds by breaking branches while he looks towards carefully, gun pointing towards the sounds all the time. After few branches he hears running sounds, luckily away from him. Dog whimpers as he follows the beast until the man can not hear anymore. He carefully walks across the spruce forest where the bear was just few minutes ago, takes a direction towards North and sets up a fire after few hundreds meters. He is cooking some moose meat in a stick and drinking coffee, he is so relaxed. Just waiting for hes dog arrive from bear hunt. He knows that the bear will not stop soon, since he has been alarmed by people smell and noices. Normally bear run straight away 30 km to Russia and to safety in these cases, he just hopes that the border line has proper fence to stop the dog going to wrong country. After few hours the dog returns all wet and tired, he sits next to a man and looks sharply with his brown eyes. Man talks to a dog, he tells him not to engage any bears on this trip anymore. “I don’t have the gun to take it down and we do not have a license to shoot it”. Dog looks at a man and if it could speak he would probably be saying “Ok, if you don´t dare then you don´t dare”.

The couple continue their journey up North and finally they arrive to the cabin. Man lifts their game, a capercaillie to hang next to a door and they enter a cold cabin. As the night is coming the couple lie down on a bed with full stomach, they are happy. “could it be better, full stomach, clean clothes and a best friend by my side” thinks a man when dog settles his head on a mans chest. The dog falls asleep soon followed by a man and the cabin in the wilderness is filled by sounds of a sleeping brothers and a fire place sounds. They are dreaming of next days and next journeys together.