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.