Laipanmaa hiking area

Laipanmaa area is located in the municipalities Kangasala and Pälkäne in the Häme region of Southern Finland. It is a versatile hiking area with over 30 kilometres of guided trails, which offer the wanderer not only the peace and quiet of nature but also various types of forest, ponds, swamps, lakes and even imposing views.

Of the trails especially Elamo and Hirvijärvi trails are well suited for a day trip. Shorter routes are the Nature Path with its Action Track, Haltia trail and Sappee-Särkijärvi trail which starts from Sappee travel center and is therefore close to all the services of the centre. All trails are marked with blue-headed marking posts.

The trails run mostly on comfortable terrain, but all routes have some more challenging spots as well. The hardest spot is on the Hirvijärvi trail, where you need to take the steep stairs up to Korppivuori hilltop. On the other side, on marshy or wet areas hiking is no problem due to sturdy duckboards or wooden bridges. The shorter routes are also suitable for children, but please do remember that especially in wet weather steep, stony or rootstock-filled spots can be very slippery.

Charasteristic for Laipanmaa area is that it is completely in industrial forestry use. The 15.000 hectares area is filled with forests of all ages and you can see everything from young sapling forests to old spruce woods. Sometimes the logged areas change the views drastically, but it is a part of the commercially used forest’s cycle. In a few years the empty clearing will have become a sapling forest, which again will grow, and so on. Laipanmaa is like a quilt of different aged forests but also swamps, ponds and lakes.

Laipanmaa's nature is just as varied. Many dozen bird species and many of the common Finnish mammals live there. In earlier times more rare species housed there too, such as the red-throated diver or the beaver.