Finland

From Wikipaddle

Finland is known for it's massive number of lakes - 140000 to 180000 have been recorded, depending on how they are qualified. For a country so distant to most paddlers in the world and so far North, this is phenomenal. Besides lakes, Finland has a number of streams and rivers, most of them connecting a string of lakes and the Baltic Ocean. The Baltic Ocean shoreline stretches to about 1500 km.

One more paddling resort to the list is the archipelago between Hanko, Turku and Aland, consisting of over 2000 islands.

In addition to what nature has to offer, the state law grants Finnish citizens (and foreigners) the freedom to use all water bodies for transportation, including camping without consent of the land owner, plus picking plants, berries and mushrooms for private use, nature reserves exluded. Camping is prohibited near houses, and the permission to build a camp fire is up to the land owner. Along hiking paths and lakes are a fair number of sites with toilets and approved places for campfires.--Timo 07:32, 27 September 2007 (MST)Timo