100 stories from the hiking route

1977 – Viru Bog boardwalk is finished

Information

Topic

Hiking and hiking trails

Coordinates

Long-Lat WGS 84

Latitude: 59.480325

Longitude: 25.6622

L-EST 97

x: 6594790
y: 594195

Location

Oandu-Aegviidu Hiking route

There are many boardwalks for hiking in bogs and for learning more about them in Estonia today. That has not always been so. The idea of carrying wooden boards into a bog and building a pathway of them to walk on seemed new and bizarre for many when the constructions for the Viru Bog study trail boardwalk began in 1977. Boardwalks had been built in bogs for the measuring devices of bog researchers and for accessing observation points but never specially for visitors to use.
The idea for the boardwalk came to Aarne Kaasik, long-time director of the Lahemaa National Park, during his visit to Finland where he became acquainted with the pathways there. Tõnu Reinvald managed the construction. Even the builders considered the novel endeavour rather odd and there were many sceptics in general that had doubts on whether anyone would even use the boardwalk. However, there were so many visitors that the first boardwalk fell apart and a new one had to be built. The last boardwalk built in 2013 is the fourth one so far. The Viru Bog study trail has become the most visited nature trail of Lahemaa – over 37,000 people came here in 2015. The Viru Bog boardwalk is also a part of the RMK Oandu-Ikla hiking route.