Hiking trails of Helsinki Region: The River Glims and Glims Hiking Trail

Welcome to the Glims River in Espoo. Glims together with its sister river Gloms form the Espoo River. This is a short story of a walk along the Glims River, from the bottom of Lake Pitkäjärvi to Lake Kirkkojärvi. I made the trip on the last day of April 2016. The sun was shining and the weather was good, and after spring rains the water was flowing.

Here is the Glimsjoki's trip through Espoo. On the top right you can see the corner of Pitkäjärvi. The river starts there, meanders through Myllykylä, heads between Jorvi and Bemböle towards Espoos Ikea. The first half of the Glims is called Kvarnbyån, or Myllykylänjoki. I don't really know why such a short river changes its name along the way, but it does. I'm talking about the Glims here anyway.

Here's a picture from the Träskendän park road towards Pitkäjärvi. This is where the lake turns into a river.

Heti alkuun joki mutkittelee läpi Träskendan luonnonsuojelualueen. Träskendan kartanon kohdalla on muuten Kuninkaantie alkuperäisimmässä kunnossaan.

Here is a picture from the first bridge towards the mansion. That old oak tree in the foreground is one of my earliest memories. I was a little nastakina at a family daycare a little ways away, and we used to go on a field trip here.I must have been two, three years old. That old tree was exciting and cool. It's still exciting and beautiful, by the way.

This is probably one of the widest parts of Glims, at just under ten metres wide. 

The river is full of fallen trees, which add a little "rapids" atmosphere even before approaching Jorvis raft.

I walked almost all the way along the southern edge of the river. There's a path on that side for most of the way. There is also a footpath on the northern edge by the park at Träskenda Manor. Had it been 2008 I took a month off from my job as a communications professional, and washed up to work at the Aurora Senior Home for a month. We used to go out here often.

At this point the river flows through the hunting forest.

As you approach the edge of the nature reserve, the path begins to be a path in the traditional sense: no stone ash has been brought in and there is occasional mud.

There are settlements to the north, and in a few places the river is right on the propertys border.

At the flood meadow, the river disappears amid spring floods. The scenery is quite fairytale-like.

Then you start to see some nice fields. I bet that not many people in Espoo are even aware of these landscapes that we have here.

A short detour on to the north side of the river. On the south side of the King's Road, new development is underway, and new outdoor trails have been built in parallel.

There's the bridge over the river. My faithful bike is waiting for its master in the background.

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Then to one of the gems of the trip, Myllykylä. Around the mill, in the 1700s and 1800s, Myllykylä grew. This is the so-called Ingas parsonage.

The place Ingas bridge is one of the oldest bridges in Espoo, I think. At least there was a bridge on this site already in the 1700s, and at least some of the foundations probably date back to that time.

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Here from the edge of the bridge to the north-east, upstream. On the right is one of the foundation stones of the Myllykylkä mill. So that's where the mill was located in the 1700s and 1800s.

More than a kilometre long, the Jorvinkoski starts at the Ingas Bridge. Here's a picture downstream.

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One of the most surprising parts of the route is just after the Ingas Bridge. The rapids are less than ten metres above the rapids below, and there are a few islands in the middle of the river.

Then we arrive at the Jorvi Hospital.

Jorvinkoski bridge.

After the Jorvinkoski bridge, the river "calms down" into the Glims river, meandering through the fields.

Underpass of the old Turuntie.

The most famous bridge on the route, the Bemböle Stone Bridge. At one time, the fastest way to get from Espoo to Helsinki was over this bridge, which branched off from Kuninkaantie at the village of Bemböle and passed through the village of Karvasmäki, high up on a hill. 

Glims and Gloms join at Kirkkojärvi, next to Kasavuori. In the spring, the floodplain rises, and you can pile up where the deepest point of the lake, which dried up in the 1950s, used to be.