Rust & Reindeers
- Inka
- Sep 21
- 5 min read
Updated: Sep 23
Since last time nature has several times made us aware of the approaching winter. Two mornings ago we woke up to a frozen world. The first nightfrost. Everything was sparkling white and cold. And today all the mountaintops had gotten a fresh white cover.
Last sunday when the GirlfriendWife and I filled up the car with bikes and backpacks for an expedition it was still warm, and sunny.
For the whole summer we had for some reason postponed doing this trip, but when we unloaded the bikes on a parking place on the mountain I was happy for it, coz now so close to winter the nature is quite the show with its colors and light.
The first half kilometer we couldn`t use the bikes at all because of rocky and marshy terrain where we tried to follow a forgotten and overgrown old gebirgsjäger road. Soon enough though we stepped out on a much better atv road and could let the wheels take us forwards in a far more efficient way.
This is reindeer territory and it was nice to see them walking around.
Our goal was an area next to a lake where a line of bunkers and positions blocked a potential entryway for advancing Finns or Soviets to the valley and main road below. It was built by gebirgsjägers and Red Army POWs in late 1944 and large amounts of equipment had been brought far into the wilderness.
After a bit more than an hour biking on a progressively worse road we began seeing the leftovers of the defensive line. Dug-outs and cellars lined the trail and the first rust I spotted was one such dug-out filled with mortar grenade cases.
The bridge we had seen on the maps, which would take us over to the other side of the river where the positions were, was no longer there. Only one of the concrete fundaments stood tall in the deep and fast moving waters.
We searched up and down, but even with the relative low level of water, we couldn`t find a spot that looked safe enough to cross.
We sat down for lunch and a coffee and enjoyed the mountain for a while, before we decided to explore this side instead.
It is a very rocky and hilly landscape, so what look like a natural formation of stones can be man made and what from a distance looks like a bunker is just a pile scraped together by a mass of ice thousands of years ago.
When we stood on top of a hill and looked down into the dell below we spotted rust. A couple of large and heavy cast iron stoves. Bottles and food tins here and there, and barrels, horseshoes and tools.
We spent hours climbing around in the rock pile, finding more and more places gebirgsjägers, prisoners and horses had lived in the winter of 44-45.
It is super exciting running around exploring such a natural museum, but one have to be carefull where one steps. It is easy to have an accident with loose rocks or a jagged broken bottle sticking out from the ground.
The GirlfriendWife had brought cake, so before we began our trip back we had another coffee and filled up with sugar.
The trip down was much schneller than going up, and it was really fun. A bit spooky going down steepy and rocky hills, and muscle memory from when I was a teen and practically lived on a bike, kicked in and saved my health a few times.
Next time we go up there we will know where to cross the river :)
Yesterday me and Jimmy finally had nothing to do at the same time, so we could go searching together.
We had for a while been talking about a lost helmet pile, and he had a theory where we could find such one.
At noon we were supposed to meet, but he had become a bit delayed coz he couldn`t find his breathalyzer, so while he was finding that and making sure he could drive responsibly I picked lingonberries for the Fraulein at home.
Half hour later he came skidding in to the parking spot and we made ready for some hours metal detecting. On way to the site we met the landowners. They were also hunting for berries, the red gold of the forest, so we had a chat with them and got a few new tips and rumours about large things buried on their land.
The place Jimmy wanted to check was the old communal dump. Tons of stuff had been discarded here by the neighbouring farms ever since the war. Right next to the dump were foundations of barracks so there is a fair chance the wehrmacht had established the dump.
Immediately we spotted crates from german military vehicles between more modern trash which consisted of a surprising amount of vehicle parts, cementing our beliefs that we were only moments away from treasure.
We went to the far end of the pile and began digging in underneath the metal mountain.
Almost instantly Jimmy was pulling out parts from MG34s and 42s. The parts were all in very good condition.
I pulled on a rod sticking out from the jumble and it was a perfectly preserved wehrmacht grounding rod.
We found several bosch vehicle horns, lots of vehicle parts and a reserve ski tip from the gebirgsjägers.
After a while we realized that we would need help from a tractor to safely continue, so that will be for another time, and after a serious talk with the landowner.
We ate lunch and drank coffee, and told tales about earlier finds before we took the detectors with us for a round in the woods.
I was using the Fisher F5 and it showed me a place to dig. It was a small burnpit on top of a slope. It was some food tins, a spoon and the aluminum cap on a bottle causing the signal. I thought I had picked all the metal out of it but the pinpointer still insisted on one more poke with my bayonet in the corner of the pit. I followed orders and was greatly rewarded!
In the corner a KVK medal had been hiding! I took it out, brushed it clean and was amazed by its good condition.
I ran over to Jimmy who was searching food tins on the oposite side of the slope and we jumped around happily over the cool find.
After this we went deeper into the forest and found a hot spot of signals. In the middle of them Jimmy began digging on a strong signal, and it went down deep.
I joined in on the digging and we managed to drag out several large barrel rings, lots and lots of food tins, a car jack, a cold water faucet and a long whisk from a fieldkitchen.
We never managed to get to the bottom of this dumping pit. It was very heavy to dig it because of the amount of rocks and its depth. Also it had become late, so we decided to fill it and perhaps re-open it some day we feel we have the energy for such an endeavour.
So we still need to find that lost helmet ditch, and we have another plan to try locate a small gebirgsjäger camp up in a mountainside before the winter hits us.
Thanks for reading. I hope you have a great day :)
Not just MG34 bits but lafette tripod bits too very rewarding bits to find.