Lake Yastrebinoe (Leningrad region): how to reach

Rest in the native land can be no less interesting and cognitive, in comparison with visiting expensive foreign resorts. And around there are many places that can impress with its beauty and deliver a lot of pleasant impressions. One of such fine examples of wild nature is Lake Yastrebinoe.

Topography of Hawk Lake

Lake Yastrebinoe is located in the north-eastern part of the Karelian Isthmus near the border between the Priozersky District of the Leningrad Region and the Republic of Karelia. It stretches from northwest to southeast for two kilometers, while the northern part of the reservoir is narrower - it has a width of about 150 meters, in the south it expands to 250 meters.

Very popular with tourists is the Lake Yastrebinoe. The Leningrad region is rich in a variety of water bodies, be it rivers, a lake or a swamp, but Yastrebin's neighborhoods are rightfully considered to be the most picturesque in the region. The lake is located in the hollow between the steep granite benches of the extremity of the Baltic Shield, which raise their peaks 50 meters. It is believed that it was formed during the passage of a glacier carrying huge granite blocks. To date, the territory of the lake itself and the adjacent zone, spreading over 10 kilometers, belong to the specially protected natural monuments.

Terrain

The landscape of the lake's surroundings is complex and picturesque due to the alternation of the ridge ridges and deep depressions. Very beautiful scenery steep walls formed by the release of crystalline rocks, stony niches and terrace systems, as well as the presence of narrow clefts between separately standing large splinter blocks. The most pronounced relief along the ridge, stretching along the eastern shore of the lake for 900 meters and having a width in different places is 100-350 meters. The rocks here almost perpendicularly go under the waters of the lake, which attracts all climbers and tourists from the surrounding areas for training, competitions and festivals. The most famous and visited is the rock Parnassus, especially popular with climbers. The northern and western shores of the Hawk Lake are also formed by sheer granite rocks, which have a height of up to 15 meters.

Surroundings are densely covered with vegetation, represented mainly by pine massif. All this makes Yastrebinoye Lake attractive for both ordinary holidaymakers wishing to tear themselves away from civilization for a while and enjoy the scenic terrain, and for tourists - climbers, hone their skills on sheer "ram's foreheads".

Lake Yastrebinoe - a natural monument

Due to its uniqueness, this natural object was declared a natural monument in 1996, that is, a specially protected natural area occupying more than 1600 hectares. The peculiarity of the relief is manifested by a special type of vegetation characteristic of the northern regions of the Karelian Isthmus. The most characteristic difference is the combination of oak groves with typical rock vegetation. On the vertical walls of the rocky coasts practically nothing grows, except for individual plants that settled among the cracks and on the eaves of the rocks. Most of them are different kinds of ferns, mosses or lichens.

In the upper and middle parts of the slopes of the selgas, especially along the eastern shore, there are blueberry-green pine forests, among which there are birch, gray alder, juniper. The lower parts of the slopes are occupied by small-leaved formations, areas of spruce forests, fragments of aspen, combined with motley grass of oak plants. The northern shore is covered with plots of meadow plants: hedgehog, timothy grass, cornflowers, ivan-tea and others. The far outskirts of the selgas in a number of regions have an adjacent abutment of small mountain sphagnum bogs that have a characteristic set of species. The northern end of the lake has a dry channel, overgrown with sedge, sabernik and solitary willows.

The aquatic vegetation of the lake is represented by rare narrow cane belts; in the central, deep part of the lake, representatives of the flora are extremely rare. In the shallows you can see the leaves of the yellow egg, the head of the head, the pond. Along the coast you can find a fusion of the calla and sabelnik.

Animal world

Lake Yastrebinoe, despite the increased interest and attendance of numerous tourists, preserves the diversity of the animal world inhabiting it, represented mainly by lower vertebrates and birds. In lugovines, ponds and a thin tree stand, both the fringe and forest species of amphibians and reptiles, represented to a greater degree by ordinary gray toads, grass frogs, spindles, ghols, viviparous lizards, feel great. Among the regularly occurring birds, in addition to the trivial forest species, one can note the presence of various black grouses, buzzards, ochoes, goshawks, sparrow hawks, many owls (bearded and long-tailed owl, moose owl, eared and swamp owls, passerine owl), kozodoi , Blue eyes, blackbirds. There are rare species of mammals, such as an underground voles, European mink. In the lake you can meet the European river cancer.

How to get to the Hawk Lake

You can reach the object of interest in several ways, although each of them has its own peculiarities and difficulties. Lake Yastrebinoe, a map of the surroundings of which does not reflect all the difficulties of visiting it, is located away from good highways, so you may need a good SUV to get to it. To the village of Kuznechny, located within 13 km from the lake, there is an asphalt road, from which it will be necessary to turn to a well-run forest tract, through which it will be easy to reach the destination in good dry weather. You can pave the way through the town of Priozersk and Sevastyanovo village, bypassing the Kuznechnoye station, so that you get to the dirt road on the right side of the fork and pass the field, the hill and the log bridge, which is very close to the lake you are looking for.

For those who like hiking or cycling, it will be convenient to get there by train from Finland station to Kuznechnoe station, from which there is diesel (which is very rare) or on foot you need to get to the railway platform 165 or 168 km. The dirt road will lead from them to the start of the reserve, after which it is easy to get to the Yastrebino Lake along the forest trails. This way, with proper skill and knowledge of the route will take no more than two hours. The main thing here is to choose the right paths, since Lake Yastrebinoe is adjacent to several other reservoirs, such as the Klyukvennoye and Svetloye lakes, as well as swamps, which can make it difficult.

Many get to their destination on the Ho Chi Minh trail that leads from Kuznechnoe station through the quarry to the lake. This route is marked, that is, there are tags all the way along the way, which will help not to go astray, but if there is no knowledgeable guide, you can wander the path for several hours instead of the usual three.

Public life on the Hawk lake

The whole warm period of the year, from early spring to late autumn, on the shores of Yastrebino Lake, life is boiling - crowds of tourists come to admire the picturesque landscapes of the lake and its environs, in the summer the cliffs are inhabited by climbers from various sections, climbers and just amateurs. Children's campgrounds are broken on the banks. And on the rocks every year amateurs and professionals gather to hold mass rock-climbing competitions "Rocky Marathon", held in early May for the holidays.

Thus, vacationers in the Leningrad region can be advised to visit the lake Yastrebinoe. Karelia, being very close to its shores, left its imprint on the surrounding landscapes, showing lovers the harsh northern beauty.