Järvi Pärnjärve: our first hot tent night

Our first night in the MCETO hot tent, on 22–23 November 2025, at RMK's Järvi Pärnjärve campsite in northern Kõrvemaa. It was a few degrees below zero when we arrived, with a thin layer of snow, and we had the whole campsite to ourselves. This was the night we learned how the stove works. Two months later we took what we learned to the Keibu hot tent camp at −10 °C.

The place: Järvi Pärnjärve campsite

Järvi Pärnjärve telkimisala is an RMK campsite on the shore of Pärnjärv, one of the small Järvi lakes, inside the Põhja-Kõrvemaa landscape reserve. It is large and easy to reach by car: room for 20 four-person tents, four open fire pits with grill grates, two covered shelters with a table and benches, two more tables, two dry toilets, two firewood sheds and parking for ten cars. The lake water is for washing; RMK does not list it as drinking water, so bring your own.

Pikkjärv and its own campsite are a few hundred metres to the east. That is where the Järvi – Aegviidu hike starts, so this is a good place to spend the night before walking south to Aegviidu.

Getting there

By car: on the Tallinn–Narva road, turn right towards Kemba at km 56, after 0.9 km turn right at the sign "Järvi järved", then follow the gravel forest road for 5 km to the car park (RMK's directions). We drove in, with our own firewood and food. If you arrive by car, bring your own wood and leave the woodshed for people who come on foot; we rely on those sheds ourselves when we walk.

Soldiers in the woods

Next to Põhja-Kõrvemaa is the Defence Forces' Central Training Area (Keskpolügoon), 11,951 hectares in the eastern part of Kuusalu parish. Conscripts train there. In the evening we saw soldiers walking past the campsite, and military vehicles drove by on the forest road. Nothing happened, but in the dark, if you do not know about it, it can be unsettling.

The training area's boundary is marked with white-and-red posts, red flags go up an hour before any live firing, and information boards around it show the schedule for up to two weeks ahead. Stay outside the posts and check the boards if you plan to walk east of the lakes.

Learning the stove

The stove has two controls: the air intake on the front and a damper in the chimney. We did not know either of them yet. At first the fire burned far too fast, the chimney glowed red, and the wood was gone in no time. You can see the glow in some of the photos below. Through the evening we closed the front air down and turned the damper until the fire burned slower and steadier.

What we would tell anyone on their first night with a tent stove: start with small, dry wood, then close the air in small steps and wait a few minutes between changes. A red-hot chimney means the fire is getting too much air. Our notes on the stove after two winters, including the ash drawer we now want and the warped chimney pipes, are in our hot tent stove field notes.

We slept on camp cots off the cold ground; why we use them is in our camp cot notes.

Morning

By morning it was warmer and the snow had started to melt. We had breakfast on the stove top, walked down to the lake and packed up. It was quiet all night, but in the morning people started arriving for a picnic and to grill at the fire pits. On a weekend this campsite is a day-out place as well as an overnight one.

Before you go

• Fire only in the fire pits and only when fire is allowed; quiet hours 23:00–6:00 (RMK's rules).
• If you burn wood inside a tent, carry a carbon monoxide alarm. We learned why at Keibu.
• The whole area is in our Kõrvemaa guide.