Mark Gerald Halonen

I’ll start 52saunas with my own.

My trailer sauna was constructed in the early spring of 2019 by Jedd Kangas. He had built and sold one previously, which prompted me to commission mine. Jedd now is full-time on his business Stoke Saunas.

It seats 4-5 men and is heated by a small stove from Royale. With good wood it fully heats in 25 minutes. The radiant heat can be quite powerful, so I often have to regulate the fire, but the steam is great and the stove is unkillable, even with a steady stream of sauna swimmers. It has a water tank nicely constructed by Scott Heinonen, but I’ve only used that once.

One funny story is that the water tank originally was plumbed to the water jacket on the stove. Being only a 9 gallon tank, it boiled so violently that I actually asked “who’s cranking on the trailer?” — and brother-in-law Brady corrected me “I think that’s the water tank”. It shook the benches and made conversation difficult, and the overall feeling of an impending explosion smothered the room. The plumbing was decommissioned thereafter.

Over the years it’s seen plenty of usage. It’s currently parked in the yard here in Coburntown where it gets fired once a week. It’s also been fired at Super 8 (many times), Breakies, Bete Grise, McClains, Mouth of Huron, Van Riper, Grand Marais, Waterworks Park, Springmill Pond, my parents on Torch Lake, my parents in South Lyon, twelve mile beach, Au Sable River, Steve Junttis driveway (where Jedd built it), and probably a few others.

It has taken a beating over the years but has held up nicely.