He even had a grant from the Finnish Literary Society for the purpose. The research plan stipulated that "first he was to visit the Finns living close to the national border from Kajaani to the north, and from there the trip was to proceed to the southeast, partly on the Russian, partly on the Finnish side."

In practice, the field trip was completed in two stages, as Lönnrot returned to Kajaani for a while after the trip north. This trip is always regarded as a single journey, however, because certain objectives were set for it and he had received a grant to finance it.

Lönnrot was joined for the beginning of the first phase by J.F.Cajan, a university student. We have details of the route they took from a letter Lönnrot sent from Uhtua to C.E. Gosman, the postmaster in Kajaani.

Lönnrot writes of his return home at the beginning of May 1837, at the end of his account of the journey:

"I should still tell you how I went from Näytämö to the home of my friend Ekdahl, from there to the church in Inari, then on to Sodankylä, Kemijärvi, Kuusamo, Kianta, Hyrynslmi, Paltamo and, finally, Kajaani. But I have already written plenty to you about my trip, so I think it best to end my account there.

On this trip Lönnrot describes in more detail his travels in Kainuu. He was not content with merely reporting the route of his travels, but depicts colourfully and somewhat mischievously his experiences and what he had seen. Beyond the border the trip headed to the south and Lönnrot returned back to Kajaani after only half a year."

Keckman again received news of Lönnrot's itinerary, as the latter set out on the second phase of his trip:

"Kajaani 26 May 1837. 
Dear Brother, I've been waiting here three weeks already for the ice to thaw, and it has now broken up. I am off again to Vuokkiniemi. From there I will head southeast between the White Sea and the Finnish border and keep going as long as I find people speaking Finnish. ..."

This time Lönnrot wrote a detailed account of his travels in Kainuu as well, including many interesting incidents.

The trip continued across the border and ended back on the Finnish side in Sortavala at the end of August. After that, Lönnrot continued collecting poems in Savo and Finnish Karelia before returning to Kajaani in November.

Väinö Kaukonen points out that Lönnrot's collections have surprisingly few notes on what he found during the early part of his trip; the latter part yielded much more material - with the exception of narrative poems, of which only some 1.100 lines were collected. For example, Lönnrot recorded 5.900 lines of lyric poems and spells, as well as proverbs, riddles and fairy tales.