Summer vacation in eastern Norway, day 1
Peaks visited:
| Peak | Height | PF | Location |
| “Tårnet” | 575m | 102m | Søndre Land, Norway |
| Vardhaugkollen | 374m | 96m | Gran/ Ringerike, Norway |
Continued on day 2.
We woke up in wonderful Scheeskroken near Randsfjorden, to a wonderful egg and bacon breakfast, served by Eva and Bjørn. Rhodes was history. Eastern Norway was near future. We would stick around in the Randsforden region for a couple of days before moving on. To where, we didn’t know yet.
“Tårnet” (575m)
As Eva and Bjørn were working today, I had the opportunity to work on my list of tops in Søndre Land and sat my eyes on the unnamed top 574m west of Søfferud on the other side of Randsfjorden.
After the hike, I called the land owner – asking what the local name is. There isn’t any, I was told, but his family had always refered to the top as “Tårnet” (tower). So I asked him if there had been a fire lookout tower on top, but no. Only a trigonometric point (no longer present), and that was the “tower”. To me, that name was much better than 574m – or should perhaps more precisely – 575m – according to Økonomisk Kartverk.
Anne decided to stay in Hov, so I drove by myself across Fluberg bru (bridge) and down to Søfferud where I parked in front of Søfferud Sag (sawmill). Ahead of me was 4km on a forest road which was closed by a gate. I was grateful for the closed gate, otherwise I would have considered driving up. And then there would not be much of a hike, would it?
I tried to jog as much as possible, just to keep the boredom down to a minimum, but the body was not really in jogging mode, so … it got kind of boring. After those 4km, the forest road turned into a tractor road and eventually – off trail – 250 meters northeast of the top. After a short forest walk I found the high point and could “tick off” yet another top in Søndre Land. Now missing only 2 (of 11) on the Søndre Land HuMP list (Hundred meters or more of prominence)
I jogged most of the way back down and drove back to Hov.
This was actually really bad planning, because I would have to drive back the same way a few hours later, as I would pick up Karma and her sister Turte at Bjonevika. The breeders – Ane and Jostein – were on their way to vacation abroad and as they had been looking after Karma while we were in Rhodes, we would return the favor in respect of Turte.
Trip statistics: 9,8km, 420 vertical meters, 1h:30m.
Pictures from the hike:
Vardhaugkollen (374m)
A couple of hours later after returning to Hov, I once again drove across Fluberg bru – this time PAST Søfferud before taking the road to Bjonevika.
I had enough time before the rendevouz with Ane & Jostein to do a short hike. Vardhaugkollen is located on the Oppland – Buskerud county border between Sperillen and Randsfjorden. It’s not a HuMP, but close enough – with 96m of prominence.
I took the road towards Putten, but parked halfway. The road forked and I took the road to the right – leading up to a cabin north of Putten. From here, it was just a matter of crossing a harvested area, and do a short forest hike – up to the unmarked high point.
I took the same route back down and continued to Bjonevika where Ane & Jostein soon turned up. Karma was very happy to see daddy again. Very, very happy. Turte was more; “Hi! what’s going on here?”
I returned to Scheeskroken, where Turte was welcomed into the family…
Trip statistics: 1,7km, 120 vertical meters, 30 minutes.
Pictures from the hike:
