Afternoon hikes and a perfect weekend with good friends

Peaks visited:
Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP |
Storetua | 590m | 249m | Sande, Norway | WCP |
Røddalshorn | 563m | 100m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
Sulafjellet | 776m | 776m | Sula, M&R, Norway | WCP |
Huldrehornet | 271m | 113m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
Rundebranden | 294m | 141m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
Røyrafjellet | 123m | 100m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP |
Aksla | 188m | 188m | Ålesund, Norway | WCP |
Storetua (592m), Røddalshorn (563m), Aug 13 2018

Monday: Nice weather and I felt “adventurous“. So, I decided to try a new route to Storetua.
From Leikongsætra, Karma and I followed the path to lake Raudsandvatnet. I had actually never been down by the lake before and concluded that this is a very nice place for camping!

Next up was the off-trail ascent towards Storetua. The only positive thing ahead of me was the sunlight…

As we made upwards progress, I got a good view towards Sollia – the highest top on Gurskøya island.

Then we came to lake Meldalsvatnet, which I never had noticed on the map before. That’s the beauty of doing new routes…

And eventually, we reached the top. I promised myself that this was the first and last time along this route.

The return to the trailhead went across Røddalshorn. Great start of the week!

Trip statistics: 11km, 730 vertical meters, 2h:20m
Pictures from the hike:
Vardane/Sulafjellet (776m), Aug 14 2018

Tuesday: Ålesund day and after work, I drove to Langevåg to hike Sulafjellet.
Karma and I took the direct route up to lake Molværsvatnet, along the pipeline. I wasn’t in the mood for going against the clock today, but the pace was still good.
On top, we got fog…

But after waiting for a few minutes, it cleared up and I got a pretty good view towards Ålesund.

The descent went down the mountain road and then along the pipeline, back to the car. A perfect Tuesday “workout”, and the dog is happy, I am happy…
Trip statistics: 7,3km, 685 vertical meters, 1h:35m
Pictures from the hike:
Huldrehornet (271m), Aug 16 2018

Thursday: The weather had turned to the worse, and on Wednesday I actually chose not to go hiking!
It was raining today too, and I felt very little inspired after work. But I managed to pull myself together, get out the front door and do a round trip hike across my local mountain Huldrehornet. Very few things beat the feeling of returning home on a day like this, knowing you beat the doorstep.

Trip statistics: 4,9km, 260 vertical meters, 1h:08m
Rundebranden (294m), Aug 17 2018

Friday: The weather remained crappy, but today I got company! Anne came from Sogndal and our friends Eva, Bjørn, Anne and Steffen came from eastern Norway to spend the weekend with us. I wish I could have presented better weather, but they were happy just to be here…
We drove to Goksøyr on Runde island and followed the tourist trail up the coastal mountain.

We stopped at Kaldekloven so that our friends could get a glimpse of the local birdlife. It was too late in the season to spot puffins, but the colony of sea gulls are always a sight. And a Great skua here and there…

Then we continued up to the top of Rundebranden…

We considered going all the way down to Runde Fyr (the lighthouse), but decided that the view from above was just as good as being down there. We had to take Bjørn’s bad knee into consideration.

After the hike, we drove to Runde Miljøsenter for sightseeing and to watch the movie – which I hadn’t seen before.

The story behind Rundeskatten (the Runde treasure) is also fascinating. Look it up!

Trip statistics: 7,6km, 400 vertical meters, 3h:14m
Pictures from the hike:
Osnessanden , Aug 17 2018

Still Friday: After the trip to Runde, we drove to Ulsteinvik for more sightseeing and to take a walk at the Osnessanden beach.
As our mental age is far lower than our physical age, I concluded that some smiles and giggles were called for, and got the merry crew along for a small tournament. We started off with long jump…

“Flying high” was the next competition, and we saw some awesome “flights”…

Handstand was the final hurdle, and we saw some “impossible moves”…

The mood was definitely set for a nice afternoon back at my place…
Pictures from the walk:
Røyrafjellet (123m) & Uglesætra, Aug 18 2018

Saturday: The weather hadn’t improved one bit, but our good friends who had traveled from eastern Norway didn’t seem to mind one bit. They seemed happy just to be here.
It would be more fun being indoors, but the dog needed a walk. And to be honest, so did we. Friday evening was both fun and long…
I picked one of the easiest tops I could think of – Røyrafjellet on Dimnøya island. The trip report in short; we started hiking, got wet, reached the top, took a group picture and headed back down.

But we weren’t quite done with being outdoors just yet. Anne and I invited our friends to Uglesætra, close by. How should I explain Uglesætra? Someone has had a lot of spare time and developed a quite a place in the middle of the local forest. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

We had a good time outdoors, and we also had a good time indoors when (my) Anne invited to “Sushi garage“. Quite fun, based on the feedback. I was excused, but had to do the dishes…

Trip statistics: 3,8km, 230 vertical meters
Pictures from the hike:
Aksla (188m), Aug 19 2018

Sunday: It was quite clear that we had to go to Ålesund for sightseeing. We took the express boat from Hareid and had a somewhat bumpy ride across Breidsundet.

Once in town, we sat course for the city park and the 418 steps up to Fjellstua on the Aksla mountain. It was still raining, but nothing close to Friday and Saturday’s rain.

Of course, we had to visit Rundskue – the highest point on Aksla (picture top of this page).

Inspired from the pranks on Osnessanden the day before, today’s contest would be to reach the top of Rundskue with touching the stairs the fewest times. I was happy to conquer yet another imaginary trophy…

We took Borgarnes Vei back to Ålesund where the others went to lunch while Karma and I waited on a bench, watching people come and go.

I wouldn’t say that we broke any records with this weekend’s hiking, but Eva had to dispose of her hiking boots. In any case, a proper end to our hiking 😉

Trip statistics: 7km, 300 vertical meters
Pictures from the hike: